Nothing is more exciting than a good rivalry, and most years, that is very apparent in early fall when the three Lawton Public Schools high schools meet up at Cameron Stadium three consecutive weeks to see who will bring home the General’s Trophy. While there have been plenty of close games in the series throughout the years, this year, the better teams in each game showed their dominance and won by impressive margins. In the end, the MacArthur High School Highlanders returned the General’s Trophy back to the east side of town for the third straight year, setting LPS football fans up for an interesting district season.
The General’s Trophy is named after the three historic generals in which the three high schools are named after: General Lawton, General MacArthur, and General Eisenhower. Each of the football programs entered the season with very different situations. MHS came into the season with high expectations with an experienced staff with only minor changes throughout the years, a pair of 3-star prospects, and a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. Lawton High School is in their second year under head coach Lorenzo Williams, and despite all of the excitement, they lost a lot of seniors from the prior year. Eisenhower came into the fall with a brand new coaching staff and a lot of young hungry athletes ready to show what they can do. All of those factors set the stage for three intriguing matchups, starting with one of the Great American Rivalry Series games: Lawton High vs. Eisenhower.
With not much knowledge on either team, fans were intrigued what the outcome between the Wolverines and Eagles would be. After all of the pregame pageantry, LHS fans got a quick introduction to their new quarterback, Joseph Simpson. The junior took the second play of the game 55 yards for the first score of the contest and then dumped off a jump pass to senior Braeden Burrell for the 2-point conversion. From there the defenses locked in and kept the score 8-0 at the end of the first quarter. An interception halfway through the second set up a 5-yard run by junior David Baker, which was followed by a Simpson 2-point conversion run to make it 16-0. On the following possession, the EHS punter fumbled the snap, at his own three yard line, which led to a defensive score by the Wolverines to make it 22-0. Another LHS player who had a big varsity debut was freshman running back Quovon Coston. His first electric play came late in the second quarter on a 40-yard score which included him breaking a couple of Eagle tackles and racing past the secondary for the touchdown. At the half the Wolverines led 29-0 and did not look back as Coston scored two more times and a field goal made it 42-0 in favor of the Wolverines.The Eagles closed out the game on a high note as sophomore Erik Knighton capped off a 12-yard run with a dive towards the pylon to make it a 42-6 final score. The Wolverines racked up 258 yards on the ground while holding EHS to 146 total yards.
Round-2 of the General’s Trophy series was the annual “Battle of the Boulevard” between MacArthur (located on east Gore Blvd.) and Eisenhower (located on west Gore Blvd.). After losing to defending 4A State Champion Elgin in Week 0, the Highlanders unleashed their aggression on the Eagles from the opening kick. One of the fastest athletes in the state, senior Quinton Mask, took the opening kickoff 89 yards to the house behind a convoy of blockers to give MHS the opening edge. Senior quarterback Aivan Locklin added a pair of scores, one on the ground and one in the air, giving MHS a very early 21-0 advantage. The Mac defense, who was stifling all night, got on the board by forcing a safety, which was followed by a bruising 16-yard run by senior tailback Joziah Thomas. Senior wide receiver Joshua Rushing capped off the first quarter with a 5-yard score on a screen pass, making it 37-0 in the blink of an eye. In the second quarter, junior Connor Claborn weaved through the Ike defense for a 32-yard touchdown, which was followed by a 5-yard score from the powerful freshman running back Princeton Salazar Jackson. The Highlanders added one more score in the second half to make it a convincing 56-0 win. MacArthur’s defense limited Eisenhower to just 117 yards while the offense had 310 total yards with 246 coming on the ground.
The two dominating wins led to an intriguing matchup between the Highlanders and the Wolverines, who were coming off a 33-13 win over Enid in Week 1. Mac got the early lead as junior Brady Fernandez took a screen pass 30 yards for the first score of the game. Just a few minutes later, Locklin connected with rushing on a reverse flea flicker for a 43-yard score to make it 14-0 after a successful point-after-attempt (PAT). The Wolverines pulled out their own bag of tricks to get their first points of the game as junior Dominique Campbell took a reverse 10 yards for a score to make it 14-6. Mac senior Miguel Martinez capped off the first period with a chip-shot field goal to make it 17-6 in favor of the Highlanders. The MHS defense locked in from there, giving up zero points the rest of the game. The offense kept it rolling though, adding two more scores in the first half as Lockling and Rushing linked up for scores of 18 and 54 yards to make it 32-6 at the break. Claborn punched one in from two yards out in the third and then Salazar Jackson added the final blow on an 8-yard score in the fourth, giving MHS the 42-6 victory and securing their third straight City Championship. The Highlanders totaled 491 yards with 223 coming on the ground, while the defense limited LHS to just 103 rushing yards with 248 total.
Now with the city championship out of the way, the three schools can focus on their regular season schedules. Both MacArthur and Lawton High are in tough 5A districts, but both have the ability to reach the playoffs and make a run when they get there. Eisenhower is in their second year back in 6A-II and the new staff and young program is excited for the opportunity to grow against tough competition.
Another exciting factor that will get thrown into the mix is the playing of four home games at the school’s respective home site, not at Cameron University. MHS will be the first to debut in front of a true home crowd as they host Classen SAS for Homecoming on Oct. 2 and then Southeast for Senior Night on Oct. 30. Lawton High is scheduled to play their first varsity home game on their turf on Oct. 10 against Western Heights for their Homecoming game and then Eisenhower has it on the schedule to play US Grant at home on Nov. 6 for Senior Night. More information for those home site games will be released closer to the date.