Pirate duo says winning state championship would be awesome feeling
Gore begins title pursuit in playoffs at Woodland
In 2022, the Gore Pirates came oh so close to a perfect season and the Class A state championship gold ball trophy.
In 2022, the Gore Pirates came oh so close to a perfect season and the Class A state championship gold ball trophy.
Instead, the Pirates lost 3228 to Fairview in the state title game, thus earning them the silver ball as state runners-up.
The Pirates (6-4) are highly motivated to get that all-elusive gold ball this postseason, which will begin with a Class A Division II opening-round road playoff game against the Woodland Cougars (10-0) at 7 tonight in Fairfax.
“It’s super motivating,” Gore senior safety Ayden Cox said about the fuel for the team’s playoff motivation. “To go that far (in 2022) and come up that short, it feels like you didn’t work hard enough.”
To win it after missing out as sophomores would feel really great.
“It would feel pretty good just to accomplish what we’ve wanted to accomplish for years,” Gore senior tight end Jagger Moore said.
The Pirates clinched a fourth seed from District AII-3 after routing Allen 40-6 last Friday night at K.G. Horn Stadium. The game was mostly played in a driving rainstorm, something Cox had not yet experienced.
“I never have played in those kinds of conditions,” Cox said. “I kept slipping around as if at a water park.”
Although perhaps happening just a few minutes before Gore’s win over Allen, Central knocked off Liberty, which also gave Gore the fourth seed from the district. However, Moore said he was glad the Pirates went out there last week and took care of business.
“We just wanted to win,” Moore said. “It felt pretty good with us going to the playoffs again, and showing what we can do to win (in the postseason).”
For the second time in three postseasons and for the fourth time since the 2020 playoffs, the Pirates and the Cougars will meet again. Gore won 5520 en route to the state title game in 2022, but Woodland won the previous two playoff match-ups — 20-19 in 2021 and 38-18 in 2020.
Cox is looking forward to the fourth playoff meeting for the Pirates with the Cougars.
“I’m super excited,” Cox said. “We’ve seen them three times in the last four years. It’s going to be a great game.”
Moore believes it helps that the Pirates have played the Cougars so much of late just to help them, familiarity wise.
“We know what they’re going to do, and I’m sure they know what we’re going to do,” Moore said. “It’s going to be a pretty physical game, and the best team will win.”
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TO GET THERE — Take Oklahoma State Highway 10 north to U.S. 62 east of Muskogee. Take U.S. 62 west to the Muskogee Turnpike. Take the Muskogee Turnpike west to Broken Arrow, where it becomes Oklahoma State Highway 51. Take Highway 51 (the Broken Arrow Expressway) west to U.S. 169. Take U.S. 169 (the Mingo Valley Expressway) north to Interstate 244. Take I-244 west to Oklahoma State Highway 11. Take Highway 11 (the Gilcrease Expressway) west to Skiatook. Take Oklahoma State Highway 20 west to Oklahoma State Highway 18 just outside Ralston. Take Highway 18 north to Fairfax.
