Carl Albert responds in second half for rout
MIDWEST CITY — Carl Albert’s locker room was full of chatter at halftime. But it suddenly fell silent.
Adjustments, mistakes or praise for the first half suddenly didn’t matter.
Hall of Fame coach Clarence Madden, now an assistant for the Titans, was emphatically delivering a message with his team ahead 12.
Stop taking off plays. “He was talking about we could do better than that,” Carl Albert senior Diego Richards said. “We came out lackadaisical. He was telling us to not be satisfied with what we’re doing.”
The top-ranked Titans responded with a third-quarter burst to dominate No. 9 Lawton MacArthur in the second half and pull away for a 41-15 victory to open the Class 5A playoffs Friday night.
Carl Albert, the defending state champion, remained undefeated and will host Claremore next week.
The Titans had a big night from star Dadrion Taylor. He rushed for 89 yards and two touch-
downs. He also caught a 45-yard touchdown. Four different players found the end zone.
“We have some offensive weapons everywhere,” Richards said. “If we’ve got them all going then nobody can stop us. We just had to do that, and once we got that going it was over after that.”
But Carl Albert still felt Friday was a test and it passed.
The Titans had rolled with little resistance the final four games of the regular season. Lawton MacArthur (6-5) made sure that wasn’t the case.
Carl Albert jumped to a 20-0 lead late in the first half with touchdowns from three different players. It looked to be in complete control.
Then it softened. Lawton MacArthur scored on its final two possessions, including a 3-yard keeper by Racer Felter with 5.4 seconds left to cut the deficit to 27-12.
That pushed Madden to speak up. He had joined the team as the offensive line coach in the offseason following the retirement of Gary Rose, but had yet to deliver a message this strong.
“We all went in 100 percent,” freshman quarterback Ben Harris said about the team’s response.
Taylor scored on a 13-yard run late in the third. After Zane Alexander’s interception, Chris Veals caught an 11-yard TD pass from Harris.
The Titans immediately recovered a surprise onside kick and chewed up the clock into the final quarter to seal the game.
“We needed that type of ballgame to get our attention,” Carl Albert first-year coach Mike Corley said.