How Midwest City Carl Albert kept its undefeated season going in dramatic comeback
GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA - With less than a minute on the clock Thursday night, Midwest City Carl Albert’s 19-game win streak was on the line.
Facing the best defense they have encountered all season, the defending 5A state champions had one last shot on fourth-and-goal to pull out the victory.
That is when quarterback Kevin Sperry Jr. found Marcus James for the game-winning touchdown to prevail, 24-21, at "The Rock" in Guthrie.
With a myriad of future Division I players throughout their roster, that type of late-game performance might have been expected.
However, according to the Titans (9-0), they didn’t overcome adversity and snatch the victory from the jaws of defeat just because they were more talented than the Blue Jays. The coaches and players believe it’s because they have a culture installed that makes them work harder than any team in the state.
This is especially true in the offseason, where the 17-time state champion program gets prepared for those types of games.
“We went through a bunch of adversity, but we trained for this week in and week out,” James said. “We had hell week this summer that prepared us for this, and we got humbled.
"But we came out at halftime, and then we came out and busting them up and came out strong.”
It was during the bleakest moments of the game that Carl Albert coach Mike Dunn told his players to remember back to everything they had been put through.
“We talked to them about all the things that we've done up to this point as far as the stuff that nobody sees; the workouts in the summer, the 7 a.m. workouts all summer, the fourteen 110s,” Dunn said. “We ran fifty 40s this summer. We ran thirty 60s.
"We put our guys through the ringer in the summertime. And this is when that comes out.”
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In its first eight games, Carl Albert hadn’t scored less than 38 points while barely allowing opponents to reach double figures.
So, they didn’t have any muscle memory to rely on when it came to figuring out how to win a tight ball game against a team that had been pushing them around much of the night.
It was the work that the team put in during June, July and August that they called back to get them through.
“Coach Cam (Cameron Couch) and all the guys put on such a great summer course and offseason coach (Mike) Corley in the weight room," Dunn said. "We do 60 thirties.
"We do a ton of conditioning that puts us through this and being ready for fourth-quarter games like this.”
The turnaround against Guthrie arrived before the fourth quarter started.
Trailing 14-0 as halftime neared, Carl Albert put together its first successful drive of the half when Sperry and James connected on their first touchdown.
Up until that point, the Blue Jays' defense had shut down the Titans' offense. But Dunn knew his squad would respond.
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“We just asked our guys to go dig down deep and we finished the first half with the score. That was a big momentum change right there,” Dunn said. “And then coming back out (of halftime), we got that first stop and then I think we got a field goal.
"So, we just challenged our guys.”
Sperry, who transferred from Texas in the offseason, didn’t grow up in the Carl Albert culture. But he has seen it come into effect firsthand.
“I would say mostly it has to do with mentality,” Sperry said. “Just building each other up, just believing in each other.
"We trust each other and that's the only way that you can execute and have fun as a team and win football games, and that's what we do.”
-- Michael Kinney | @SBLiveOK
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