Annual Muldrow-Roland rivalry game kicks off 2023 season Thursday night

Once again, a new football season has come across Sequoyah County, and as usual, it will begin with the annual Muldrow-Roland rivalry game at 7 p.m. Thursday at Roland’s Ranger Stadium.

“Every year, this game right here starts football season,” first year Muldrow coach and former Bulldog Logan Coatney said. “We schedule it to where it’s the first game of the county. The gate is always big. It’s more than just Muldrow-Roland. There’s other people who show up to watch the game. When you look at the game itself, it’s pretty well split. In the last 11 games, Muldrow has won six and Roland has won five. We look at the last three years, and they’ve beaten us two out of the last three years.”

“Me and Logan have talked about it,” Roland second-year coach and former Ranger Austin Cantrell. “They’re always tough. It’s even up since we’re both having to go through the same struggles of starting school and immediately turn around and start playing. It’s a big deal obviously. Logan played for Muldrow, and I played for Roland. Fortunately for me, I think my sophomore year was the only time I lost to Muldrow as a player. Last year was my first time to lose to them as a coach. I’m hoping I get back on track, and get those numbers back in my favor.”

Coatney is concerned with what likely will be a more physical Rangers team than a year ago.

“I think they’re physical up front,” Coatney said. “They’re going to be a physical football team. We saw them at team camp this summer. They have a couple of kids they’re going to put in the backfield. Their quarterback, running back and I’m going to call him their fullback. He (fullback) is just another running back in their system.”

Cantrell is worried about containing the speedy ‘Dogs.

“I think they have a little more speed than we do,” Cantrell said. “If we can minimize big plays on defense and offensively put some points on the board, it ought to be a pretty good game. I think for this game in particular, I think we match-up pretty well.”

Coatney is concerned with how his Bulldogs handle any adversity during Thursday night’s rivalry game.

“There’s going to be a lot of highs and lows,” Coatney said. “We’re just going to have to get out there and not get sucked down into the bad or negative plays. We just have to continue to play the game. Early on in the season like this, we have to limit mistakes. If we can limit our mistakes, I feel we’ll be in really good shape. I think we’ll have a good chance Thursday night. In the end, it’s still high school kids. We have to go out there and execute. We’re going to try to come out and do the best things we can do. We’re going to do our absolute best to execute, and that’s what our kids have to understand. We have to take this game one play at a time. It’s the first game of the year. The jitters are going to be there on both sides.”