Murray Talks 3A Playoffs

Happy Monday Folks!  It’s playoff time in Oklahoma.  It’s time for some real football.  It’s time for the OSSAA to find out who the best private school in the state is, in what they call the 3A playoffs.  To make the 3A playoffs as a public school, you are a great team.  The only exceptions to this are the teams lucky enough to have played in 3A-2 (more on this in section 3A-2 below).  Cupcake season is over.  The Chizzum’s, Mannford’s, NRC’s, MSM’s are all done.  They are getting fitted for their headbands today so they can start free throw practice this afternoon.   Below, I will break down the final district standings and let you know how the first round will shake out.  Let’s dive right in.

3A-1:  This district finished as projected for the most part.  1stplace went to a Metro Christian team that has a very good chance to win it all.  Perkins-Tryon (football team, not restaurant), took advantage of home field advantage (by that I mean home town officials), to squeak by Kingfisher to get the #2 spot.  Kingfisher finishes 3rd and Anadarko 4th.  That means that Metro and Perkins will be at home this week, while Kingfisher and Anadarko hit the road.  I project 3 wins for this district in the first round.

1. Metro Christian (W)

2. Perkins-Tryon (W)

3. Kingfisher (W)

4. Anadarko (L)

3A-2:  As mentioned above, this district is the weakest of the four in 3A.  Heritage Hall, who was not as good as they traditionally are, was still able to finish in 1st with a 7-0 record.  The next five teams were all mediocre at best and took turns beating each other.  You will have to read my previous award winning article “3A Playoff Outlook Going Into Week 10” to see how tight it was and how it came down to three games in week 10 to determine district standings.  I project 1 win for this district in week 1.

1. Heritage Hall (W)

2. Lone Grove (L)

3. Marlow (L)

4. Pauls Valley (L)

3A-3:  The favorite to win the 3A state championship took care of business in district 3 this year.  They started district play with a 14-7 win over Berryhill.  After that game, they outscored theremaining district competition 266-7.  Either the rest of this district sucks, or they are that good.  I’m leaning towards both statements being true.  The next three teams tied for 2nd with 4-2 records.  Unfortunately for them, they play 3A-4 in the first round, which means I only see 1 win for this district in the first round.

1. Lincoln Christian (W)

2. Stigler (37 MPts) (L)

3. Muldrow (31 MPts) (L)

4. Berryhill (30 MPts) (L)

3A-4:​Finally, we have district 4, which will probably cause some “Special Meetings” at the OSSAA over the next few months.  A PUBLIC SCHOOL WON THIS DISTRICT!!!  That’s right, Verdigris ruined all of OSSAA’s plans.  They were lucky enough to get Holland Hall before the shopping trip (keep reading), combined with a head-to-head win over Cascia Hall to claim this district.  Now, let me tell you a little about Holland Hall.  They started the season 0-5 (0-2 in district) and decided they didn’t like that.  If you didn’t know, Holland Hall is centrally located between Tulsa Memorial, Tulsa Union, Bixby & Jenks.  Not a bad circle of friends.  When you are Holland Hall and are having a subpar season, what do you do?  I can only assume you call four check books, aka alumni, and send one in each direction on a shopping spree.  Here’s a breakdown of Holland Hall’s season before and after the shopping spree.

1. First 5:  0-5 while being outscored 29 to 157

2. Last 5:  5-0 while outscoring opponents 178 to 17

Rounding out this district, you have Bristow, who is a very good team, but was unlucky enough to be put in this district.  I believe they would have a shot at a win or two in the playoffs, if they would not have finished at #4 here, which lands them a first round game at Lincoln Christian.  I project 3 wins for this district in round 1.

1. Verdigris (W)

2. Cascia Hall (W)

3. Holland Hall (W)

4. Bristow (W)

ROUND 1 MATCHUPS:

D1-1 Metro Christian vs. D2-4 Pauls Valley - Metro has no problem in a blow out win in week 1.

D4-2 Cascia Hall vs. D3-3 Muldrow - Cascia Hall with a comfortable win.

D3-1 Lincoln Christian vs. D4-4 Bristow – Lincoln Christian big

D2-2 Lone Grove vs. D1-3 Kingfisher – Kingfisher wins on the road.

D2-1 Heritage Hall vs. D1-4 Anadarko – HH wears down the Warriors and wins comfortably

D3-2 Stigler vs. D4-3 Holland Hall – Holland Hall joins Kingfisher as the only two teams to get a road win in week 1.

D4-1 Verdigris vs. D3-4 Berryhill – Verdigris wins, but closer than expected.

D1-2 Perkins vs. D2-3 Marlow – Perkins uses their homegrownofficials to escape yet again.

McLoud and North Rock Creek are no longer with us, so let’s do a little math.  If it all shakes out the way I project, (it will, don’t worry), 8 teams will still be alive next week.  Of those 8, there will be 5 private schools and 3 public, with two of the public schools playing each other in week 2.  That means there is a maximum of two public school teams that will have a shot at the semi-finals.  I’m pretty sure that is more than the OSSAA anticipated.  I truly believe that they were expecting Holland Hall to get their shopping done before district play started, so they could have won district 4 and finish where Verdigris sits.  That would have set up the semi-finals as Christian vs. Christian and Hall vs. Hall.  (Metro vs. Lincoln and Heritage vs. Holland).  But, since Holland was late to the party, they will have to play Heritage in the 2nd round, giving Verdigris an easy road to the Semi’s (Berryhill & Perkins).

Stay tuned as I will breakdown Lone Grove later in the week as they prepare to host the Kingfisher Jackets in a tough week 1 matchup.  If any Lone Grove Shorthorns happen upon this article, there’s no need to wait for my next article, you can go ahead and get your headband measurements.