Semifinal sites set
Here’s the semifinal times/dates:
Class 6A
Jenks vs. Southmoore, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Putnam City Stadium
Tulsa Union vs. Broken Arrow, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, University of Tulsa
Class 5A
El Reno vs. Carl Albert, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Putnam City Stadium
Bixby vs. Guthrie, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Stillwater High School
Class 4A
Weatherford vs. Douglass, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Yukon
Star Spencer vs. Sallisaw, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sapulpa
Class 3A
Seq. Claremore vs. Cascia Hall, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Collinsville
Berryhill vs. Dewey, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Skiatook
Class B
Garber vs. Laverne, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Woodward
Ryan vs. Canton, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Norman
Class C
DC-Lamont vs. Timberlake, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Enid
Seiling vs. Forgan, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Woodward
Three questions: Bethany at Tuttle
Is this game as lopsided as it seems?
Yes and no. Tuttle will be virtually unbeatable at home, but Bethany has faced some talented offenses this season including a shootout with Madill’s Triplets earlier this season. The real match up problem for Bethany is against Tuttle’s defense which has been quite stingy this year with three straight shutouts with one coming against a pretty good Anadarko team. Tuttle forces opposing teams to make mistakes and turns them into touchdowns or field goals.
How will Tuttle’s late season injuries affect the game?
Ethan Biddy and several more starters missed some time late in the regular season with injuries. None were considered season ending, assuming Tuttle makes it deep into the playoffs. Still, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Phil Koons rested some of those coming back from bumps and bruises if this game gets out of hand.
What’s Tuttle’s most unsung asset?
Without a doubt it’s kicker Bobby Stonebreaker. No offense to kickers and punters out there, but high school kicking games generally range from bad to awful. There are many teams, especially in the smaller classes, that don’t even bother with PATs. Not Tuttle. Stonebreaker made a 52-yarder against Anadarko two weeks ago and also helps his defense by pushing his kickoffs out of the endzone consistently. Few high school kickers are capable of either which gives Tuttle a huge advantage in tight games AKA the second, third and fourth rounds of the playoffs.
The pick: Tuttle 31, Bethany 7….Tuttle at home is too much to overcome for just about any team in 3A.
OKRankings.com Boys Basketball poll
The OKRankings.com Preseason Boys Basketball Coaches’ poll has been released. These are the rankings that eventually go toward deciding playoff pairings. So here they are (first-place votes in parentheses):
Class 6A
1. Putnam City (8)
2. Putnam City West (7)
3. Muskogee (4)
4. Southmoore
5. Tulsa Union
6. Jenks
7. Edmond Santa Fe
8. Midwest City
9. Broken Arrow
10. Putnam City North
11. Owasso
12. Edmond Memorial
13. Lawton
14 Enid
15. Choctaw
15. Del City
17. Norman North
18. Edmond North
19. Lawton Eisenhower
20. Norman
Know of a player signing?
With signing day coming up Wednesday, The Oklahoman is once again compiling a list of players across the state who have signed to play college athletics at any level.
If you have a signing to report, e-mail it to Ryan Aber at raber@opubco.com ro post it on the comments section here (on the main high school blog at http://blog.newsok.com/highschoolsports )
Bethany gets a new QB
Bethany will have a new quarterback this week when they close out the regular season Friday night against against Pauls Valley. Silas Day began the season as the starter but quit the team on Monday for unknown reasons. Ryley Claborn will replace Day. Claborn is 16 of 36 for 190 yards and a touchdown in limited action.
What are the most impressive streaks in state HS sports?
With Shattuck about to break Morrison’s record of 90 consecutive wins, I’m wondering what are the other streaks in the state that are most impressive?
Here’s a few I’ve come up with. Let me know, either through a comment here or an e-mail (raber@opubco.com), if you have any others.
