No. 2 Pirates visit Pocola in key A-8 game

Class A No. 2 Gore takes its unbeaten record to LeFlore County Friday night when the Pirates take on Pocola in a key District A-8 contest.

Kickoff at John Carter Field is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Pirates shut out Canadian 61-0 in its homecoming game last week and Pocola defeated Central 30-8. The Indians topped Canadian 54-6 in its district opener and in non-district play Pocola downed Heavener (42-35) and Hackett, Ark. (28-6) and lost at Spiro (35-8).

“Pocola‚s very, very good,” Gore head coach Brandon Tyler said. “They‚re probably the best team we‚ve played to this point, by far. Very athletic and they‚re doing a good job with what they‚re doing offensively and defensively. They‚re going to give you a lot of looks and it seems like they played really hard against Central Friday night. They‚re a good football team. Coming down from Class 2A they‚re definitely battle-tested coming out of the district they were in last year so they‚ll be ready to go for us Friday night.”

In their last meeting the Pirates won 46-28 at Pocola in a non-district contest.

A few of the Indians‚ key players on offense are running backs A.J. Lyons-Jerrell (6-foot-1, 210-pound sophomore) and Zac Jones (6-0, 215, sr.), receivers Garrett Scott (6-3, 165, jr.) and Kolby Masterson (6-2, 180, jr.), lineman Casson Raley (6-2, 275, jr.) and quarterback Austin Hardwick (5-6, 125, jr.).

“Offensively they‚re going to be kind of multiple,” Tyler said. “They‚re going to be in a little single-wing and they‚ll put Lyons at quarterback and run quarterback power, quarterback sweep and come back with some misdirection off of that with some reverses to the Scott kid. We‚ve definitely got to prepare for that and then they‚ll go from that and put the Hardwick kid at quarterback and go three and four-wide and start throwing it. So we‚ve got a lot to prepare for this week but fortunately during our bye week two weeks ago we were able to start getting some stuff in for them. We just have to prepare and have a great week of practice and try to get them slowed down. They do a great job.

“Definitely tackling is a key for our defense this week. We‚ve got to play good assignment football and make sure we‚re lined up against all of those formations with what all they do. We‚ve got to win the point of attack, we‚ve got to win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We‚ve got to tackle the Lyons kid when he‚s got the ball and the Scott kid out wide is very, very dangerous as well. He got some big touchdown passes against Central and he‚s one of the better receivers in Class A football by far.”

Some of Pocola‚s key players on defense are linebackers Tucker Thompson (6-0, 215, sr.) and Zac Jones, defensive end Bryson Elkins (5-9, 165, soph.) and defensive backs Kolby Masterson and A.J. Lyons-Jerrell.

“Pocola‚s going to be in an odd-front on defense,” said Tyler. “They‚re going to show a 3-4 and a 3-3 odd-stack look so that‚s two things that we have to prepare for there. Nothing we haven‚t seen all year long but they like to bring a lot of pressure. They‚re going to bring just their linebackers and slant their line a little bit so we‚ve definitely got to be prepared for that and just be ready for whatever they throw at us.

“No turnovers, just sustaining drives and winning the battle up front are keys for our offense. If we can win that battle up front and be able to continue running the football like we have it would be good, and just mix in some passes like we‚ve been doing. We‚ve just got to continue doing what we‚re doing and get better at it and just go down there ready to go.”