No. 2 Gore faces familiar foe Friday night at home

GORE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

For the third straight season Woodland stands in the way of Gore’s attempt to move on to the third round of the Class A playoffs but on Friday night the unbeaten second-ranked Pirates look to end the Cougars’ season and keep their undefeated record intact.

Kickoff inside Gore’s K.G. Horn Stadium is slated for 7 p.m.

Gore (11-0 overall) defeated Fairland (6-5) 63-6 in the sleet and snow Friday night at home in its playoff opener and Woodland (7-4) won 42-6 at Hartshorne (74).

Woodland, which placed third in District A-5 this season, downed Chelsea (29-14), Chouteau-Mazie (22-0), Pawnee (24-0), Oklahoma Union (46-0) and Morrison (288) and lost to third-ranked Hominy (33-20) and fifth-ranked Tonkawa (20-8) in A-5 action. In non-district play the Cougars topped Commerce (44-15) and fell to 2A Newkirk (31-30) and 2A Pawhuska (48-46).

“Still just same old Woodland,” Gore head coach Brandon Tyler said about this year’s Cougars. “A bunch of hard-nosed kids and definitely the best team that we’re going to play up to this point. They’re 7-4 but their record’s kind of deceiving coming from the district they play in and playing Hominy and Tonkawa, which are both in the second round this week. They lost to Newkirk and Pawhuska, two 2A playoff teams and they’re going to be battle-tested.

“They’re coming down here and I’m sure they’re full of confidence. They came down here the last two years and beat us (20-19 last season and 38-18 in 2020). We’re not going to scare them by no means. They’re going to come in and expect to win so we’ve got to go to work.”

A few of Woodland’s key players on offense are quarterback Aidan Rhodes (6foot-4, 175-pound senior), quarterback/ wide receiver Trey Bennett (6-4, 175, soph.), tight end Jackson Rhodes (64, 185, jr.) and running back Nathan Bouchard (5-10, 200, sr.)

“We’ve got to get after them up front,” said Tyler. “We’ve got to win the battle up front. Their quarterback is still the same kid from last year, the (Aidan) Rhodes kid, and he does a tremendous job of running their offense, running or throwing. They want to keep the ball in his hands. I think in 11 games now he’s carried it over 200 times. It’s going to go through his hands on just about everything.

“He’s throwing the ball well and he’s got some big ole receivers out there. Bennett is one of his receivers that will play a little bit of quarterback as well. Jackson Rhodes will be at tight end and they like to slip him out there. They’re pretty big across the board at receiver and tight end.

“They did graduate a few of their linemen from last year and they are starting a few sophomores but still yet those guys know how to win and they get the job done in the trenches as well.

“We’ve got to be prepared defensively for whatever they throw at us. They’re going to be in a lot of stuff and they’ll run counter and quarterback sweep, their favorite plays, and they do a really good job at it. Nathan Bouchard was a running back last year and he’s a big ole downhill runner and very physical.

“Our secondary has got to be prepared for their play-action. We can’t give up the big play across the middle and they’ll sneak their tight end and fullback out in the flats and bring their tight end across the middle so we’ve definitely got to be prepared for that. When they do try to throw the jump ball to the big receivers we’ve got to go challenge them and not let them have an easy catch there.

“The secondary’s got to play well, our defense has got to play well and our linebackers have got to play downhill. We’ve got to be more downhill this week than what we were last week.”

Some of the Cougars’ key players on defense are inside linebackers Jackson Rhodes and Nathan Bouchard, defensive ends Danner Lessert (5-10, 175, so.) and Payton Rikkola (5-8, 165, so.), defensive linemen Zane Brock (6-1, 215, sr.) and D.K. Kennedy (5-10, 185, so.), outside linebackers Abel Reyes (5-10, 200, jr.) and Dray Long (5-8, 155, so.), cornerbacks Aidan Rhodes and Chase Bowman (6-1, 165, jr.) and safety Trey Bennett.

“On defense they’re going to be in a 4-4,” said Tyler. “They’re going to run a lot of even-front stuff, some stuff that we’ve seen all year obviously. They’ve probably got the two best linebackers in Class A football coming downhill that we’ve seen. They are very physical at the point of attack. Their defensive ends do a great job and they play hard and aggressive. Our offensive line has to control the line of scrimmage.

“We’ve got to be able to throw the ball. We’ve got to complete some passes and try to keep them honest in what we’re trying to do. I feel like we’re throwing the ball good enough that they just can’t load the box on us right now and try to stop our run game.

“Our receivers, Ben (Kirkpatrick), Journey (Shells), Blue (Steward) and Liam (Edwards) have got to continue to catch the ball for us and make plays out there as well as Gunner (Dozier), Jackson (Duke) and Noah (Cooper). We feel like we’ve got a pretty good arsenal there with those guys, we’ve just got to keep them going, but it all starts up front. Those five linemen (Gabe Dozier, Garrett Douthit, Nick Wolf, Cas Moore and Layne Ward) have got to control the line of scrimmage and if we can do that we’ll be in good shape.”

Tyler knows his Pirates will have to play four full quarters against the Cougars Friday night.

“They’re just physical,” Tyler said. “They’re going to play you 48 minutes whether they’re ahead or behind so we’re going to have to play a full 48-minute game. Like I told the kids Saturday, last year we played 46 out of 48 minutes and they just slipped up on those last two and were able to beat us.

“Our kids know what to expect and there aren’t going to be any secrets on what Woodland’s going to do so we’ve just got to line up and take care of the football and go get after them and slow them down a little bit.”