Grizzlies ready for challenge against Wilson (Henryetta) Tigers tonight

The Gans Grizzlies will face the co-District BII4 leading Wilson (Henryetta) Tigers at 7 tonight at Grizzly Field.

The Tigers (5-1 overall, 2-0 in district play) are on two-game winning streak since entering district play — beating Webbers Falls 46-0 in the district opener Oct. 10 when the Warriors were depleted due to injuries and defeating Arkoma 50-0 last week — which came on the heels of a 64-26 loss to Weleetka in their final non-district game on Sept. 27.

“It’s a challenge, and we know it’s a challenge,” firstyear Gans coach Gary Hixon said. “We’re so young with just two seniors. I don’t know if we realize really what’s at stake with playing them (the Tigers). We know they’re really good. We saw them first hand in our scrimmage here a few weeks ago (in August). We thought we competed well with them, but that was before we got everybody injured. Now, we’re just trying to survive. It’s going to be a learning process for us.”

Two aspects about the Tigers concern Hixon. “Wilson’s speed and elusiveness is what scares me to death,” he said. “We watched films on them from Arkoma and Webbers Falls (district games). It looked like the defense would have these kids bottled up, and then they’re scoring a touchdown because they are just hard to tackle because they’re being elusive. Arkoma had a little speed to try to match them, but they really didn’t match up well with them. Those (Za’brien, Ke’Shon, Charles and Zion Shelburn) brothers make that team go, and they’re really good.”

Hixon said the Grizzlies will need to play a nearperfect, or even a perfect, game to give themselves the best chance to knock off the Tigers.

“We can’t make any mistakes,” he said. “We can’t turn the ball over. We turned the ball over several times against Copan, and gave them a short field. We can’t have penalties, and we also have to control the clock. Our best defense is going to be our offense, if we can move the ball on them at all — especially as explosive as they are. They are very explosive.”

The Grizzlies (1-6, 0-2) are on a three-game losing streak since they defeated Midway 30-18 on homecoming on Sept. 20. They lost both of their district games so far this season — 38-6 to Arkoma in the district opener Oct. 11 and 56-0 to Copan last week.

The good news is some of the injured Grizzlies got to see action last week against Copan, and are likely to do so tonight against Wilson (Henryetta).

“We did get some kids back for the Copan game. Anthony Vasquez came back. He’s healthy, and he’ll play for us Friday night. Maybe our quarterback (Jasper Green) will come back (tonight). He was back at practice this week. We only had Austin Hines as the back-up, and he got banged up a little bit at Copan. He played through it (the injury), and I was proud of him. He didn’t practice (Monday afternoon). We need Jasper to step up and play, even though he’s banged up a little bit. One of our better lineman is ineligible this week because of grades. That hurts us, too.”

Although the Class B playoffs do not start for three more weeks, it sort of feels like the Grizzlies are getting into playoff mode already. Gans needs to go no worse than 2-1 over their final three district games to have the best chance possible to grab one of the four district playoff berths.

“It (making the playoffs) hasn’t happened in a while,” Hixon said. “I keep telling them (the players) there’s still a chance. We knew how good Copan was, being a well-balanced team. Wilson is the same way, but we have some games on our schedule after these two games that are winnable. If we get lucky enough, and everything falls just right, we can make the playoffs. That’s still a goal for our two seniors that they want to achieve. It really starts this week with the preparation (for Wilson), and everybody showing up and getting off the ineligible list to make next week (against Wesleyan Christian on Nov. 1 at Grizzly Field) a possibility (for a district win). We’re going to give Wilson as much hell as we can. If we’re lucky enough to come out on top, that’s great. If not, we’re going to learn from our mistakes.”