Branham, a junior running back, gained a game-best 82 yards on just three carries. His 53-yard touchdown gallop in the opening moments of the contest ignited the Grizzlies and Branham later closed the scoring with an 88-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter.
In between, the Gans defense shut down the Arkoma ground game. The Mustangs were shoved backward for minus 25 yards on 25 attempts. They had more success through the air, avoiding a shutout with a 47-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
Defensive lineman Brian Wilson paced Gans with five tackles while Donnie Alls had four tackles plus a sack and Jake Knapp had four tackles. Matt Barrett recovered a fumble and Matt Jacobs intercepted a pass for the Grizzlies.
Branham's first touchdown came just 1:02 into the game and quarterback Eual Knapp passed to younger brother Jake for the conversion and an 8-0 lead.
Jake Knapp ran for a two-yard score two minutes later and Eual Knapp found the end zone from a yard out at the 3:20 mark of the first quarter. Alls ran for the conversion to extend the Gans lead to 22-0.
Eual Knapp's 25-yard run on a quarterback keeper accounted for the final touchdown of the opening quarter. He passed to Cameron Pastore for the two-point conversion and the Grizzlies led 30-0 entering the second quarter.
Freshman Nick Woodruff came in at quarterback and tossed a pair of touchdown passes to keep the Grizzlies rolling. He connected with Pastore for a 17-yard strike to make it 36-0 at halftime. Woodruff later passed 20 yards to Kyle Shoup with 11:41 left in the fourth period as Gans went up 42-0.
Arkoma got its only touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, but Branham had an immediate response with his kickoff return to account for the final score.
The Grizzlies rushed for 322 yards as a team. Eual Knapp ran five times for 38 yards, Woodruff four for 26 yards and Alls three for 24. Knapp was 1-of-2 passing for eight yards and Woodruff completed 4-of-8 for 71 yards.
Gans (1-0) will play its first game as a member of District B-4 on Friday night when the Grizzlies travel to Haileyville for their league opener.
