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McAlester caps wild comeback with 34-33 overtime win at Del City

Oklahoma commit Erik McCarty scores winning two-point conversion as Buffaloes remain undefeated

By Michael Kinney 

DEL CITY - When the game was over, Erik McCarty could hardly walk. 

The McAlester senior, a University of Oklahoma commit, had left it all on the field when his Buffaloes took on Del City for the right to call the winner the best in Class 5A.

For much of the night, it looked like the Eagles were going to be the squad to earn the moniker. But it took a superhero performance from McCarty and the rest of the Buffaloes to pull out a 34-33 overtime victory Friday at Eagle Stadium.

“When we play as a team, I don’t think anyone can beat us,” McCarty said. “It doesn’t matter who it is, we’re going to fight down to the wire.

"That’s McAlester Buffalo football. We fight together and we fight hard.”

With 1:48 left in the game, Del City’s Stanley Johnson booted a field goal to give the Eagles a seemingly insurmountable 23-13 advantage. However, no one told the Buffaloes that.

McAlester went back to the same exact play that had worked for them earlier in the night, a wheel route by McCarty out of the backfield. And once again, he was wide open on the sideline and went 80 yards for the touchdown.

The Buffaloes then converted an onside kick, but it was waved off due to a penalty. However, the Eagles fumbled on the ensuing play and McAlester recovered the ball near midfield.

Two plays later, McCarty caught a screen pass and seemingly broke tackles from every member of the Del City defense before going 50 yards for a touchdown.

"I'm not going to lie, I looked at the clock and I said I can’t go down,” McCarty said. “It doesn’t matter who was trying to tackle me, I can’t go down.

"I have to score for my team. I felt like that was on my shoulders.”

However, the Buffaloes failed to convert the extra point and their lead was 26-23 with 1:05 on the clock.

That was enough time for Del City to get Johnson in field goal range and he tied the contest to send it into overtime.

The Eagles got the ball first in the extra period and Carter Lance scored on a run up the middle. The ensuing extra point put Del City up by seven.

McCarty answered with a tough 1-yard run on third down to close the gap to one point. However, McAlester coach Forrest Mazey knew before the ball crossed the goal line that they were going for two points.

Once again, they put the ball in the hands of McCarty, who got behind the offensive line and plowed his way into the end zone to win the game.

“This chaos at the end, this is how we practice,” Mazey said. “Sometimes we scream at them, yell at them. And they are all over the place.

"But we want to make this the easy part and it showed (Friday) with a minute and something left. We have full belief in what we do.”

Del City’s defense smothered McCarty as he was held to 77 yards on 23 carries. However, they had no answer for him in the passing game.

McCarty finished the game with four touchdowns. That includes three TD catches that totaled 160 yards.

He also played nearly every snap on defense and blocked a punt in the first half.

McAlester quarterback Caden Lesnau completed 9-of-15 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns.

Del City’s Dkalen Godwin threw for 167 yards and a touchdown. Jaylin Sweet had six catches for 62 yards while Kanijal Thomas - a Kansas State commit - finished with three receptions for 63 yards and a touchdown.

The Eagles grabbed an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter before the Buffaloes started to come back.

McAlester scored on a 90-yard kickoff return from Omarr Brown and a McCarty 30-yard TD catch. MHS trailed 14-13 at halftime.

It was McAlester’s bend, but don’t break, defense that kept the team in the hunt to come back and steal the game. It forced the Eagles into four field goals instead of giving up touchdowns.

Both teams came into the game undefeated and in the same district. Each was looking to send a message to the other in case they meet again in the postseason.

This time around, it was the Buffaloes whose message was delivered loud and clear.

“They have been talking a lot,” said cornerback Chaz Bradley. “We wanted to be that team to smack them in the mouth.”

McAlester (5-0) stays on the road next week when the Buffaloes travel to Coweta next Thursday for another matchup against undefeated teams. Coweta also moved to 5-0 Friday with a win at Sapulpa, 55-13.

Del City (4-1) is back at home Oct. 7 when they host Sapulpa.