By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Lockwood football team was tormented yet again by Archie on Saturday in the 8-man quarterfinal round, with the visiting Whirlwinds delivering a third straight season-ending loss to the Tigers in another hotly-anticipated matchup.
Archie (11-1) scored touchdowns on seven of eight possessions in the first half and quarterback Tristan Leeper rushed for four scores and passed for five more as the Whirlwinds downed Lockwood 62-58 to avenge a 38-36 loss to the Tigers in the season opener.
“It was what we thought it was going to be, a back-and-forth game,” Lockwood coach Clay Lasater said. “It was that way in week one when we played them and it came down to the last play of the game. Unfortunately, we were on the short end this time. It’s what we expected, we just hoped that when it came down to the end, we could make a couple of those plays. Super proud of our kids, they fought really hard. Even times there in the fourth quarter being down 12 or whatever it seemed like that was a pretty big hole but they kept fighting and gave ourselves a chance at the end to at least have a little bit of a shot.”
Lockwood (11-1) suffered its fifth loss to Archie in the last three seasons––the Tigers are 30-6 in that span. The two-time defending state champion Whirlwinds, meanwhile, improved to 39-1 over the past three seasons and are now 71-6 since 2020. They’ll advance to host 11-1 Worth County in next weekend’s semifinal round.
Archie coach Drew Smith expected another relatively low-scoring game like in week one.
“I thought if we scored 40 we’d win,” he said. “I thought it’d be a low-scoring game, but they just got it together on offense and they were so dominant up front. It didn’t matter what we did up front, we couldn’t stop them long enough it felt like.”
Instead, the teams had surpassed the week one point total before halftime.
Leeper ran for a 65-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, but Lockwood jumped ahead 8-6 after a 29-yard scoring run and conversion by quarterback Landry Ogden.
The Tigers doubled up the Whirlwinds 24-12 later in the quarter after Sean Contreras scored on a 17-yard run (Ogden conversion) and Contreras intercepted a Leeper pass and returned it for a touchdown and added the conversion himself.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Lockwood led 24-18 after 12 minutes, then made it 30-18 in the first minute of the second quarter when Ogden scored on a 22-yard run. Barely 30 seconds later, it was 30-26 after Leeper ran 71 yards for a touchdown.
Lockwood turned it over on downs at its own 23-yard line after that, and a Leeper pass made it 34-30 Archie with 8:17 left in the half. The Tigers answered with a score five plays later (9-yard Contreras run) and Ogden scored on the conversion to put the home team ahead 38-34. But after the Whirlwinds scored on 4th and goal from the 1 to make it 42-38 with 1:57 remaining, the visitors never trailed again––and after a Lockwood punt, they added a Leeper-to-Joey Dawson touchdown for 28 yards as time expired to take a 10-point lead into the half.
The Tigers got within four points on another Contreras touchdown run to open the third, and then Ogden came up with an interception in Lockwood territory. Their subsequent drive ended with a sack on fourth down, though, and Archie came back with a 29-yard touchdown strike from Leeper to make it 56-44 with 2:24 left in the quarter.
Lockwood’s Roper Gray returned the ensuing kick for a touchdown, but the play was called back for holding and the Tigers punted after three plays.
Archie led 62-44 six seconds into the fourth after another 28-yard touchdown pass from Leeper. About 10 seconds later, Lockwood’s Gray ran 43 yards for a score to make it 62-50. The Tigers then forced a punt and drove to the Archie 10 before fumbling on third and goal.
Again, Archie was forced to punt, and again Lockwood drove inside the 20 but couldn’t score; a fourth-and-8 pass was incomplete inside the 5.
The Whirlwinds punted again, and this time Lockwood found the end zone on an Ogden-to-Contreras back shoulder pass for 31 yards. Gray punched it in for two to make it 62-58 with 37 seconds left in the game, but Lockwood’s onside kick was recovered by the visitors who took a knee to end it.
“It was such a back-and-forth ballgame,” Smith said. “I have so much respect for Lockwood and what they do. They’re so physical and fundamentally sound. I just challenged our boys to stay the course no matter what happens, we’ve got to stay even and can’t get too high or too low and just trust each other. We’re banged up right now, we have almost no linemen left but we had some people come in and do their job and trust each other to do their job. I have no answers right now, I just think we made a couple more plays than them and the time ran out. I’ve got nothing but respect for Lockwood.”
“Leeper is just so good, that’s what we knew was going to be a challenge,” Lasater said. “You put the ball in his hands, and he can run it and throw it, and when you’ve got that much speed at receiver they spread you out and you’ve got to cover those guys. But you get too much space and Leeper’s going to take off and run which you saw early in the first half, he just ran everywhere. We had to make some adjustments to keep him from running but when you do that you’re playing man-to-man coverage on the back end against kids who are really fast. I thought our kids played hard. Their kids are really athletic. A lot of credit to them and their coach and putting those kids in a good position. Hopefully they’ll go win another one.”
Ogden rushed for two scores and three conversions for Lockwood, Contreras rushed for three touchdowns and one conversion and Gray rushed for one score and a conversion. Ogden also threw one touchdown pass to Contreras.
“It was a great season, it was a lot of fun,” Lasater said. “This had been built up to be such a big game that I hope our kids can still appreciate how good of a season they had as much as what this one is going to hurt. They had a lot of great moments this year and I hope they can remember those.”
