Gore looks to make more history against Crescent Friday

GORE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Gore’s high school football team made history last week with its 5620 victory over Woodland in a Class A second-round playoff game and on Friday night the second-ranked and unbeaten Pirates look to add to their legacy when they take on fifth-ranked Crescent in a quarterfinal contest at Harrah High School.

The kickoff at Harrah’s Evans Field, which is located at 1923 Harrison Street, is slated for 7 p.m. Harrah is located just east of Oklahoma City on U.S. Highway 62.

The Pirates’ 12 wins this season are the most in school history and the last time Gore won its first two playoffs games was 1990.

“Crescent (10-1) is the district champ out of A-3,” Gore head coach Brandon Tyler said. “Very battletested, 10-1, and their only setback was to Minco (42-32). They’re a big, physical football team, another team that’s probably going to be as big as us up front.

“They’re going to run a lot of multiple formations on offense. They run a two-quarterback system. One quarterback’s going to come in and he’s more of a thrower and just kind of a sprint-out guy when he gets to the perimeter and the other one they’ll run some wildcat packagetype stuff with him, a lot of the same kind of stuff as what we saw out of Woodland.

“We’ve just got to prepare for two offenses and two quarterbacks and try to get better defensively this week and make sure we’re lined up properly.”

In its four non-district games Crescent defeated Mooreland (7-0), Crooked Oak (46-8), Morrison (18–7) and Western Heights (42-8) and in its other district contests the Tigers downed Watonga (48-15), seventhranked Christian Heritage (26-13), Hinton (23-21) and Cashion (28-21).

After starting their postseason with a 46-14 win over Dibble the Tigers edged Mooreland 19-18 last week in the second round.

Some of Crescent’s key players on offense are quarterbacks Kade Varner and Tanner Rice, running backs C.J.

Wilson, Luke Descher, Stone Fisher and Tylan Neugent and wide receivers Bosten Cox, Isaiah Lovett, Rice and Wilson, tight end Chism Watson, center Cooper Cronister, guards Mason Payne and Gabe South and tackles Ryan Henley and Terry Rice.

“They’re pretty balanced on offense,” Tyler said. “Whenever 7 (Kade Varner) is at quarterback they want to try to throw the ball a little bit more and they’re going to get more in the spread stuff and trips. Then they’ll put No. 8 (Tanner Rice), who is one of his favorite receivers, at quarterback, and they’ll line up in the two-back stuff with two tight ends and try to run the football with him. They’ve got two good running backs when they’re in the spread, No. 23 (C.J. Wilson) and No. 20 (Dylan Descher). Both of those guys do a good job of running the football. They’re very big up front. Offensively they’re going to run a lot of different sets that we’re going to have to get lined up to.

“On defense we also have to make sure we tackle well. No. 23 is really slippery. When No. 7 is at quarterback in their spread stuff we’ve got to be aware of that and can’t let him out of the pocket because he’s got the capability of scrambling and making big plays with his legs.”

The Tigers’ standouts on defense are inside linebacker Tylan Neugent, defensive ends Chism Watson and Mason Payne, defensive linemen Cooper Cronister and Gabe South, outside linebacker Tanner Rice, cornerbacks Kade Varner and C.J. Wilson and safeties Bosten Cox and Isaiah Lovett.

“Defensively they’re going to be in a 4-3,” said Tyler. “They’re big up front and our offensive line is going to have to hook up and get after it kind of like we did last week.

“No. 44 (Tylan Neugent) at linebacker is a pretty big ole kid and comes downhill a little bit. Their two defensive ends are really solid, No. 80 (Chism Watson) and 54 (Mason Payne). Their two interior guys are No. 60 (Cooper Cronister) and No. 77 (Gabe South). I feel like No. 8 (Tanner Rice) may be their best linebacker. He’s an outside linebacker and he’s very active and he’s all over the field. He does a good job. No. 7 (Kade Varner) and 23 (C.J. Wilson) are their corners and 1 (Bosten Cox) and 2 (Isaiah Lovett) are their safeties.

“On offense we have to sustain our blocks and make sure we get hooked up and get after it up front and just control the line of scrimmage, something we’ve preached on and harped on all year long.”

Gore’s 1990 team, which included Tyler, was 112, and in charge of the program was longtime head coach Richard Moseley, Tyler’s uncle. Moseley is an assistant coach for the Pirates this season.