Keota spoils new Gans coach’s debut; Grizzlies travel to face Oaks next
The Gary Hixon era at Gans did not get started in the way all would have liked as the Grizzlies opened the season with a 50-0 loss to the host Keota Lions last Thursday night.
The game ended at halftime due to the 8-man football 45-point mercy rule.
Keota’s Kayden Decker returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and Kalib West ran in the two-point conversion to give the Lions (1-0) an early 8-0 lead.
Gans senior Caiden Kennedy started at quarterback, and the team received a delay of penalty prior to its first offensive snap. Kennedy attempted to avoid a sack but threw the ball backwards which hit the goal post and was ruled a safety.
While Keota scored on the next two possessions, the Grizzlies (0-1) ended their drives with two interceptions, one by Keota’s Traiten Bryant and the other by his teammate, Remington Tomlin.
On the final play of the first quarter, Gans converted a fourth down on a run by Austin Hines, which was Gans only first down of the quarter. The first quarter ended with Keota leading 34-0.
After picking up another first down on the drive, Keota’s Kale Johnson recovered a Gans fumble.
Keota then scored on a 28-yard run by Josh Pickle, and Hines had a 51-yard punt on the next drive.
The Lions’ final score of the night was a 61-yard rushing touchdown by Kalib West.
The Grizzlies will look to get their first win as well as their new coach’s first win at 7 p.m. next Thursday night as they travel to meet the Oaks Warriors.
Hixon said during the preseason that it looked like the Grizzlies could have knocked off the Warriors a season ago instead of losing 30-28 in the 2023 season opener at Oaks. However, Hixon said that this year’s version of the Warriors may not be like the team of 2023.
“They played (scrimmaged) Quinton (last Thursday night) and scored 42 points,” Hixon said. “I don’t know how good Quinton is, but just looking at the score, and how Oaks used to be, it’s a scary ball game — and we have to travel back to Oaks.”
Hixon is positive his players will bounce back from the Keota loss in a positive way. However, the Keota game made some players have to grow up quickly while in a game.
“We turned that page (last Friday),” Hixon said. “We watched a little film on us. I felt like we were intimidated when the (Keota game) started. They ran the opening kickoff back. At one time, we had six freshmen on the field. Our tailback, who was expected to start, couldn’t play due to some kind issue with his back. He couldn’t go, so we had kids playing out of position.”
If there was a silver lining in the clouds in the season-opening loss to Keota, Hixon was pleased with his team’s never-give-up attitude.
“The thing I was really proud of was our kids never quit,” Hixon said. “They picked their heads up. After the game was over, they hurt. That’s something I was told hasn’t happened in a while. I’m glad it hurt because we don’t want that feeling anymore. We’re trying to make this (football) culture (at Gans) better.”
Hixon said the mistakes that happened in the loss to Keota cannot happen this week against Oaks.
“We can’t turn the ball over,” Hixon said. “I said our offensive line was going to be our offensive strengths, but (last Thursday) night, it was one of our biggest weaknesses. So, we’re going to spend a lot of time on that. We have to make sure we find the right combination of guys and personnel for what we want to run. I’m hoping we can come up with something. We’ve found four offensive linemen who can help us, and I think that’s good for us if we can keep them fresh and have them recover from their injuries. We still have our back-up tailback who is really our starting middle linebacker still has not been cleared to play from the foot surgery he had in the off-season. So, when we have 17 kids, and you lose four or five of them, it gets ugly really fast.”
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TO GET THERE — Take Oklahoma State Highway 141 east to U.S. 64. Take U.S. 64 west to Interstate 40. Take I-40 west to Vian. Take Oklahoma State Highway 82 north to Tahlequah. Take Oklahoma State Highway 10 north to Kansas, Okla. Take U.S. Alternate 412 west to Twin Oaks. Take Highway 412A south to Oaks.
