LHS, Ike face tough road test as district action begins

Now comes the serious part of the high school football season, beginning Friday just about every team in Oklahoma will begin competing in district games and that’s when things become interesting in a hurry.

For some of the Southwest Oklahoma teams, there is no easy path to that first district victory as some club must go against powerhouse programs in their openers. Marlow wastes little time getting a challenge as Lindsay comes to Outlaws Stadium Friday for a big District 2A-2 battle with Lindsay.

Apache has another tough assignment, having to go to Mangum to face the 3-0 Tigers. Cache opens on the road at Elk City in a tough Class 4A battle but the good news the Bulldogs should have starting quarterback Canden Hance back at the helm.

While the season hasn’t started well for 0-3 Lawton High School, the Wolverines head to Noble to face the Bears who have struggled to an 0-3 start. But for Eisenhower there is no easy opponent as the Eagles visit Stillwater to face the Pioneers who are 2-1 and ranked No. 2 in Class 6AII.

OK, so we’ve put this off long enough, now it’s time to see just what the old prognosticator can come up with this week to keep the momentum going after a 10-1 effort last week that boosted the season numbers to 32-14, a 69.6 percent mark which looks good after a miserable first two weeks. For the record, MacArthur and Empire are on their bye week and will not be playing.

Here are this week’s picks and remember, home teams are in all-capital letters and the x-before games designates a district game:

Thursday’s game

CYRIL 38, Snyder 13—Pirates will be tough at home as they try and gain some momentum heading into district play next week.

Friday’s games

x-STILLWATER 26, Eisenhower 14—Pioneers have a strong offensive unit and while the Eagles will have some of its top weapons back this week, we don’t see them pulling off a road upset.

x-Lawton High 27, NOBLE 13—Just a hunch. The Bears lost most of their best offensive players and this should be a game where some of the Wolverines will showcase their skills and make some explosive plays.

x-ELK CITY 21, Cache 17—Cache will play good defense but the big question will be whether or not they can move the football consistently.

x-Elgin 56, WOODWARD 7—Owls are good, really good and the Boomers are going the wrong direction. Expect all 53 members of the Owls’ travel delegation to see plenty of action.

x-Altus 21, EL RENO 20—This seems to be one of the better matchups this week and we see the Bulldogs being just a tad better on offense.

X-Duncan 27, NEWCASTLE 12—We’ve seen both teams and the Racers won’t be able to control Duncan quarterback Sawyer Rice. And, Newcastle quarterback Jackson Schanuel went out of last week’s loss at Elgin and if he’s not available the Demons will surely be favored to get the win.

x-Anadarko 26, STAR-SPENCER 14—Warriors are off to a 3-0 start and they are playing well on both sides of the ball. Getting a road district win would be a big deal.

x-MARLOW 28, Lindsay 7—Outlaws have played a tough schedule which has toughened this bunch up for the challenges to come.

x-MINCO 32, Frederick 7—Minco has a good club while the Bombers are just wanting to find a way to get a win.

x-COMANCHE 14, Tishomingo 12—When conventional thinking and all else fails, pick the home team.

x-MANGUM 30, Apache 20—Warriors have had trouble getting the ball in the end zone after the graduation of talented Dom Scott. District AII-1 is going to be tough to predict with several good teams but at 3-0 Mangum appears to be for real.

x-Thomas 32, CARNEGIE 6—Thomas sitting 3-0 while the Wildcats are 0-3. Enough said.

x-Walters 27, CHRISTIAN HERITAGE 6—Coach Faron Griffin has brought back the “Code Blue” and his players have gone all in. We see a 4-0 start for the Blue Devils.

x-THACKERVILLE 42, Central High 27—Not sure about this one but we’re going with the home-field edge.

x-Grandfield 20, MT. VIEW-GOTEBO 18—Here is another toss-up as we see it but Mt. View-Gotebo has had trouble stopping teams and that’s never a good thing.

x-Corn Bible 36, TEMPLE 6—CBA just has the edge on both sides of the ball in this one.

x-Tipton 54, Bray-Doyle 0—Tigers will have little trouble extending their win streak.

Last week: 10-1, 90.9 percent. Season: 32-14, 69.6 percent.