So just how big was El Reno High School’s victory over Ardmore last week?

A quick look at the District 5A-1 football standings speaks volumes going into Thursday night’s game at Memorial Stadium against the Duncan Demons.

“This was a heck of a victory to have. Ardmore has always been one of the top teams in our district and last year they were district champs and state runner-up. This was a big win for us,” said senior running back Kord LaFoe.

El Reno’s 35-20 win over Ardmore lifted the Indians into a tie for second place in the 5A-1 standings. However, the 15 points gained from the win, which is the maximum points a team can earn or lose per district outing, leaves the Indians holding the tiebreaker over Duncan, Ardmore and Lawton MacArthur.

The Indians are a plus-20 in the tiebreaker points and hold the head-to-head advantage over Ardmore. Noble, after its win over Altus, leads the district at 3-0. Duncan (+19), MacArthur (+16) and the Tigers (+14) are tied with El Reno at 2-1.

Altus toppled to sixth at 1-2 just ahead of winless Western Heights and Southeast after three district games. The top four teams in each district make the postseason, but the two finishers are awarded at least one home playoff game.

“After we had that loss, we had to climb back into the picture of winning a district championship,” said EHS junior quarterback Dorian Plumley.

El Reno and Noble are both 5-1 overall, while Duncan brings a 4-1 record to town after losing a non-district game with Ada to weather. The Demons lone loss so far was a 38-27 setback to Noble as J.T. Cobble’s team has outscored district opponents 128-74 in three outings.

While Cobble has said otherwise in the Duncan Banner, the Demons seem to have been focused on El Reno for weeks. Former longtime EHS skipper Tom Cobble, father of the Duncan coach, was scouting the Indians during non-district play.

A handful of DHS players were at the Ardmore game watching El Reno and the Tigers after Duncan defeated Southeast 63-30 on Thursday night.

The Demons still have Ardmore, MacArthur and Altus on the schedule after the Indians.

An Oklahoma City media outlet lists Thursday’s game as one of its top 10, billing it as an “offensive match-up.”

Duncan’s offense has scored 213 points on the season, with its ground game scoring four of the five touchdowns in the first half of last week’s blowout of the Spartans.

The Demons have more than 10 rushing scores in the last two weeks in wins over Southeast and Western Heights (48-6).

Duncan holds the lead in the series against El Reno by a 22-13 margin with one tie in the 36 meetings since 1944.

The teams have played seven times since 2008 in 5A-1 action, with the Demons holding a 4-3 edge in those games.

The Demons won last year’s game by a 35-9 margin, while El Reno took the 2017 game at Memorial Stadium by a 41-40 margin.

Twenty-six of the games since 1944 have been in district play, with the Demons holding a 15-11 edge.