Pirates have sights set on Bucks in semifinal game Friday

The Class A second- ranked Pirates will have their sights set on the third-ranked Hominy Bucks Friday night at Jenks High School when the unbeaten teams meet in the Class A semifinal playoff game.

Kickoff inside Jenks’ Allan T r i m b l e Stadium is s chedul e d for 7 p.m.

The Pirates improved to 13-0 for the season last week with their 69-13 quarterfinal playoff win over Crescent at Harrah High School.

Friday’s semifinal playoff appearance will be Gore’s first in school history.

Hominy is also 13-0 after downing eighth-ranked Hooker 46-13 last week.

In non-district action this season the Bucks topped 2A Kellyville (57-29), 4A Cleveland (51-14) and 2A Pawhuska (27-22) and in district play the A-5 champions beat Pawnee (34-0), Oklahoma Union (47-8), Morrison (33-7), Chelsea (36-0), Tonkawa (27-21), Woodland (33-20) and Chouteau-Mazie (41-12). On Nov. 20 the Pirates defeated Woodland 5620 in a second-round playoff contest.

The Bucks started their postseason with a 52-8 win over Allen before downing Quapaw 56-6.

“They’re 13-0 and they’ve been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in some polls allyear long and they’re a very, v e r y solid football team all the way around,” Gore head coach Brandon Tyler said. “They’re a good football team and they’re 13-0 for a reason. Coach (Caleb) Christian does a great job with his team.

“They’ve got a lot of tradition there. I think the last time they won one (state title) was 2016 when Zaven Collins was playing quarterback there. They’ve got a lot of tradition there but the thing about it I don’t think this class of guys that are playing n o w have been this far in the

Gore seniors Jackson Duke (5), Blue Steward (32) and Tyler Lane (7) lead the Pirates onto the field before the kickoff of last week’s Class A quarterfinal playoff game against Crescent at Harrah High School. The second-ranked Pirates, who defeated Crescent 69-13, meet third-ranked Hominy in a semifinal contest Friday night at Jenks High School.

LEA LESSLEY • TIMES playoffs either so it’s kind of uncharted water for both of us. They do have a little bit more tradition on their side getting this far but we’re looking forward to Friday night and excited about the opportunity.”

Collins, an inside linebacker with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, played collegiate football at the University of Tulsa.

Since 1986 the Pirates have played Hominy twice in the second round of the playoffs. In 1989, Tyler’s junior year at Gore High School, the Bucks won 55-16 and in 2000 Hominy prevailed 28-14.

“They’ve got a lot of team speed,” Tyler said. “Their quarterback (5-foot-10, 170-pound junior Jaxon Woods), everybody tells me, is probably the best football player in Class A and he looks the part on film so we’ve got to start with him and go from there and try to slow him down.

“Defensively they fly to the football. They’re very fast on defense and they tackle really well, especially in space, so we’re going to have to hook up up front and try to win the battle up front again.”

Hominy’s base offense is the spread. “They’re going to be in the spread and they’re going to be in a lot of different looks,” said Tyler. “They’ll be in trips, they’ll be in two-back, they’ll be in a lot of things but the ball’s going to go through his (Woods) hands the majority of the time.

“They’ve got another kid, No. 14 (T.K. Sutton), their little running back, and he’s as fast as all get-out too and they got a move-in from Skiatook, No. 11 (Chase Tindell). He’s a big ole kid, a running back about 6-3, 240, and he comes downhill and has good speed.

“They also throw the ball very well. He (Woods) is very elusive with the way he scrambles. He keeps drives alive and plays alive with his feet and his vision down the field is really good. He’s got a quick release and they’ve got some big receivers outside, No. 1 (6-3 Blaine Hipp) and No. 8 (6-2 Xavier Perdue), and they like to run the jet sweep with No. 5 (Bryon Marshall).

“He (Woods) is so fast and elusive. They just want to get him on the perimeter and let him go. We can’t break down containment like we did last week. We’re going to have to do a better of job of containing this guy and not letting him getting outside of us and we’ve got to gang-tackle him when we get there. We’ve got to shut him down and try to make him do something else to beat us.

“On defense we’ve got to stop the quarterback, we’ve got to get off the field on third downs, we’ve got to eliminate stupid penalties, we’ve got to force some turnovers again this week and try to steal a possession or two. Defensively we’ve got our hands full trying to get these guys slowed down.”

The Bucks’ base defense is the 3-3-5. “No. 5 (Marshall) and No. 14 (Sutton) are not very big,” Tyler said. “They’re 5-6, 135, and 5-5, 140, and those two guys are their inside linebackers.

“Their secondary is very active,” Tyler said. “No. 3 (Woods) is very good. He’s kind of a ball-hawk and he can go sideline to sideline because he’s so fast. No. 4 (Carson Keene), No. 8 (Perdue), 11 (Tindell) and 12 (Ethane Wikel) all do a great job in the secondary.

“I haven’t seen a whole lot of people be able to throw on them because of that secondary but we’re going to try to line up and just do our thing and do what we’ve been doing all year. If our linemen come to work Friday night and control the line of scrimmage it will give us a great shot. Controlling the line of scrimmage and getting our run-game going again are keys for our offense.”

With a trip to the Class A state championship game on the line, Tyler and his assistants and players are looking forward to Friday’s challenge of handing Hominy its first loss of the season.

“They’re a very good football team but we’re going to line up Friday night and see what happens,” Tyler said.