Hornets blast through Haymakers
■ Colcord improves to 11-0, hosts Tonkawa on Friday in the second round.
COLCORD, Okla. — Colcord delivered an early knockout punch to the Haskell Haymakers on Friday night.
Cooper Mott rushed for a 68yard touchdown run on Colcord’s first offensive play and the Hornets were off and running in a 47-0 victory over Haskell in the opening round of the Oklahoma Class A playoffs.
Colcord (11-0), the undefeated District A-7 champions, rushed for 377 yards and piled up 482 yards of offense, while holding the Haymakers to just 183 total yards.
“We just keep trying to improve every week,” said Colcord coach Austin Martin. “We take everything serious in practice — offense, defense, special teams — and we just want to be a complete team.”
Mott, the sophomore running back, rushed for 163 yards on 18 carries and scored two touchdowns. Junior quarterback Gabe Winfield rushed for 133 yards on 10 carries three touchdowns and passed for another touchdown.
Defensively, Colcord forced six Haskell turnovers, intercepting three passes and recovering three fumbles.
Colcord received the opening kickoff and, after a five-yard penalty, Mott went around the left side for the 68-yard touchdown run as Colcord went up 7-0 with 11 minutes, 38 seconds left in the first quarter.
Martin said the quick start was definitely a plus for the Hornets.
“Football’s crazy,” Martin said. “Everything can go your way, or everything can go the other way. So we hope we’re prepared for everything. We want to do our assignment, have effort and play as a team and see where it falls.”
Colcord kicked off to the Haymakers, but the kick went into noman’s land and Colcord’s Treyden Larmon recovered the ball at the 33.
The Hornets’ drove down to the six-yard line, where the drive stalled and Colcord had to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Jesse Martinez.
Colcord’s offense had to punt on its next two possessions, but the second punt was fumbled and Colcord’s Asaskey Pendry recovered at the Haskell 21. On the first play of the second quarter, Winfield threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Larmon with 11:54 left in the half. Winfield ran in the twopoint conversion for an 18-0 lead.
After forcing a Haskell punt, the Colcord offense took over and produced the first of two straight oneplay touchdown drives — both TD runs by Winfield.
The Panthers led 26-22 at halftime after a basket from Hawbaker.
Newman splashed a 3-pointer from the wing to open the second half, the first of 11 straight points from the senior forward.
After Newman knocked down a floater in the lane, the Panthers had their biggest lead of the night at 39-28.
“He was on balance and made some good decisions,” Stewart said of Newman’s big night.
Siloam Springs led 43-34 going into the fourth quarter.
Berryville (0-1) cut the lead to 47-41 in the fourth, but Newman scored back to back baskets to get the margin back up to double digits.
“Offensively we were good in spurts, and you know it’s the typical first game,” Stewart said. “We’re excited to start fixing some of the stuff.”
Stewart said the Panthers had far too many turnovers, something they must fix moving forward.
“Way too many turnovers,” he said. “We’ve got to value the ball a little bit. The pieces are there. It will be fun to get back and start working.”
The Panthers were scheduled to be back in action Tuesday, Nov. 15, at Fayetteville. Results were not available at presstime.
Siloam Springs is scheduled to host Providence Academy at 7;30 p.m. Friday.