Stroud dominated Allen, 50-0, Friday, to win the District A-7 championship and move within a Senior Night win of finishing an unbeaten regular season.
Now 9-0, the Tigers host Mounds Friday night in the final regular-season home game for this year’s seniors.
“As a coach, you get close to each group that comes up through your program,” said coach Chris Elerick. “You get attached to them in a way that is hard to explain.
“And this group is even more so: having your own come up through the program has been a great experience.
“I have been around these guys for a long, long time — this Senior Night will be a little bit emotional, for sure.
“From little league through middle school and now their high school years, this group has walked the walk onto this field so many times.
“From games to practices to being the little kid on the sideline — this group has lived Stroud football.
“They have accomplished quite a bit, but I think a lot of that comes from the struggles we had when they were freshmen and sophomores during some tough seasons.
“That put a chip on their shoulder, I have no doubt. Over the past two seasons we are a combined 20-2, with two district championships and a quarterfinals appearance.”
As district champions, the Tigers will be back at Jack Poskey Field next week to host the first round of the playoffs against the No. 4 tream in District 8A, which is likely to be Warner.
AgainstAllen, the Tigers continued flexing the offensive muscles they have shown the second half of the season.
After winning their two closest games — against Wayne and Wewoka — they finished off the “W” portion of their schedule by thumping Wynnewood, 50-9.
Since then, their final scores have been 60-6, 58-1 and 50-0.
Elerick said the offensive outburst has been due to a combination of things.
“First, I’d say as a team we are continuing to improve each week,” he said.
Davenport made official what was almost a foregone conclusion.
The Bulldogs beat Olive 48-zip and will finish first in District B-7, no matter what happens when they play Yale on Friday.
The Bulldogs are undefeated in district and the only teams who could tie them would be Prue and Depew, who play Friday. Davenport has already beaten both of them.
The victory lifted the Bulldogs to a 7-2 record for the season.
It was their third shutout in four games and their fourth in six. The only team to score on them since early October was Prue, which found the end zone once a week ago.
There were several defensive stars.
-Houston Byford had six tackles and a fumble recovery.
- Casey Harrelson had six tackles.
- Zion Ward had four tackles and caused a fumble.
- Campbell Miller had four tackles.
- Colton Vanfossen had four tackles.
- Joseph Acord had four tackles.
- Wyatt Cross had two tackles, a fumble recovery and a sack.
Offensively, the Bulldogs were efficient and spread out their touches.
Tyloer Harrison led the offense with 63 yards and added two conversion runs.
Carson Funk had a touchdown run and two conversions, Kyle Hobill had a touchdown run, Miller and Vanfossen had a score each and Cole Yancy two touchdowns, one on a run and one on a kickoff return.
Stroud’s Alyssa DeLeon and Katlyn Hughey have been named to the Oklahoma Fastpitch Coaches Association All-State team They will represent the Small East team at the All-State games, which will be June 6 at Oklahoma Christian University and will be joined by teammates Janay Cline, Terra Mitchell and Kailea Coleman as alternates.
The team’s pitching and catcher, respectively, DeLeon and Hughey led the Lady Tigers to a 27-5 record and berth in the Class 2A state tournament.
“The All-State selection process is extremely difficult,” said Stroud coach Lezli Robinson. “You have to have really good numbers, and these two obviously showed that they had those, but more importantly they were the backbone of our team all year long.
“It starts with pitching and catching in fast pitch. Don’t get me wrong — you have to have good quality people to play defense behind you and you have to score runs. But how well you have to do that and how many you have to score is all determined by your pitching and catching. Kat and Alyssa are two of the best to ever do it here, and making All-State is a testament to that.”
Robinson cited a couple of examples that illustrate the leadership of DeLeon and Hughey and what they meant to the Lady Tigers. One was against Class 3A power Sulphur and the other was against Meeker in the 66 Conference tournament.
Sulphur made the Class 3A state tournament and was one of the biggest challenges in Stroud’s early-season and was ranked No. 3 when the teams met in the Cushing tournament in the middle of August.
“Sulphur was a very good team,” Robinson said. “They had lefty slappers, who are very hard to get out, and were speedy on the bases, but Kat and Alyssa’s game-plan on those guys did not let them get on base very often and, when they did, to throw them out.
“Our backs were against the wall against the hardest opponent we’d faced to that point. We kept getting them out and it defined, collectively in general, who we were going to be.”
Stroud won, 4-2, with Coleman’s second-inning homer with two outs and Hughey and Cline aboard being the decisive hit.
The Meeker game was in the second round of the conference tournament. Meeker led 4-0 and 5-4 before Stroud took a 6-5 lead. Meeker tied it at 6-6 in the bottom six, sending the game into extra innings.
“It was back and forth, back and forth,” Robinson said. “They’d score and we’d answer. Alyssa just kept on keeping on and we ended up finding a way to win.
“Then the play at the plate where they tried to squeeze and Kat knowing that was coming and what pitch to call spoke volumes.”
The coaches call the pitches from the dugout on most fastpitch teams, but Robinson has trusted Hughey to do that the past two years and said it has been one of the ingredients in the Lady Tigers’ success.
“She assured me she was going to do it the right way, and she did,” Robinson said. “We got on the same wave length and Alyssa liked that a little bit better. Alyssa is a fast worker so it was better for her getting in a rhythm.”