Muldrow and Roland renew their high school football rivalry on Friday night inside Ranger Stadium as the Bulldogs look to improve to 2-0 for the season and the Rangers seek their first win of the young season.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Muldrow defeated Sequoyah 26-21 in its season opener on Friday in Tahlequah and Roland lost 26-21 at home to Spiro on Thursday.

The Bulldogs edged the Rangers 13-8 last season, their third-straight win in the series, and Roland registered three consecutive wins from 2013-15.

Muldrow

Muldrow head coach Terry Jones, a Roland alumnus, is well aware of the importance of Friday’s game to the two schools and communities.

“That’s a big one,” Jones said. “It doesn’t really matter, their record or what they’ve done, it’s going to be their Super Bowl.”

In Muldrow’s win at Sequoyah, quarterback Nate Chandler completed touchdown passes to wide receivers Trendon Collins (51 yards) and Jaedon Clawson (22) and running back Logan Crain rushed for a 12-yard touchdown and threw a 46-yard TD pass to running back Kaden Chandler.

Defensive end Kade Storey and defensive lineman Elijah Hixon recorded 10 and nine total tackles, respectively, for the Bulldogs’ defense against Sequoyah and Muldrow intercepted two passes (linebacker Kaden Chandler and defensive lineman Noah Price) and recovered two fumbles (defensive back Brecken Allen and linebacker Eli Crumrine) in the contest.

Improved tackling and not letting Roland control the ball are two keys for the Bulldogs this week.

“We’ve got to play well, we’ve got to get better at tackling and we can’t let Roland control the ball with that offense that they run (Flexbone),” said Jones. “They’ll three-yard you to death and keep the ball and run the clock out on you. We’ve got to be able to get off the field and continue to improve offensively to have a shot.

“They struggled a little bit against Spiro but so did we (first scrimmage of preseason). I think a lot of people are going to struggle against Spiro. Roland turned the ball over several times too so they shot themselves in the foot but we’ll get their best shot and they’ll get ready to play us.”

Roland

Rangers’ head coach Waymon Potts believes Friday’s contest will “be a battle.”

“Muldrow got a win against Tahlequah Sequoyah, a pretty good football team,” said Potts. “Sequoyah’s big and strong and fast and has good ballplayers and Muldrow does the same and it ought to be a battle here Friday night. It ought to be a good one, it always seems to be.”

Roland scrimmaged Sequoyah and Heavener in Tahlequah on Aug. 29.

Running backs Colyn Tuck (14 carries for 47 yards), Drake Davis (7 for 41) and Cole Davis (9 for 37) were Roland’s leading rushers in the Spiro game, and quarterback Jackson Kemp ran the Rangers’ offense.

Eliminating penalties is one of the keys for the Rangers this week.

“We had nine penalties (against Spiro) and we can’t have pre-snap penalties,” Potts said. “We had seven pre-snap penalties on offense and I believe that’s probably more than we had all season last year. That’s one thing we’ve got to get corrected.

“The other thing is ball security. We had three fumbles and an interception and you can’t have that. That kills us, and as I said earlier that will get anyone beat. If we hang on to the football and not turn it over that game’s a much closer game. I don’t know if the outcome would be different but all I know is it gives us a chance to have that outcome to be different.

“Defensively we’ve got to play good football. We gave up one run on a counter, 73 yards or something like that, and Muldrow is going to run the counter and they’re going to run power at us and so we have to do a much better job on that. We’ve got to get better at our technique, and our D-line and my safeties have got to get better on their fits.”