EMPIRE — There were several subplots when Waurika and Empire met at Ric Johnson Field Friday night.

Halloween. Senior Night at EHS. A match-up of head coaches who at one time had been the skipper of the opposing team.

But forget all those sidebars. The main plot in Waurika’s 40-8 victory turned out to be big plays — one team made ’em, one team didn’t.

Waurika scored four long-distance touchdowns and used big plays to set up two others, as the Eagles rose to 3-6 overall and 3-5 in District A-4, while sending the Bulldogs to 1-8 and 1-7.

“It felt good to score some points and big plays really were the difference,” said Waurika coach Larry VanBeber, who three seasons ago was head man at Empire. “We put in two or three wrinkles that I thought we could make go, and having Tyler Fuller at wingback adds a new dimension to what we can do on offense.

“We tried to run the sweep with Gil (Griffin) but (the Bulldogs) were shutting that down, so we came inside with Levi Henderson and he had a big game, made some big plays.

“Empire was shooting linebackers at us, so we thought we needed to got straight at them and slow that down with some inside runs. Levi did a that, and I don’t think anybody knows how hard it’s been for him since he broke that hand and has had to play with that big cast.”

Senior fullback Henderson scored two touchdowns and exploded for 108 of his game-high 128 yards in the second half.

Wingback-turned-quarterback Jace Dunn also scored a pair of TDs, while quarterback-turned-wingback Fuller added 49 yards on 5 carries. And although Empire was able to limit Griffin to 47 yards on 12 carries, the senior — who once was a quarterback — threw a 35-yard TD pass to Fuller, ran for a 26-yard score and tossed a 2-point conversion pass.

“We had Tyler Carney following Griffin everywhere he went, and we did a good job on him. But (the Eagles) got away from going to Griffin, and when they went to Henderson, we couldn’t change our focus,” said EHS’ Tony Roberts, who was the last skipper to coach a winning team at Waurika and take the Eagles to the playoffs.

“I can’t gripe about our effort, but Waurika’s big plays really hurt us.”

At the outset, it appeared big plays might be the theme for both teams.

On Waurika’s initial possession, a 32-yard run by Fuller set up a 9-yard touchdown run by Henderson, and a 2-point conversion pass from Dunn to Bobby Harris gave the Eagles an 8-0 lead, with 8:16 remaining in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs replied four minutes later, when Carney connected on a screen pass to Tanner Shorter that the freshman turned into a 50-yard gain to the WHS 20.

Facing fourth-and-20 at the Eagles’ 30-yard line, Carney found Michael Spanhanks for a 25-yard gain to the WHS 5, and three plays later, Carney went inside right tackle for a 1-yard TD.

With 1:50 left in the first stanza, Shorter made a diving catch on a throw from Carney, and the 2-point conversion left the teams knotted at 8-all.

However, that series turned out to be the last time the Bulldogs would come up big. Over the next three periods, a Waurika defense led by 12 tackles from Griffin and 7 from Taylor Fuller limited EHS to just 71 yards of total offense and 3 first downs.

“I thought coach (Glenn) Howard and coach (Roger) Jessie came up with a good defensive game plan, but they really have been doing that every week — sometimes it just depends on personnel, and with everybody here, our kids played good defense,” said VanBeber, whose club also got 6 tackles apiece from Henderson and William Prewitt, and 5 each from Dunn and Robert Rodriquez.

While the ’Dogs didn’t have another offensive play longer than 12 yards in the final three quarters, the Eagles used repeated big plays to score 32 unanswered points.

Two minutes into the second quarter, Henderson broke through to block a punt attempt by Empire’s Todd Gallaher, setting up first down at the EHS 45. Tyler Fuller picked up 10 yards on a counter, and with 9:05 to go in the first half, Griffin fired a 35-yard halfback pass to Fuller, putting Waurika in front, 14-8.

As halftime neared, a 25-yard pass from Dunn to Robert Gilmore gave the Eagles possession at the Bulldogs 40. A pair of sacks pushed Waurika back to the 50 and an off-sides penalty by the ’Dogs gave the Eagles fourth-and-15 at the EHS 45.

At that point, Dunn found a huge gap on a draw play at left tackle and got a key block down field from Gilmore en route to a 45-yard touchdown. Griffin connected on a halfback pass to Harris for a 2-point conversion that sent the Eagles to halftime with a 22-8 lead.

“Those are the kind of things we have to learn to overcome,” Roberts said. “It was 14-8 and we had them fourth-and-15 right before halftime. If we stop them, it could have been made a difference.

“But we’ve got to learn to play four downs and to be consistent, and that’s been a problem for us all season.”

Waurika dominated the final two quarters, reaching Empire territory on seven straight possessions and scoring on three.

With 6:06 left in the third period, Griffin zipped 26 yards around right tackle for a TD that upped the margin to 28-8, and the Eagles’ defense delivered a big play on the first play of the fourth stanza, when Justin Carroll recovered a fumble by Carney at the EHS 31.

Three minutes later, Henderson, who averaged over 10 yards on 12 carries, dashed 37 yards to pay dirt and WHS’ lead grew to 34-8.

On Empire’s next play, Carney lost a fumble on a sweep and a recovery by Fuller set up the Eagles at the EHS 26. Henderson had a 22-yard run to the EHS 1, and with 7:01 left in the game, Dunn’s touchdown on a sneak made it 40-8.

Dunn had 59 yards on 16 carries as WHS rolled up 286 total yards rushing. Three different players also combined to produce 99 yards passing, with Harris catching two tosses for a team-high 39 yards.

Geoff Jones topped the ’Dogs with 43 yards and Carney finished with 34, but it took a combined 41 attempts to amass that yardage.

“Jace Dunn’s really been a life-saver for us with the way he’s played at quarterback. It was also good to see Bobby get a couple of catches, and nobody has come on more late in the season than Robert Gilmore, who’s been playing well on both sides of the ball,” said VanBeber, whose club can duplicate last year’s trick of winning its final four games by topping Rush Springs on Senior Night.

In their first season under former Rush Springs star Tim Beard, the Redskins have struggled defensively and are 2-7 overall after a 46-8 loss to Velma-Alma in Week Nine.