Deer Creek survives late rally

MOORE — Deer Creek quarterback Brett Pense rolled to his right, scanning the field.

It only took him a moment before he found Logan Ward streaking behind the Southmoore defense. Pen se reared back and flung the ball to Ward who caught it and ran for the score. It was a 75-yard touchdown pass on just the second play of the second half.

The completion between Ward and Pense was a recurring event as Deer Creek topped South moore 30-24 in a late-game thriller Thursday night at Moore Schools Stadium.

“Brett Pense comes in and [I'm] really proud of his leadership, he just lit it up,” Deer Creek coach Wade Standley said. “He's a young guy that's going to get better every week. That's exciting.”

The 6- foot -3,175pound junior quarterback had a true breakout game. He finished 10- of -15 for 273 yards and three touchdowns, two passing and one rushing. Standley said his entire offense had much to do with it.

“Proud of our guys up front,” he said. “Brett had plenty of time to throw and that makes a difference. And we had some guys make some big plays.

Ward, the senior receiver, finished with five catches for 133 yards. He also knocked through a 41- yard field goal in the first quarter and had a massive punt where he pinned Southmoore inside its 5-yard line. His stellar performance didn't surprise Standley as he's seen it many times before from his star athlete.

“Logan's done that for the last couple years ,” Standley said. “Obviously he's a great weapon as a kicker and a punter and [he] did a tremendous job at tight end.”

Even though the duo put together an impressive performance, it was almost not enough to overcome Southmoore.

Deer Creek held a 30-3 lead with a little under seven minutes left to play after driving 99 yards down the field to score with a 1-yard Will Hinton run.

After the score, the Saber Cats, who had struggled offensive ly through threequ arters, finally found their rhythm. South moore' s senior running back, Corey Durham scored his first touch down of the night from 7 yards out by breaking two tackles and diving past one defender into the endzone.

Southmoore's Cameron Little, who was No. 29 on The Oklahoman's Super 30 list, kicked an onside kick that was recovered by the SaberCats. A few plays later, Durham again found his way into the endzone with a 30-yard run.

Then, South moore quarterback Noah Peters threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Reece Moffett after the Southmoore defense forced a stop.

Little then kicked another onside kick that was recovered by the SaberCats. But with just eight seconds remaining, Southmoore faced a difficult task 48 yards away from the endzone.

The SaberCats decided to try a trick play.

Peters connected with his receiver 10 yards down the field, but after the group tried to lateral the ball twice, the SaberCats fumbled and the Antlers recovered to seal the game.

“I felt like we played extremely well on defense,” Standley said. “We were trying to get some different guys in there at the end and trying to get them some playing time,” Standley said.

“But hats off to coach [Joshua] Norman and South moore for never giving up. We held on at the end.”