ONE LEFT STANDING: Pawhuska is only area team to advance in football playoffs
Pawhuska is the only area team to advance to the second round of state playoffs with a 44-7 win over Hartshorne in Pawhuska on Nov. 15, 2024. (Left) Huskies Dane Jensen (6), Trenton Reese (28) and Lane Kyler (12) walk onto the field during an earlier season game.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Copan High School senior Gavin Scott (44) chases down a Cherokee runner during Class B-II playoff action in Copan on Nov. 15, 2024. The Hornets ended their season at (8-3) with a 36-8 loss to the Chiefs.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
By Mike Tupa
Bartlesville Area Sports Report
To paraphrase the name of an Agatha Christie novel: “And Then There Was One.”
Pawhuska High School is the lone Bartlesville-area team — out of 10 — still alive advancing to the second round of the playoffs.
Bartlesville, Wesleyan Christian, Copan, Nowata, Barnsdall and the Caney Valley (Kan.) Bullpups have each fallen by the wayside in their first-round postseason games.
The three other area teams — Dewey, Oklahoma Union and the Caney Valley Trojans — failed to earn playoff reservations but have a full offseason ahead to make strong bids next season.
Following are details of last weekend’s OSSAA playoff games for area teams.
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PAWHUSKA 44, Hartshorne 7
For the fourth time during Matt Hennesy’s seven-year tenure the Pawhuska Huskies are advancing to the second round of the playoffs.
On Friday (Nov. 15), the Huskies sheared Hartshorne like a woolly lamb to earn a shot at Christian Heritage in this coming Friday’s (Nov. 22) second-round postseason game in Class A-II.
Hartshorne barely avoided the shutout as Pawhuska improved to 9-2 and put itself in position for another run to the semifinals, as it did in 2020 and 2021.
“I’m super proud of how our kids came out and played,” Hennesy said about the playoff win. “Their effort all night was the difference."
Considering that quarterback Canyon Hindman played with a broken finger on his throwing hand, the effort appeared doubly-impressive.
Even with a splint on his pointing finger, Hindman flung the ‘skin for 153 yards, including three touchdown throws to Lane Kyler.
“They were all jump balls,” noted Hennesy.
Other dynamic Pawhuska offensive forces included Vann Wildcats (141 yards rushing, one touchdown, multiple two-pointers) and Chase Eaves (79 yards rushing, one touchdown).
Following a 0-0 deadlock in the first quarter, Pawhuska erupted for 36 points in the second quarter. (Actually, that’s tepid. In one game this season Pawhuska scored 72 points in one quarter.)
“Our pace and tempo caught with them in the second quarter,” Hennesy said.
Pawhuska added a second-half touchdown and two-point conversion.
Hennesy praised the work of the offensive line, especially dealing with the pressure of having the pass game hampered due to Hindman’s injury (suffered during the previous week in practice).
“But the real story was the defense,” said Hennesy. “They didn't score until the fourth quarter when we had our jayvee in. … The last few weeks our defense has been flying around making tackles. It’s the best I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
Trenton Reese and Kyler each intercepted a pass to help establish Huskie dominance.
He expects Christian Heritage Academy to be very well-coached and to play intense defense. Pawhuska will have to travel to Del City to play the CHA Crusaders.
The Copan Hornets defense surrounds a Cherokee runner during Class B-II playoff action in Copan on Nov. 15, 2024. The Hornets ended their season at (8-3) with a 36-8 loss to the Chiefs.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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Cherokee 36, COPAN 8
Injury, illness, butter and sore tootsies exacted a costly toll on Copan High School’s football team in Friday’s Class B-II playoff loss.
Butter?
As in fingers.
Sore tootsies?
As toe plugging with lead.
“We didn’t play well,” Hornet head coach Marshall Foreman observed about the season-ending loss to visiting Cherokee High School, 36-8. “We had eight or nine dropped passes — probably three touchdown passes. Plus we had a bunch of penalties. … We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
But the tough loss only ended prematurely what otherwise rated as one of Copan’s top seasons in the 2000s. The Hornets blitzed to an 8-3 record, including earning the program’s first home grid postseason game since 2008.
Foreman heaped plenty of credit on his three outgoing seniors for helping change the trajectory of the program from two-win fall guys (2021) to eight-win tall skies (2024).
“I’m really proud of Karson (Woodworth), Gavin (Scott) and Jakob (Powell),” he said about the battled-hardened trio of designated diploma departees.
Unfortunately, Woodworth didn’t finish his grid career the way he wanted — an injury just prior to halftime kept him out the rest of the game — except for a brief encore to check back onto the field to give the fans a chance to salute him and the other seniors when they were brought out of the game, Foreman said.
In addition, junior dynamo Weston O’Rourke was still less than 100 percent due to a recent illness, Foreman said, adding that when a team loses key players — especially in eight-man football — in playoff action, it can be challenging to overcome,
Copan still hung tough. Cherokee led by only a touchdown, 14-8, until scoring again on the last play of the first half.
The Hornets nearly struck like lightning when O’Rourke received the kickoff to open the third quarter and nearly returned it for a touchdown — but the kicker managed to trip him up just as he went into his final burst.
On their next possession, Copan converted three first downs — only to have each one called back by penalty.
“That kind of zapped us,” Foreman said.
Copan cashed with its lone touchdown on a long pass from junior quarterback Kane Foreman to Zane Stricklin.
Junior Teegan Caron and Kane Foreman provided the majority of the offense, coach Foreman said, adding that Caron caught a couple of long throws and junior Shooter Brewington also made a key grab.