I’m sure there are plenty more I’ve missed but here are a few:
- Morrison and Shattuck’s 90-game winning streaks in football
- Tulsa Union’s and Jenks’ stranglehold on the 6A football title
-Asher and Owasso baseball dominance
-McGuinness girls cross country
-Bethel girls basketball state tournament streak
-Bartlesville boys swimming
-El Reno wrestling
-McGuinness girls tennis
-Cascia Hall boys tennis
Rankings preview: Oct. 25
Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#8-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#7-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#6-2
4. Southmoore (4)#7-1
5. Del City (5)#7-1
6. Midwest City (6)#6-2
7. Bartlesville (7)#7-1
8. Edmond North (9)#7-1
9. Mustang (10)#6-2
10. Lawton (NR)#6-2
The top seven stay the same here. Bartlesville still No. 7 after a loss? Yes. The Bruins did score 40 points on Jenks, the first team to do that in regulation since Tulsa Union scored 44 early in the 2005 season (Jenks won that game 48-44). Bartlesville lost but still put together a good showing. They do need to blowout Tulsa Memorial next week, though, and at least hang with Broken Arrow to keep that spot. Edmond North and Mustang move up a spot each. I think Mustang would beat Edmond North head-to-head now, but I’m not going to leap the 2-loss Broncos over a 1-loss Edmond North when the Huskies won the head-to-head earlier this season. It came down to Owasso and Lawton for the final spot, and I even had Owasso written in at one time, but went back and looked at both team’s schedules. Lawton has 2 losses; Owasso has 3. The Wolverines’ most impressive win was a 27-14 victory over Mustang. The Rams was … a 30-8 win over Choctaw? 20-0 over Muskogee? 19-13 over Enid? Not a whole lot to be blown away by there. The Rams are playing much better than they were before the season but Lawton has impressed more to this point. Putnam North was the team that fell out of the rankings after their 46-14 loss to Mustang.
Got a question for Ed Sheakley? Ask it here
I’m going to visit with Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association executive director Ed Sheakley early this week. Do you have a question for him? Leave it as a comment here or e-mail me at raber@opubco.com. I’ll pick a few to ask him and we’ll have his answers this week in The Oklahoman.
Rankings Preview: Oct. 18
Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#7-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#6-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#5-2
4. Southmoore (5)#6-1
5. Del City (6)#6-1
6. Midwest City (8)#5-2
7. Bartlesville (9)#7-0
8. Putnam North (10)#6-1
9. Edmond North (4)#6-1
10. Mustang (NR)#
A lot of shuffling here with Southmoore and Del City each moving up one spot and Midwest City, Bartlesville and Putnam North each bumping up two spots. The big fallers were Edmond North, dropping from No. 4 to No. 9 after losing 42-13 to Midwest City. Why so much? They hadn’t been convincing in wins they should’ve dominated and their schedule hadn’t been that strong to this point. So their first really big test was against Midwest City and the Bombers dominated, especially against Edmond North’s ground game. Norman North also fell big, going from No. 7 to out of the rankings after dropping a second consecutive game, this time to Del City 42-29. Norman North’s similar to Edmond North. The Timberwolves got a good win against Putnam North in the third week of the season but other than that hadn’t played a team considered among the top in 6A before two weeks ago and the got manhandled by Mustang and then beat by 13 to Del City on Thursday. So Mustang benefits from Norman North’s struggles of late. It’s not like the Broncos had a big test in beating Moore 42-6 but sometimes its just being in the right place at the right time. Lawton was also considered but after their offensive struggles last week, I’m certainly not going to move to Wolverines into the rankings after a loss. I’m still not too convinced on Bartlesville but 7-0 is 7-0. The next three weeks will tell the tale on them. I expect the Bruins to go 1-2, dropping games to Jenks and Broken Arrow, but if Bartlesville can at least stick tight in one of both of these games, it’ll show the Bruins aren’t just a product of their schedule.
Rankings preview: Oct. 10
Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#6-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#5-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#4-2
4. Edmond North (5)#6-0
5. Southmoore (7)#5-1
6. Del City (8)#5-1
7. Norman North (4)#4-1
8. Midwest City (9)#4-2
9. Bartlesville (10)#6-0
10. Putnam North (NR)#5-1
There seems to be about 12-13 teams that deserve to ve ranked in 6A but none outside the top 3 much deserve to be about 6-7. Save the outrage Edmond North fans. I was looking for the Huskies to really put a hurting on Putnam City tonight and they didn’t at all. They beat Mustang by 10 in the second week but outside of that, they really should’ve won by more in each of their other five wins. Now, 6-0 is 6-0 so Edmond North is No. 4 but not real confident in that. The Huskies need some more killer instinct and they’ve got to show it next week. Lawton drops out, mainly because no one else lost (besides Broken Arrow and the Tigers’ only losses are to Jenks and Tulsa Union) and Putnam North deserves a spot after beating Southmoore last week.
