It was the kind of thing that dreams (for defensive backs) are made of. 

Devin Hillmon intercepted four passes, returning two for touchdowns, to help lead the Muskogee Roughers to a lopsided 71-6 win over Bartlesville in District 6AII-2 action Friday night on Creek Nation Field at Indian Bowl.

“I watched a lot of film this week and I studied them pretty well and knew their plays like the back of my hand,” said Hillmon. “I just kept thinking this has got to be a dream. I’ve never had that many picks in a game in my life. It was a fun game.”

The first half saw the Rougher offense play lackluster, according to head coach Rafe Watkins.

“Offensively we just muddled through the first half and just really looked poor,” said Watkins. “Jacob (Medrano) threw some balls that were bad. Our receivers were running routes bad. Had some more drops in the first half and just played uninspired. But defensively, we played well the whole game.”

Medrano was just 9-of-21 passing in the first half. But two of those were touchdowns tosses to his favorite receiver, Diante “Speedy” Crutchfield. Sophomore running back Jimmie Coleman was the stabilizer for the Muskogee offense in the first half as he rushed for touchdowns of seven and 28 yards as the Roughers led 29-0 at homecoming intermission

The Muskogee defense completely bottled up the Bruin offense as they had just 65 yards of offense in the first half including a 2-for-16 passing performance by quarterback Noah Sunday that also included interceptions by Hillmon and Eric Arnold.

The first 90 seconds of the third quarter really blew the game open.

The Roughers (2-2, 1-0) took the second half kickoff and started at their own 47 yard line. Three plays later, Medrano found Crutchfield again on the middle slant for a 28-yard score. The Bruins got the ensuing kickoff and started at the 20. Mathis Givens stripped the ball from Sunday on the first play and recovered it to set the Muskogee offense up again. A run by Coleman took the ball to the 3 and Quintevin Cherry scored two plays later from the one as the Roughers struck for 14 quick points to make it 43-0.

Bartlesville (1-3, 0-1) mounted its best drive of the night on the next series moving to the Muskogee 35. But a sideline streak route was picked off by Hillmon and returned 85 yards to make it 50-0. The Bruins would get their only score of the night on the next series as Taton Hopkins took over for Sunday at quarterback and hooked up with John Cone for a 62-yard scoring play, breaking up the shutout at 50-6.

At this point for the Muskogee offense, Cherry took over the quarterbacking chores. Hillmon’s brother, Kristian, got a little more limelight for the Hillmon family as he took over at running back and gained 46 of the Roughers’ 57 yards on a drive that ended with Hillmon taking it in from four yards out with just over four minutes left in the third quarter. Muskogee would add two more scores, one on Devin Hillmon’s second pick-six of the game of 50 yards and the final score coming on a 38-yard scamper by Kyri Beasley with 2:10 left in the game.

Despite the win, there were some down-sides to the game.

“We still had too many penalties (8 for 95 yards) though not as bad as last week,” said Watkins. “Depth and injuries are also a problem. We lost (linebacker) Karrington Ashley with a possible concussion and Nathan Coffman with nerve injury in his neck. That meant we had to pull (Zac) Murphy from offense to defense which puts us down to just six offensive linemen — which is really scary.”

The Roughers will continue district play next week as they travel to Bixby. The defending 6A-II champs have struggled to a 1-3 record this year, but they’ll have payback in the mind for the Roughers.

We beat them two years ago (Muskogee lost in overtime) and we go to the playoffs and then last year we get a desperation pass late to beat them again, so they’ll be gunning for us,” said Watkins. “This next three weeks with Bixby, Tulsa Washington and Sand Springs will be a real test for us.”

MUSKOGEE 71 BARTLESVILLE 6

Bartlesville 0 0 6 0—6

Muskogee 15 14 28 14—71

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

Musk-Jimmy Coleman 7 run (Manuel Espinosa kick) 4:55

Musk-Coleman 28 run (Quintevin Cherry conversion run) :41

Second Quarter

Musk-Diante Crutchfield 93 pass from Jacob Medrano (Espinosa kick) 10:15

Musk-Crutchfield 20 pass from Medrano (Espinosa kick) 7:17

Third Quarter

Musk-Crutchfield 28 pass from Medrano (Espinosa kick) 11:03

Musk-Cherry 1 run (Espinosa kick) 10:33

Musk-Devin Hillmon 85 interception return (Espinosa kick) 7:49

Bart-John Cone 62 pass from Taton Hopkins (Hopkins kick) 6:46

Musk-Kristian Hillmon 4 run (Espinosa kick) 4:11

Fourth Quarter

Musk-Devin Hillmon 50 yard interception return) (Espinosa kick)

Musk-Kyri Beasley 38 run (Espinsoa kick)

TEAM STATS

 MHS BHS

First Downs 13 15 

Rushes-yards 28-193 42-112

Passing yards 319 132 

Passes (CAI) 16-33-0 5-27-5 

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-1 

Punts-avg 3-28 2-27 

Penalties-yds 8-95 6-40

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING- Muskogee Jimmy Coleman 8-64 (2 TD) Bartlesville Deandre Young

PASSING- Muskogee Jacob Medrano 12-26 265 (3 TD) Bartlesville Taton Hopkins 2-7 79 (1 TD)

RECEIVING- Muskogee Diante Crutchfield 4-179 (3 TD) Bartlesville John Cone 3-92 (1 TD)