If you didn’t care who won the game last Friday night at Stratford it would have been a perfect night. Beautiful weather, great fans, exciting cheerleaders and two tough hardhitting teams. But we do care, and the Allen Mustangs came out on the short end in a 30-22 loss to Stratford.

The first quarter Stratford scored from 15 yards out and connected for the 2-point conversion. Allen answered on an 11-yard run, and he tacked on the 2-point conversion. To end the first quarter Stratford had a 14yard run plus a 2-point conversion. Early second quarter Bell answered on a 9-yard td run but the extra point failed. Stratford ended the first half with another 1-yard TD and the kick failed, bringing the score to 22-14 Bulldogs at the half.

Third quarter Ethan Smith took a 24-yard pass from Bodee Garrett to the house and Curt Carlos ran in the 2-point conversion to knot the score at 22.

The middle of the fourth Stratford broke a 34-yard run for a score and added the two-point conversion to lead 30-22. The Mustangs threatened a couple times late, but Stratford held on to the 8-point win.

“It was a tough game, we played hard and really cleaned up a lot of our errors from the first game. I see a lot of improvement in the kids and really am expecting great things from this team,” Coach Chad Elrich said.

The Mustangs ran 58 plays and had a total of 211 yards of offense: 133 in the air and 78 on the ground. Allen had 1 lost fumble in the game. The Allen defense held Stratford to 90 yards passing and 260 yards rushing.

Senior quarterback Bodee Garret had 10 completions in 24 attempts for 133 yards and 1 touchdown. His longest completion was 47 yards to Noah Bray.

Rushing leaders were Kayd Bell 17 carries for 123 yards with 2 touchdowns. His longest carry was 59 yards.

The Allen receiving corps saw Bray with 3 catches for 52 yards; Ethan Smith 2 catches 46 yards and a t TD; Bell 2 catches for 17 yards; Jax Watkins 1 catch for 23 yards. Cayser Nickell also had a catch that netted 0 yards.

Defensive leaders were Cayser Nickell 6 solo and 6 assists; Bray 5 solo and 1 assist and a tackle for loss, Davion Byrd 5 solo, 1 assist; Brax Wofford 3 solo, 2 assists; Bell 3 solo, 2 assist; Garrett 2 solo, 1 assist, 1 interception; Watkins 2 solo, 4 assists; Jake Matthews 1 solo, 9 assists; Gus Matthews 1 solo, 6 assist; Walker Cudd1 and 1 assist; Sedrick Lindsey 1 solo, Curt Carlos 7 assists, Hunter Langley 1 assist, Michael Simpson 1 assist.

Kickoff returns Bell 2 for 10 yards, long 18 yards; Byrd 1 for 0 yards Allen heads to Wynnewood this Friday for a 7:30 kickoff. Wynnewood is 2-0 with wins over Comanche 27-8 and Tishomingo 17-14