By Mike Moguin
Millwood photograph by Michael Kinney
There will likely be an abundance of skill and strength on each side when Washington and Oklahoma City Millwood meet Saturday afternoon within the Class 2A state championship.
The sport is scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Chad Richison Stadium, positioned on the University of Central Oklahoma campus in Edmond.
Washington (14-0), ranked fourth within the SBLive Oklahoma ballot, is coached by Brad Beller, who’s in his seventh season with the Warriors, whereas No. 12 Millwood (13-1) is led by Darwin Franklin, now in his tenth yr teaching for the Falcons.
This is not going to be the primary time these two groups have met to play for a title. They squared off for the 2A title in 2017, with Millwood rolling in a 42-7 rout.
But that was 5 years in the past. Those gamers have graduated and gone and the present gamers had been in center college at the moment.
Washington has since performed for 2 championships, having misplaced each the final two years. It returns to the Class 2A ultimate for a 3rd straight season with hopes to return away with the title after developing brief the final two seasons.
The Warriors misplaced in a high-scoring battle in opposition to Metro Christian, 48-37, in 2020. Then got here a 17-13 loss to Marlow final yr.
“It’s very special any time you get a chance to play for a state title,” Beller stated. “It’s very meaningful and I don’t think it can ever get old.
“I know a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, you get there and you haven’t won the last three meetings, would you rather not go?’ No. I would rather be playing for it all; that shows the consistency in our program and our kids and how hard they work to get there, and it’s not easy. To get back there for a third consecutive time and a fourth time in six years means a lot to the people in our community, and I know it definitely means a lot to our kids.”
Meanwhile, Millwood is again within the large sport since profitable the gold ball in ‘17.
“It really means a lot,” Franklin stated. “It means we’ve accomplished another goal we’ve set out to do. We reevaluate them every week.
“Once we knew we were going to be in the playoffs, our goal was just to win one game every week, and now, here we are. We have that opportunity.”
Looking on the key skill gamers for every workforce, Washington has quarterback Major Cantrell and operating again Cole Scott, who mixed for seven touchdowns within the Warriors’ 49-14 win in opposition to Jones in a semifinal sport final week.
Millwood was led by the efforts of Rickey Hunt Jr., Micho Lavine, C.J. Turnbull, and Xzavier Thompson in a 54-22 romp against Tulsa Victory Christian in the other semifinal. Defensive back Will Mays also returned an interception 68 yards for a TD last week.
Both teams have been on a similar pattern en route to the state final. They began their seasons with close battles, then cruised through the bulk of it with blowouts, or at least that’s what the score showed according to both coaches, then encountered close games in the playoffs.
Washington opened with a 39-24 win against Vian in Week Zero, then barely beat Sulphur, 27-25, its smallest margin of victory this season, in Week 1.
The Warriors would go on to win their next 14 of 15 games, including playoffs, by an average of 28.9 points. The one game that was close was an 18-11 win against Oklahoma Christian in the second round of the playoffs.
The journey for Millwood had one difference. The Falcons opened with a 35-28 loss to eventual Class 3A state champions OKC Heritage Hall in their season opener, but there have been no blemishes since.
They responded with a 45-0 rout against OKC Douglass in Week 2, followed by a 30-20 win against Scott City (Kansas) Scott. Then came a streak of blowout wins, except for prevailing 34-29 against Crossings Christian in round one of the playoffs.
In all other games, including the early-season win against Douglass, Millwood has won by an average of 38.9 points.
But neither coach takes those stats seriously when preparing for an opponent. They’ll tell you the games were closer than the score.
“You would think, if you were 14-0 and won a lot of games by a large margin, that it was easy and it hasn’t been,” Beller stated. “We’ve had a lot of injuries this year. At one point, we had seven starters out and that’s tough for a 2A school.
“The adversity has made us stronger. Even when some of the scores might have looked bad, what we had to overcome was very difficult.”
“Every game is a challenge,” Franklin stated. “The points don’t tell the story. Every week, every opponent is tough.
“We didn’t have an easy schedule. We had to constantly come out and execute and perform. We didn’t have any easy games.”
Besides the efforts of their skill-position gamers, the important thing end result will probably come all the way down to the trenches between the offensive and defensive traces.
“You got to be disciplined with your technique,” Beller stated. “The way you have to beat the speed and the big plays they have, you have to play good technique.
“If you don’t play good technique and you aren’t disciplined, that’s when teams are going to have success. So, we have to be consistent with what we are doing.”
“They (Washington) are the litmus test,” Franklin stated. “What we have now to do is go in and attempt to match their power and we’ll have an opportunity.”
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