Eufaula Preps for Rivalry Renewal with Checotah

Originally Published: Sep 9, 2009 4:5 PM CDT

Dave Carty
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

EUFAULA, Oklahoma -- The Eufaula Ironheads won’t have much time to dwell on their disappointing 26-25 loss to Keys last Friday. Checotah (1-0) is knocking at the door, ready to renew one of the state’s oldest rivalries.

“This is a big rivalry game. There’s added pressure there from the community, the school, your classmates, everybody knows,” said Eufaula head coach Johnny Bohannon.

The Ironheads (0-1) will need to be in top form on defense in order to defend a talented Checotah offense that can cause a laundry list of problems. “Number one: you’ve got to stop [Chris] Carr,” said Bohannon. “He hurt us last year. He’s their big gun in the backfield. We got to make sure that we shut him down.”

Carr notched 27 touchdowns last year, but the Wildcats’ passing game will not go unnoticed either. Checotah (1-0) operates out of a spread offense for junior quarterback Mike Easley, who can hurt teams with his arm or his feet.

The top priority for Eufaula will be holding on to the ball and limiting turnovers. Last week, The Ironheads gave up three fourth quarter fumbles, two in their own end leading to scores. Those mistakes cost the Ironheads a late two-score lead. “What we got to do is try to refocus and correct our mistakes,” Bohannon said. “I told them I was proud of the effort and the mistakes we made are very correctable.”

Freshman quarterback Christian McIntosh got the majority of playing time at quarterback in favor of sophomore Daniel Salters. Bohannon was pleased with the freshman, who he estimated threw for around 180 yards and rushed for around 80. And youth will continue to be the name of the game for the program. “We’re talking about youth. That’s exactly what came through at times,” the coach said. “It was one of those deals where we outplayed them everywhere except the score.”