Adair’s next in the semifinals
Quarterback Jeremiah Cropp and receiver Aiden Collins connected on back-to-back touchdown passes in the second quarter, changing the momentum of the game and lifting Stroud to a 49-14 win over Wyandotte in the state quarterfinals Friday night.
The Bears had taken a 14-6 lead and had things going their way after scoring on the first play of the second period. But on the first play after the kickoff, Cropp hit Collins with a 63-yard catch-andrun for a touchdown that tied the game at 14-14.
Then Stroud’s defense bowed up and forced the Bears to punt on their next possession. The snap on the punt was too high and punter Hunter White couldn’t get the kick away and Stroud tackled him on the Bears’ 27-yard line.
On the next play, Cropp and Collins struck again, connecting for a touchdown pass and Jessen Leathers booted the extra point to make it 21-14.
In less than three minutes, the Tigers went from eight points down to seven ahead.
“It was a wild game,” head coach Josh Presley said. “I’ve never in my life been more stressed in a 35-point victory.”
The win lifted the Tigers into the Class 2A-II state semifinals against unbeaten Adair at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 at Ponca City High School.
The break in the playoffs is a first from the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association and was a welcome change for Presley.
“It gives us two weeks to prepare for Adair and Adair has two weeks to prepare for us,” he said. “I welcome the idea. It’s something new and I’ve never been a part of it.
“I am looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner and not being stressed about Adair the next day. That’s a welcome change.”
The final score turned out to be a comfortable win for the Tigers, but it was anything bur a foregone conclusion in the first half.
Stroud scored first on a nine-yard run by London Ward on the Tigers’ first possession, but Jacob Beck - the Tigers’s leading rusher and an emotional leader on defense - was ejected from the game after a targeting penalty less than five minutes into the first quarter.
Wyandotte scored on its next two possessions and appeared to be taking control of the game.
But Cropp and Collins turned that around and the Tigers began capitalizing on Wyandotte’s mistakes in the kicking and passing game.
Cropp picked off a pass at the Stroud 23 and returned it to the Wyandotte 35 midway through the second quarter.
Three plays later he hit Collins in stride down the east sideline to put Stroud up 27-14, and then passed to him again for a 34-yard catch-and-run to make it 33-14.
After halftime, the Bears fumbled a punt that Ward pounced on at the Wyandotte 35.
Trystan Baker paid that off with a touchdown run moments later, and Stroud led, 41-14, with 6:42 remaining in the third quarter.
At the end of the quarter, Wyandotte’s punter slipped and downed himself at the 23-yard line, giving the Tigers the ball at point-blank range.
Leathers converted it into a 3-yard touchdown run and ran for the twopoint conversion to push the lead to 49-14.
During the tense part of the first quarter, Presley said, the message to the team was: stay the course. “Keep on fighting,” he said. “We’re going to shuffle some kids around.
“In small school football, you have 24 or 25 dudes on the team. That’s just part of small school football. Keep on fighting and don’t let up and we’ll get it right. And we did, and found a way to make plays.
“I’m proud of them.”
Now comes Adair, which has won 12 in a row since falling to Davis by three points in the quarterfinals last year. A week later, Davis beat Stroud in the semifinals.
The Warriors advanced to this year’s semifinals by clipping Holdenville, 20-14, at home last week.