Bulldogs looking to end season with Senior Night win over Locust Grove

The Muldrow Bulldogs will look to end their season on a high note, as well as send their seniors off victorious tonight, when they entertain the Locust Grove Pirates at 6 tonight at Marty Rogers Field for Senior Night.

“It would be big for us going into the off-season,” Muldrow coach Logan Coatney said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people over the last couple of weeks, and I’m proud of our football team and where we’re at. Winning this football game to end on a win, and send the seniors out with a win, it would be big time for our program moving forward to where we want to get to.”

The Bulldogs (4-5 overall, 1-5 in District 3A-3 play) are playing for pride.

“Our team is excited,” Coatney said. “We’re looking at this as building on what is to come. Things didn’t finish the way we wanted it to, but we still have an opportunity to get us a win and get us to 5-5 on the year, and continue to build for next year.”

On the other hand, the Pirates (4-5, 2-4) still have slim playoff hopes.

Locust Grove is sitting tied for fifth place with Stigler, which the Pirates beat 36-22 on Oct. 25, with both of them a game behind Checotah, which has the last playoff spot and beat the Pirates 6842 in the district opener Sept. 27.

If Locust Grove defeats Muldrow, Stigler defeats Tulsa Holland Hall and Checotah loses to Eufaula in its annual rivalry game, it would create a threeway tie for fourth place, with the points deciding who gets the fourth seed from the district. Any other scenario happens, such as a Locust Grove loss to Muldrow, will eliminate the Pirates from playoff contention.

“Locust Grove is an extremely good football team,” Coatney said. “They’re in a similar boat to us. I know their kids play extremely hard. Coach (Paul) Hix has done a great job with that football program. They do a lot of different things on both sides of the ball that makes them a little more difficult to prepare for. Defensively, they move around a lot. They’re in a lot of different fronts and coverages trying to confuse your offense when it’s out there.”

Coatney said playing mistake-free football will hold the key to ending the season on a high note as well as ending Muldrow’s five-game losing streak.

“We have to limit our turnovers,” he said. “We’ve turned it over 13 times over the last couple of weeks. We have to take care of the ball offensively. At the end of the day, we have to take care of the ball. We have to turn them over, and put them in some bad situations. With their athleticism and size, we have to stop the run — the quarterback run game. One of the big things they do is the quarterback run game. We have to stay true to our roles and stay true to who we are. We have to win in all phases of the game — win on offense, defense and special teams. I feel like we have a great opportunity to go win this ball game, but we have to come out and play better than we did last week (against Stigler).”

The good thing is the Bulldogs are relatively healthy for tonight’s game.

“We have bruises and bumps, but we’ve been dealing with those,” Coatney said. “As far as kid sitting out, I feel like we’re in good shape.”