“But we couldn’t get a whole lot out of our running game,” said coach Foreman.
On the defensive side, Jaxon White turned in probably his best performance of the season, coach Foreman said while also praising the defensive effort of Caron.
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Barnsdall High School’s Blaine Miller (8) finds running room during an earlier season game. The Panthers fell to Talihina, 30-20, to end their playoff hopes.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
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Talihina 30, BARNSDALL 20
Like the frustrated fisherman the Barnsdall High School Panthers might reflect this was a big one that slipped the hook.
After falling behind big early, the Panthers clawed back into contention and shut out Talihina in the second half.
But the host team held on for the 10-point win that ended Barnsdall’s season at 7-4.
“I thought we competed well,” said veteran Barnsdall coach Kylee Sweeney, whose program swam against the stream of adversity since prior to spring training last May. “We just had a couple of missed opportunities.”
Not even a deadly tornado, a late offseason assignment by the state from eight-man football to 11-man football and one of the team’s top two players being lost effectively for the season could prevent Barnsdall from marching into the playoffs.
Barnsdall muscled to a 13-8 lead in the first quarter, including a 24-yard touchdown burst by Blaine Miller (followed by Maverick Lanphear’s extra point) and a Miller running in from 15 yards out.
But the Golden Tigers surged back in the second quarter with 22 points and swept into halftime with a 30-13 lead. Talihina did most of its damage in the period on multiple long touchdown passes.
Back in the first quarter, Barnsdall had stopped Talihina on the Barnsdall 10-yard line on a fourth-and-five play.
Barnsdall didn’t even pick up the towel, let alone throw it in.
The Panthers made it a two-score game after James Johnson hauled in a pass from Lanphear, 30-20.
But, that was as close as Barnsdall would close the gap.
A fumble on the 30-yard line cost Barnsdall a golden chance.
Interestingly, during Sweeney’s nine seasons at Barnsdall, the Panthers have qualified seven times for the playoffs — three of their first-round losses have come at the hands of Talihina.
“I think there were a lot of positives there,” Sweeney said about last week’s competitive loss at Talihina. “I thought we battled the No. 1 team very well. We had a lot of opportunities to quit and we didn’t. We always try to play them tough.”
In reflecting on the tumult connected with this season, Sweeney is grateful for how his players — especially his seniors — responded.
Among his departing four-year starters — or would-have-been four-year starters if not for serious injuries — are Lanphear, Johnson, Braden Byers, Brohk Townley, Henry Easley and Easton Malone.
Malone was one of the first items of unfortunate fortune for the Panthers.
Likely one of the top running backs — if not all-around athletes — in Class A-1, Malone was lost for the season due to a wrestling injury last spring. Fittingly, Malone did receive limited clearance to make an appearance and play a few downs at Barnsdall’s Senior Night earlier in November.
But he wasn’t available against Talihina.
Barnsdall head football coach Kylee Sweeney coaches during an earlier season game. The Panthers fell to Talihina, 30-20, to end their playoff hopes.
BECKY BURCH/Bartlesville Area Sports
Around that same time, Sweeney learned the OSSAA had promoted his program from Class B (eight-man) to Class A (11-man). Obviously that was a major tweak being that Sweeney had spent the first several months of the offseason believing his team would be playing in eight-man competition. All of a sudden, with just a few weeks prior to August practice he had to switch gears to get his team ready for an 11-man schedule.
The other massive hardship was something Sweeney — or nobody — could have predicted shortly before it happened or prevented it once it struck.
That was a devastating tornado the first week of May 2024, which left behind a large swath of destruction in Barnsdall and claimed at least two lives. (This was actually the second of two tornados that hit Barnsdall during a five-week period.)
In the aftermath of the May twister, Barnsdall cancelled spring football practice and Sweeney encouraged his players to participate in the community wide cleanup.
The impact continued to be felt throughout the summer by all Barnsdall residents.
The arrival of a new school year and a fall sports season offered positive distractions.
But, in the first two football games, Panther players were injured and had to be carried off by ambulances.
However, the Panther athletes proved resilient and resourceful in their storm of hardships. Somehow — and with a slim roster — Sweeney pieced together a competitive team each week while waiting for injured players to recover.
Barnsdall won seven regular season games and dashed into the playoffs — and came within just two or three big plays of knocking off Talihina.
The Panther program welcomes next season back six starters on both sides of the line, Sweeney said. Impressive physical specimen Lincoln Gott (6-4, 220 pounds) is penciled in at quarterback to fill the gap left by Lanphear’s graduation.
Despite missing an entire season with injury, Lanphear still compiled about 9,000 yards of total offense and approximately 90 touchdowns in his career.
In his first three years, Malone accumulated several thousands of yards of offense, dozens of touchdowns and racked up 30 sacks on defense.
With a full offseason ahead — hopefully minus all the angst and turmoil that defined this past year — Barnsdall should be back in the playoff hunt in the fall of 2025 and be knocking on the door for that elusive playoff win.
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Rejoice Christian 68, NOWATA 8
Despite the rugged ending, Nowata took a step forward by qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2019 and winning three district games.
Bartlesville Area Sports Report was unable to get details on the playoff game.
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Covington-Douglas 56, WESLEYAN CHRISTIAN 0
The WCS Mustangs made a spirited spurt to the playoffs despite struggling to an 0-7 record through three-quarters of the season.
Bartlesville Area Sports Report was unable to get details on the playoff game.