No. 1 Lincoln Christian plays at No. 8 Muldrow Friday

Senior Night festivities begin at 6:30 p.m.

Class 3A No. 8 Muldrow will try to hand top-ranked Lincoln Christian its first District 3A-3 loss of the season Friday night inside Aubrey J. Henshaw Bulldog Stadium when the host Bulldogs take on the visiting Bulldogs in a key district contest.

Senior Night festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. and kickoff at Marty Rogers Field is slated for 7 p.m.

Last week Muldrow (4-1 in the district and 8-1 overall) won 36-14 at Locust Grove (0-4, 1-7) and Lincoln Christian (4-0, 7-1) shut out ninth-ranked Stigler (2-2, 6-2) 49-0.

In its other district games Lincoln Christian defeated Berryhill (14-7), Checotah (63-0) and Seminole (49-0) and in non-district action the Bulldogs beat Holland Hall (567), Jones (48-12) and Class 2A No. 4 Vian (42-0). Arkansas powerhouse Shiloh Christian handed Lincoln Christian its only loss (42-35) of the season on Sept. 23.

“They are a very good football team,” Muldrow head coach Brandon Ellis said. “They‚ve got good players and they just do everything right. There are not a lot of flaws in what they do. They‚re scary.”

In their last meeting in 2017 Lincoln Christian edged the Bulldogs 24-21 in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs at Muldrow.

Some of Lincoln Christian‚s key players on offense are quarterback Luke Milligan (6-foot-2, 170-pound junior), running back Easton Rogers (6-2, 210, sr.), running back/ wide receiver John Washington (5-9, 190, sr.), wide receiver Cam Dooley (6-0, 180, sr.) and linemen David Smithwick (6-4, 275, jr.) and Caden Ricke (6-2, 275, jr.).

“On offense they are multiple spread,” Ellis said. “They‚re balanced and they‚re basically 50-50 (run-pass).

“On defense we‚ve got to stay disciplined on what we‚re doing, get the assignments done and the bottom line is it just comes down to wrapping up and tackling. We‚ve got to create turnovers. If we‚re to have a chance we need to tackle well and create turnovers and give our offense good field position to work with.”

A few of the Bulldogs‚ key players on defense are linebackers Tyler Johnson (6-0, 220, sr.) and Nate Ross (59, 190, sr.), cornerback Griffin Dyer (5-8, 150, sr.), safety Dylan Daldridge (6-1, 175, jr.) and defensive linemen Isaac Autaubo (6-0, 255, sr.) and Zane Thrasher (6-0, 195, sr.).

“They‚ll be in a four-front on defense,” said Ellis. “They‚ll jump into a 4-3 and a 4-4 but I‚d just say an even front.

“On offense we‚ve got to eat up clock, we can‚t have any turnovers and just play the ball that we play. The clock‚s got to be on our side.”

Lincoln Christian is Muldrow‚s final opponent of the regular season. Muldrow has an open date on Nov. 4 because Daniel Webster, which was assigned to District 3A-3, did not field a team this season.

Lincoln Christian (4-0), Muldrow (4-1), Berryhill (3-1) and Stigler (2-2) currently lead the 3A-3 standings.