The Stroud Tigers finished up the first half of their regular season on a roll, beating Meeker, 54-8, Friday night and establishing themselves as the team to beat in District 2A-II-1.
The Tigers are 2-0 in district now and 4-1 for the season.
Meeker stands at 1-4 for the year and 0-2 in league play. Stroud makes the long road to Alva for this week’s game, while Meeker will host Hennessey for Homecoming.
TheTigers’five remaining regular season opponents areacombined9-16, but coach Josh Presley said theTigers can’t afford to look at that.
“It doesn’t matter who we play,” he said. “We have to work on getting better.
“Keep on working on ourselves and don’t get complacent. Don’t get bored with the process. “
Stroud mostly kept the ball on the ground against Meeker, running 22 times for 248 yards and five scores.
London Ward was the leading carrier with 74 yards and a score on four carries. Jessen Leathers had 55 yards on two carries.
“We didn’t rack up a lot of yards,” Presley said. “We had several interceptions and a lot of short fields to work with.
“Jacob Beck had three interceptions and returned one for a touchdown. Trystan Baker had a standout game at linebacker. Chalen Morris had a good game at linebacker.
“Caleb Aylor on offensive line had a good game. He has a little nastiness about him.”
Presley had special praise for the Tigers’ special teams.
“Our kids have bought into special teams and taken pride in that,” he said. “We’ve returned three or four punts for TDs. They believe they can score at any time.”