Piedmont topped their Canadian County rival El Reno Friday night in a runaway 31-7 win in the football home opener.
Coach Jeff Hall had praise for a defense that came up tough.
“We did some good things. Again, I think our defense is pretty good. I think right now the job of our offense is not to put our defense in a bad spot,” Hall said. “Hats off to El Reno, they are a good, well-coached team. I’m very proud to get out of here with a win.”
El Reno’s senior starting quarterback Dorian Plumley was injured and did not start the game, instead sophomore Evan Roman Nose played the entire game.
The Wildcats scored a fourth quarter touchdown on a 34-yard burst by Wesley Morrison, and led El Reno 31-7 with time running out.
Morrison had a punt return for a touchdown called back in the third quarter. But there were no flags on the play that closed the door on any hopes of a comeback by El Reno
Piedmont had scored to make it 24-7 with about five minutes remaining.
The Wildcats took a 17-7 lead on a field goal by kicker Preston Fansher.
With 7:05 to go in the fourth quarter, El Reno fumbled on their own 20-yard line.
Leading after halftime 14-0 in the opener at F&M Stadium, the Wildcats came out in the third quarter and had two fumbles. The second one was scooped up by El Reno’s Darius Moore who raced to the end zone and made the score 14-7.
Piedmont’s 2020 football season got underway with an early lead on their opening drive against the Indians.
Piedmont won the coin toss and elected to kick off. After holding the Indians to a three and out, the offense almost scored on their first touch of the season. A 64-yard punt return for a TD by wide receiver Caden Hendren was called back by an illegal block in the back.
But the Wildcats, under starting quarterback Joey Mars, marched down the field behind big gains by DeTar Brock who scored on a 2-yard run to open the scoring.
The Wildcats upped the score to 14-0 in the second quarter when backup quarterback Bo Phelps came in for one play and tossed a 78-yard TD pass to Hendren.
A key play with 11:17 left in the third quarter for Piedmont came when the Wildcats defense held El Reno short of a first down and forced them into a punting situation. Piedmont’s Hendren tackled El Reno’s Chris Clements two yards short of the first down after Clements caught a pass from Roman Nose. The Wildcats defense stiffened for the rest of the game.
El Reno fell to 1-1 after winning their home opener against Cache in overtime.
Piedmont is coming off their best season in school history in 2019.
Shortly before kickoff, a moment of silence was held for Piedmont senior Jackson Kerby, 17, who was killed in a car accident Monday.
Masks were required to attend the game. The stadium was kept to 50% capacity.
The Cardwell family showed up in their blue and yellow school color masks. Ron Cardwell gave a prediction before the game that came very close to being exact.
“I think we will control the ball and we will win 28-7,” Ron Cardwell said as he approached the ticket window before he walked in.
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Jeremy Pyle contributed to this report.
