Bentonville West’s season of paybacks marched through Indian Bowl on Friday night. And on many an occasion, Muskogee was handing out the cash.

Wolverines quarterback Will Jarrett threw a pair of touchdown passes in a run of 27 unanswered points starting late in the first half that keyed a 43-35 win over the Roughers. But it wasn’t the only factor.

Roughers quarterback Jacob Medrano’s 23-of-40, 328-yard night included 13 dropped passes. Muskogee also committed 14 penalties for 116 yards, nearly all of which came at costly times.

“Thirteen drops, one a touchdown pass and probably six for first downs,” Muskogee coach Rafe Watkins said. “One thing we want to do is move the football and even if we don’t score, we keep our defense off the field.

“They definitely exploited our secondary. Just a combination of our play, they having a good team and I can’t say the rest,” he added, the latter referring to a plethora of calls against his team.

Clearly, the Wolverines’ second year as a program under former McAlester head coach Bryan Pratt, who served at Muskogee under Ron Freeman in the latter’s final three years in the late 1990s, has turned around from the team that played its first-ever home game against the Roughers last year and fell to 0-3 with a 62-13 loss. They’re 3-0 now as Muskogee fell to 1-2.

“It’s all about getting in the groove of the game,” Pratt said. “I think we really struggled offensively in the first half and our offense is all about getting a rhythm going. Once that happened the dominoes started filing.

“This was sweet. I’ve got a lot of memories here.”

Jarrett gave Muskogee’s defense problems for a little over three quarters. Trailing 10-0, he connected on a 63-yard pass play to Stefan Banda with :46 left in the first quarter. He would score on a 30-yard run, then hit Banda for two more touchdowns during that 27-point span.

Medrano hit Diante Crutchfield, who beat single coverage down the West sideline for a 66-yard pass play on their second possession of the game. A delay of game penalty hampered the next drive which ended with a 23-yard field goal by Manuel Espinosa.

The two teams traded touchdowns in the second quarter. Medrano’s second TD pass to Crutchfield on a 17-yard salt appeared to give Muskogee a 10-point lead to take to halftime with just 48 seconds on the clock.

But Jarrett had four consecutive completions on a 68-yard drive that took just 31 seconds, the final 14 on a toss to Banda with 17 seconds left. What made that one even better for the Wolverines was they got the ball to start the second half.

Jarrett took four plays to score again, hitting Banda on a 27-yard play with 10:37 on the third quarter clock, covering 65 yards on the possession. Jonas Higson blew through the middle of the Roughers defense for 15 yards and a score on a fourth-and-1 play, then added a 51-yard burst on the same type play. It was set up by a controversial pass interference call against Devin Hillmon on a second-and-7.

On the next drive, Hillmon hauled in a 37-yard pass to give Muskogee a first-and-goal at the 5. The drive stalled on two running plays and a drop by Hillmon in the end zone. Espinosa’s 27-yarder broke the drought.

A late hit on Hillmon on a punt return set the Roughers up at the West 21 with 10:10 to play. A defensive holding call and a sideline flag got them to the 6. But sophomore running back Jimmie Coleman was stopped for no gain, then three incompletions, including one of Medrano’s few misfires on a face to Cherry in the corner, all but sealed the outcome.

Medrano was sacked for a safety, but later guided a last-ditch drive with a 5-yard run with :45 left. Banda recovered the onside kick for Bentonville West, which took a kneel-down and ran out the remaining time.

Medrano talked about his state of mind amid what certainly had to be a frustrating performance.

“You’ve just got to keep your composure,” he said. “We’ll get it fixed. It’s execution. We know we can play better.”

Muskogee opens District 6AII-2 play next Friday with homecoming against Bartlesville.

 

BENTONVILLE WEST 43, MUSKOGEE 35

B. West 714 202–35

Muskogee 101438–43

Scoring summary

First quarter

Mus-Diante Crutchfield 66 yard pass from Jacob Medrano (Manuel Espinosa kick), 8:20.

Mus-Espinosa FG 23, 1:41.

BWest-Stefan Banda 63 pass from Will Jarrett (Blake McDoulett kick), 0:46.

Second quarter

Mus-Quintevin Cherry 4 run (Espinosa kick), 8:35.

BWest-Jarrett 30 run (McDoulett kick), 7:00

Mus-Crutchfield 17 pass from Medrano (Espinosa kick), 0:48.

BWest-Banda 14 pass from Jarrett (McDoulett kick), 0:17.

Third quarter

BWest-Banda 27 pass from Jarrett (kick failed), 10:37.

BWest-Jonas Higson 15 run (McDoulett kick), 5:54

BWest-Higson 51 run (McDoulett kick), 3:16

Mus-Espinosa FG 27, 0:25.

Fourth quarter

BWest - Safety, Medrano tackled in end zone by Kendall Young

Musk-Medrano 5 run (Mathis Givens pass from Medrano, :45.

TEAM STATS

BWestMusk

First Downs1922

Rushes-Yards38155

Passing Yards314 349

Passes C-A-I 18-26-124-41-0

Punts-Avg6-37.5 5-29

Fumbles-Lost0-02-1

Penalties-Yards5-40 14-116

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Rushing: BW, Jarrett 19-87 (TD). Mus, Kristian Hillmon 10-57 (TD).

Passing: BW, Jarrett 18-26-314-1 (3 TD). Mus, Medrano 23-40-328-0 (3 TD).

Receiving, BW, Banda 7-129 (3 TD), Jackson Prince 5-90. Mus, Crutchfield 3-90 (2 TD), Devin Hillmon 5-72.