Published: October 09, 2008 09:24 am         

Pawnee looks to make it 3-in-a-row

Pawnee High’s first two district football games couldn’t have been much tougher.

Not only were they matched up against No. 14 Hominy and second-ranked Tonkawa, but also two coaches who had previously guided the Black Bears (3-2, 2-2 District A-7).

“We were really at a disadvantage after the first two games because of that,” coach Todd Beer said. “We were thrown in the fire but that’s the district schedule early on.”

The two early-season district losses showed the heat Pawnee was under, but the Black Bears have since dominated district play with two shutout victories. The true test will come on Friday night as Pawnee will attempt to bring its record above .500 in a matchup with No. 8 Woodland.

“It's pivotal, it’s obvious,” Beer said. “It doesn’t take a rocket science to say that it’s pivotal. But it’s just another ball game that we have to win and we knew that going in, after that stretch of two losses, we can’t afford another district loss.”

This win may not come as easily as the last two — Woodland comes into Friday’s contest on a three-game district winning streak and the team’s only two losses came by a combined eight points.

The burden of putting up offensive points will rest on the capable shoulders of Cameron Heisler, who has rushed for 307 yards and four touchdowns in the last two games.

“If we win this week, we’ll be back in the picture and people will know we are a good football team,” Beer said. “If we don't, we’ll lick our wounds and come back next week.”



Learning by doing

With a team loaded with sophomores, Cushing coach Lance Hoggatt has had a large task on his hands. That task was evident in a 48-point loss to No. 10 McLoud last week. But take it as a positive when a coach is excited by his team’s performance in that sort of outing.

“Offensively, we came out feeling much better than the week before,” Hoggatt said. “We adjusted a lot of things and took it out on the field.”

The Tigers were able to score four touchdowns last week against the class of the district, but the young group has developed every week as a matchup with fifth-ranked Star Spencer (4-1, 2-0) looms on Friday.

“Early on (the youth) sticks out like a sore thumb because we put so many guys on the field that haven’t played a varsity down,” Hoggatt said.

“Now they’ve had experience and they’ve been in the heat of the battle.”

Star Spencer knocked off McLoud, 39-35, only two weeks ago and has looked impressive on film.

The Bobcats possess a lot of defensive speed — something Cushing could take advantage of with misdirection and counter plays.

“We know what kind of juggernauts we are facing but we just have to hunker down and grow each week, learn each week,” Hoggatt said.

Cushing (1-4, 0-2 District 4A-2) has an uphill climb ahead of them, but returned running back Dwayne Vaughn last week. With another game under his belt and an improving Martinez McKinney, the Tiger rushing game will be running at full speed Friday night, but against the odds.

“Our kids are totally bought in to what we are trying to do and the plan we laid out early in the season,” Hoggatt said. “They know who they are playing but our kids come out each day and know that we can be overly concerned with our opponent.”

Chance to leapfrog

After losing last week by three points, Perry — which has won two of its last three games — has a chance to continue its winning ways this week against second-ranked Heritage Hall (5-0, 2-0).

The Maroons may only be 1-1 in District 2A-1 but a win against the undefeated Chargers would lift Perry (2-3) into, at worst, a tie for second place.

The only problem for Perry is Heritage Hall has been as close to perfect defensively as possible through the last three games. The only points that were scored on the Chargers in the last three contests was a safety against Kingfisher.

Heritage Hall has shut out three teams in five games.

     

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