Published: October 23, 2008 10:03 pm      

Deer Creek set to take on the Chicks

The Deer Creek football team will try to forget about last week’s tough loss to El Reno, as it hosts Chickasha in a 5A-1 clash tonight.

Deer Creek (5-2, 3-1) had three turnovers and countless penalties in last week’s 10-3 loss, which dropped them into third place in the standings, with Lawton MacArthur nipping at their heels.

“We spent a lot of time in practice this week on ball security, and trying to cut down on penalties. We had three turnovers, and we had one going into that game. Then our 11 penalties was more than we had all season,” Deer Creek head coach Grant Gower said.

Things should get better with Chickasha (1-6, 1-3) coming to town. The Chicks earned their first win of the year last week, a 27-25 victory over winless Western Heights.

Chickasha has been outscored 267-98 on the year.

“They’ve got a young team. They have a good receiver in Joe Euwins (6-2, 175). He’s a good athlete, and their quarterback who’s only a sophomore, Chase Rodges, is decent,” Gower said.

The Chicks have nine juniors on the defensive side of the ball.

“Their biggest strength is they play hard all the way through, regardless of what the scoreboard says,” Gower said. “That says a lot about Coach Rick VanCleave, if they play hard all the way through.”

The Antlers will be looking to get transfer Garrett Sullivan more involved in the game this week, on both sides of the ball. Sullivan had an interception on El Reno’s first possession of the game.

“Sullivan is an excellent player. He has been with us full-time now for about two weeks, and we look for him to get more involved on both sides of the ball as he gets comfortable in our system,” Gower said.

Game time is slated for 7:30 p.m.