marie@pvdemocrat.com — The weather may be cool Friday night but the heat will be on as area schools jockey for playoffs.

With the first half of the season in the books and everyone in the state now into district action, wins are precious and hard to come by especially in the four tough districts that represent Garvin County.

Pauls Valley, Stratford and Wynnewood are all undefeated in district play. Paoli and Lindsay both have one loss and Elmore City-Pernell and Maysville are both winless in district action.



3A-4

Lone Grove at Pauls Valley

The top two teams in the district face off Friday night at Thompson Field in Pauls Valley. Both Pauls Valley and Lone Grove are undefeated in district action and the winner will get the upper hand with only four games remaining.

Lone Grove has district wins over Atoka and Sulphur while Pauls Valley has wins over Purcell and Dickson.

Offensively, Aaron Sinkler and Jaz Long have been the workhorses for the Longhorns. Sinkler had 13 carries last week in a 38-7 win over Atoka while Long had 125 yards on 19 carries in a 24-14 win over Sulphur.

Long was playing receiver for the Longhorns but had to switch to quarterback due to an injury to Justice Ruhnke.

Kade Ridley and Justin Harris anchor the Longhorns offensive and defensive lines.

J.C. Eyabi is questionable this week on playing this week for the Panthers after going out early in the game last week against Dickson.

Manny Colmenares and Jake Hamilton helped pick up the slack that was left by the Panthers leading rusher.



A-5

Wynnewood at Elmore-Pernell

For the third straight week the Elmore City-Pernell Badgers will be facing a team out of district A-5 that begins with a ’W.’

The Badgers are looking to change the ‘W’ in Wynnewood to a win for the Badgers as they have lost three straight games, two in district play.

The task will not be an easy one as Wynnewood comes into the game as the No.1 team in Class A.

The Savages have several weapons including one of the state’s top backs in Trey Knowles. He has 602 yards and 9 touchdowns in four games. Curtis Rushing as added 323 yards and 4touchdowns.

Jace Brown leads the passing game with 541 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Brown’s favorite target has been Pete Carter with 250 yards receiving and Levi Phillips with 189 yards receiving.

Defensively, Wynnewood has given up only 12 points in four games, all 12 of those coming in the season opener against Sulphur. The Savages have three straight shut outs to the credit.

Elmore-Pernell has several weapons that can exploit any defense. Last week the turnover bug kept them from getting on track against Wewoka.



Wayne at Stratford

The surprise of A-5 the Stratford Bulldogs will have their hands full Friday night as the No. 2 team in Class A the Wayne Bulldogs visit Blackburn Field in Stratford.

Wayne is 5-0 on the season and is led offensively by Louden Johnson and Sam Martin. The two have combined for nearly 1,300 yards in total offense.

Johnson has 485 yards rushing and 7 touchdowns while Martin has 450 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns and as also thrown for 340 yards and five touchdowns.

The offense averages over 40 points per game.

The Wayne defense is equally as tough giving up just over 13 points per game.

Johnson leads the defensive charge also with 36 tackles. Lane Shepherd is tough up front and has five sacks to his credit.

The Stratford Bulldogs have been a bit of a surprise in the district with a 4-1 record overall.

Stratford has potent duo in the backfield also with Dakota Noland and Randy Brown.

The Stratford pair has 1,150 yards in total offense between them. Noland has rushed for nearly 600 yards while Brown had over 450 yards passing and 100 yards rushing.

Isaac Miller has been a mainstay of the Stratford defense with a team leading 42 tackles. Kyle Wright has added 33 and Noland 32.



Maysville at Cashion

The Maysville Warriors road just seems to get tougher each week. After facing No. 1 Wynnewood this past week, the Warriors are on the road to No. 5 Cashion this week in a non-district game.

Cashion has one of the best quarterbacks in the state in T.J. Reason and his 1,200 yards passing and 15 touchdowns. He has three good targets in Joe Neece, Peyton Marony and T.J. Martin.

Martin is also Cashion’s leading ground gainer with 423 yards.



B-2

Fox at Paoli

Paoli picked up a huge win last week knocking off top 15 Central 48-46. The Pugs will now host the No. 4 team in Class B the Fox Foxes.

Fox has been a terror all season on both sides of the football. They have scored almost 50 points per game while giving up only 10.

Paoli has really started to play well the last couple of weeks and will need a good game this week to knock off their second straight ranked opponent.