Indians win big in opener

The Comanche Indians opened their season with a bang, racking up 67 points on their way to a 67-39 victory at Mangum last Friday night.

It was the highest point total for the Indians since they scored 77 points against Hinton in week 10 of 2012.

Comanche scored early and often, jumping out to a 38-0 halftime lead and giving the chance for back-ups to get some much-needed game experience.

“Overall, I was really happy,” said Casy Rowell, Comanche head coach. “The first group comes in and they do what they needed to do and we got to play the entire second half with back-ups. That’s kind of the goal every single game, so we accomplished our goal. Nobody got hurt. I feel like on offense we did a lot of good things and on defense, we did a lot of good things.”

Rowell said the goal now is to focus on what they didn’t do perfectly and figure out how to get better and keep improving.

Quarterback Kooper Doucet had an outstanding game with three touchdown passes and a touchdown run. Logan Bain caught two of those passes for a combined 109 yards for touchdowns and added one more on an end around and another on a kickoff return.

Gabe Diaz got things started in the first quarter on a 1-yard plunge. On the Indians' next possession, Doucet threw his first touchdown pass of the night to Braylen Butler for 37 yards. A couple of minutes later, Doucet connected with Bain, hitting the receiver in stride for a 49-yard score.

The Indians led 20-0 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter with the Indians on defense, Diaz tipped a ball into the air and it was intercepted by Butler. On the first play, Doucet connected with Bain again, this time from 60 yards out.

Another turnover by the defense led to another score for Comanche when Noah Presgrove caused a fumble that led to a 2-yard run by Doucet with just under four minutes to go.

With 1:15 to go, Diaz scored from nine yards out to push the lead to 38-0.

Comanche put in its reserves to open the second half. Mangum chose to keep its starters in the game and slowly began chipping away at the Comanche lead. What was once a 38-0 lead at the half was down to 45-33 with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Comanche’s lone second-half score came on a 71-yard Bain kickoff return.

With the Tigers within two scores, Rowell reinserted some of his key personnel and they did not disappoint, scoring twice on two plays. The first was a 35-yard on an end around by Bain and the second was another Diaz run, this time from five yards out.

Comanche’s final score came on a 70-yard run by Jack Newton.

“When you’ve got special players, it makes coaching a lot easier,” Rowell said. “You can say it was this or that, but when you’ve got some studs on your team, you just put them in a position to get the job done. These guys showed they were some tough athletes, they are competitive and they want to play.”

Rowell said he was pleasantly surprised on how well the offense and defense played in their first game.

“Everyone was on the same page and that’s good right off the bat,” Rowell said. “Then we had some guys step up on defense. Koble Lewis (who got an interception with a big return) was a younger guy that started for us and stepped up and did a fine job and almost got a pick six.”

The Indians (1-0) host cross-county rival Marlow (1-0) this week in their home opener.

“We’re just trying to look at it as any other game,” Rowell said. “It has no significance on our playoff race, so it’s just exciting to get a chance to take on the defending state champion at home. Not many teams get that opportunity and we do so we’re just excited about it.”

The Outlaws defeated Chickasha, 45-14, last week. They come into Comanche with a 16-game winning streak, the second longest winning streak in the state behind Bixby.