MUSKOGEE — For one half, Bartlesville High School’s defense put up a valiant, hard-nosed, effective effort.

But, not only did the Bruin defenders have to contend against the powerful Muskogee High School offensive attack, but against the mistakes and miscues of their own offense and special teams.

“Obviously the result looks bad on paper,” said interim Bruin head coach Kyle Ppool. “But, I think there were a lot of positives overall at times. The score was certainly not indicative of that.”

Once the floodgates opened for Muskogee — with a touchdown off an interception return by Muskogee’s Devin Hillmon and a score off a mistake on a punting play — Bartlesville just couldn’t get them closed again.

Muskogee went on to win, 71-6, in the District 6A-II-2 opener.

Despite the Rougher point total, the Bruin defense played very well at stretches, Ppool said.

“We had a nice stop early and were able to flip the field position,” he noted.

A 62-yard Bruin touchdown pass play from Taton Hopkins to John Cone — who displayed blazing speed on the little dump slant pass over the middle and sprint to the end zone — saved the Bruins from a rare shutout loss.

Bartlesville’s offense moved the ball decently all night — accumulating more than 230 yards — but saw too many drives bankrupted by turnovers (five interceptions, one lost fumble) or penalties.

The rushing of DeAndre Young (18-89) provided a favorable positive for the Bruins — but by the time they got their ground game on track, Muskogee had already surged to the lead.

Two many second-and-longs or third-and-longs plagued the Bruins most the night.

On their first possession, Bartlesville went three-and-out, including a four-yard loss on a run.

Muskogee then got the ball at the Bartlesville 28-yard line — the porch step to the red zone — but the Bruin defense clamped down and didn’t allow a point. On a second-down play, Bartlesville defensive back Tom Beard got caught in man-on-man coverage on a fade pass to the end zone, but he managed to knock the ball away.

Muskogee then missed a 49-yard field goal when the ball bounced off the left upright.

Bartlesville’s second possession turned out to be a zero-net-gain, punt-away scenario.

But, once again, the Bruin ‘D’ shut down Muskogee, forcing a turnover on downs at the Bartlesville 36-yard line.

However, disaster soon struck the Bruins.

Hillmon intercepted a pass and took it to the six-yard line to set up a touchdown run by Jimmy Coleman for the game’s first points.

A few minutes later, Bartlesville turned the ball back over an interception — but the Bruin defense dug in and didn’t allow a first down.

The Bruins then took possession near midfield, but couldn’t move the chains and had to punt.

The snap sailed high over punter Andrew Hardin’s head. He made a desperate retreat to pick up the bouncing ball and managed to get a kick off — but the ball didn’t even reach the line of scrimmage.

Muskogee took possession at the Bruin 27-yard line and scored quickly on a Coleman run. The two-point conversion by Quintevin Cherry put Muskogee up, 15-0 — and the first quarter still had 41 seconds left.

Muskogee added two more touchdowns in the second quarter — one of them on a 93-yard play by receiver Diante Crutchfield — to carry a 29-0 lead into the break.

Late in the half, the Bruins got down to the Rougher 15-yard line, but came up short on a fourth-down pass.

Muskogee received the kickoff to open the second quarter and scored on a four-play possession to go ahead, 35-0.

Bartlesville then turned the ball over inside its 10-yard line, on a sack and fumble. Muskogee needed just two runs to put the ball in the end zone. The extra point made it a 43-0 ballgame.

The Bruins answered with a drive all the way down to the Muskogee 25-yard line — only to have Hillman record an 85-yard pick six. The extra point pushed the score to 50-0 — and the third quarter still have 7:19 remaining.

But, the Bruins struck back like lightning.