Tigers make playoffs for first time in six years
NORMAN – After six years in the football wilderness, after three straight one-win seasons, the Norman Tigers still believed, and that faith became sight for them on Friday night at Harve Collins Field.
Quarterback Cade Horton outshone his ballyhooed Edmond Santa Fe counterpart, completing 17 of 28 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns and running for another score to lead Norman to a 31-20 win over the Wolves, securing the Tigers their first Class 6A postseason berth since 2012.
Norman (6-4, 4-3 6AI-1) finished third in its district and will play at Owasso, while Santa Fe (7-3, 4-3) now will have to play at Tulsa Union in the quarterfinals.
“It’s a big deal,” Norman coach Rocky Martin said. “These guys have been battling all season long, and with where we’ve come from, hats off to the senior group and the entire team. That’s the thing with these boys – they’ve been believing all season long, even when we started off 0-2 in district. They never quit. They never gave up. They continued to come out and practice and prepare to win every week. It says a lot about their character.
The Tigers had every answer for Santa Fe’s ferocious defensive line – one of the state’s best – and for the Wolves’ ace quarterback, Kanan Hansen, who completed 18 of 39 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. The second one, to Trace Ford (who had five catches for 107 yards) was a 48-yarder with 7:52 left and put Santa Fe ahead 20-17.
Suddenly, Norman’s offense – which hadn’t reached the end zone since the first quarter – came alive. The Tigers drove 74 yards – overcoming two major penalties along the way – and went back ahead 24-20 on a 51-yard touchdown pass from Horton to Jonah Paden with 5:42 left.
Santa Fe went threeand-out and Norman marched 63 yards – aided by a key pass interference call against the Wolves – and sealed the win with 1:46 left on another Horton-to-Paden connection, this one covering 27 yards.
Paden caught five passes for 128 yards while Tyler Crump had seven catches for 74 yards. Norman junior tailback Joe Willie carried 21 times for 117 hard-earned yards. Norman rolled up 464 yards of offense and needed most of them, as Santa Fe finished with 414 yards.
Horton “is the real deal,” Martin said. “When you watch football, you watch big-time quarterbacks … and big-time quarterbacks are guys who are able to extend plays, and that’s what Cade Horton does. You see guys on Saturday doing the same thing he’s doing Friday night. He’s extending plays with his feet, keeping his eyes downfield, and our receivers are getting open and the offensive line is giving him time and putting the ball where it needs to go.”
James Stevenson scored from the 50 on a fake punt on the Wolves’ first possession, but Norman answered with a 68-yard scoring march, capped by a 4-yard run by Horton to tie the game.
Another long-distance play – a 53-yard pass from Hansen to Braden Reichert – put Santa Fe back up 13-7 before Norman’s Grady Wade booted a 38-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter. Norman’s Gunnar Luna had two first-half interceptions, the last one on the final play, and he returned it 77 yards before being forced out of bounds at the Santa Fe 5-yard line.
Andrew Young returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers their first lead at 17-13.