FOOTBALL: Crawford, Grove overpower Claremore

Oct. 2—Jarrett Hurt was as animated as he's ever been.

The seventh-year Claremore football coach could barely contain his excitement when Zane Hepler executed a well-placed onside kick, which was recovered by Caydon Sport and the Zebras just moments after quarterback Braxton Etheridge tied Grove at 14 on a 1-yard sneak.

Claremore capitalized nearly four minutes later when Etheridge capped a 59-yard drive with a 14-yard touchdown strike to Eli Rodgers, giving the home team a seven-point lead over Class 5A No. 7 Grove with 2:01 remaining in the first quarter.

"We've worked it all week long," Hurt said of the onside kick. "We saw a weakness that we thought we could take advantage of, and our kicker executed it perfectly. Anyway, big momentum play for us. We wanted to go back and score and see if we could steal a possession, which is what we did right there."

Momentum was squarely on the Zebras' side on Homecoming Night, but like many great teams do, the Ridgerunners responded with authority.

They stayed the course and dominated the remainder of the game behind Emmanuel Crawford and his 339 total yards and five touchdowns, outscoring Claremore 49-7 through the final 36 minutes — including 28-0 in the second quarter — while forcing four turnovers on the way to a 63-28 victory in District 5A-4 action Friday night at Lantow Field.

Crawford rushed for 305 yards and touchdown runs of 51, 70, 3 and 20 yards on 18 carries — 16.9 ypc — while also catching two passes for 34 yards and a score, helping the Ridgerunners rack up 369 yards rushing and 555 yards total.

It was only the seventh time in their 115-season history the Zebras have surrendered 60 or more points, with Broken Arrow being the last team to reach the milestone against them with a 62-7 win in 2008.

Grove's 63 points is tied with 2005 Owasso for the third-most points ever scored against Claremore. Only Tulsa Central — 73 points in 1913 — and Wagoner — 68 points in 1921 — have scored more.

The Zebras (3-2, 1-1 District 5A-4) had given up only 77 points through their first four games this season. The Ridgerunners (5-0, 2-0) came into the matchup averaging 41.8 points per game and left with their highest-scoring outing since a 72-26 decision over Stilwell in 2016.

Claremore had seemingly solidified its momentum with the first defensive stop for either team after the Etheridge-Rodgers connection, forcing a punt and taking over at the Grove 47-yard line.

However, that is when things took a turn for the worse.

The Zebras turned the ball over on downs at the 27, and Carson Trimble tied the score shortly thereafter when he found a wide-open Hagen Hacker for a 38-yard touchdown pass.

Claremore pinned the Ridgerunners at their 10 with a 28-yard punt the ensuing possession, but that was no problem for Crawford, who found room around the left side on the fourth play of the drive and easily outran the defense on the way to a 70-yard touchdown run that gave Grove a 28-21 lead with 5:38 remaining in the first half.

The senior running back had 185 yards rushing by halftime with a whopping 20.6 yards per carry.

"I told Channel 2 (KJRH-TV) the other day that he's electric," Hurt said. "I think everybody saw that tonight; he's pretty electric with the ball in his hands. Great player, great young man, great kid. I give him credit, he made a lot of big plays tonight."

Things only got worse from there as Hacker followed up with an interception of Etheridge before catching a 31-yard scoring toss from Trimble four plays later on fourth down, increasing the cushion to 35-21 at the 2:51 mark.

Trimble then scrambled 14 yards for another score with 0:28 remaining to make it a 42-21 spread at halftime.

The senior quarterback completed 13 of 18 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns while also managing 11 yards rushing despite getting sacked three times in the first half. His favorite target was Hacker, who recorded five receptions for 99 yards and two scores.

Hurt said the turnover on downs deep in Grove territory served as the unfortunate turning point.

"We had a chance to go up 28-14 on a drive or two and weren't able to get it done," said Hurt, whose team was held to 75 yards rushing on 35 carries (2.1 ypc). "I felt like we really had a chance right there to take all the momentum, and we didn't do that. They did; give them credit. They're a pretty good football team. I think most people here tonight would agree with that. They took advantage of their opportunities. And then at the end of the second quarter, we didn't do a good enough job on offense of keeping the ball and taking care of the ball. We gave it back to them too many times right there. Of course, they capitalize and made us pay for it.

"We gotta do a better job closing out the half in terms of using the clock and keeping possession of the ball."

The Zebras needed only 73 seconds to find the end zone on the opening drive of the second half with Etheridge hitting Gage Deckard from 25 yards out, but that was the last bright spot for the offense.

Their final six possessions went as follows:

Punt

Fumble (returned 50 yards for a touchdown by Brayden Casey, 3Q 3:11)

Interception

Fumble

Punt

Punt

In addition to Casey's scoop-and-score, Crawford scored twice during that span on a 3-yard run with 5:16 remaining in the third and a 20-yarder at the 9:13 mark of the fourth.

Etheridge finished with 283 yards and two touchdowns on 26-of-35 passing, completing his first nine throws. Deckard was the leading receiver with 185 yards on seven receptions, and Rodgers co-led the team in catches alongside him with seven for 46 yards.

The first quarter looked like the makings of a shootout, with the first five possessions resulting in touchdowns.

The Ridgerunners made their opening drive of the game look easy, marching 75 yards in five plays as Trimble found Crawford for a 37-yard score with 10:11 remaining in the quarter.

Claremore responded quickly, though, covering 67 yards on three plays in only 42 seconds after a 56-yard halfback pass from Rodgers to Deckard set up a 3-yard Micah Teel touchdown burst at the 9:29 mark.

Crawford showed off his agility exactly one minute of gameplay later, dancing around tacklers before dashing 51 yards untouched for a score on third down to give Grove a 14-7 edge.

The Zebras responded with another speedy drive that included a 47-yard pass from Etheridge to Deckard, followed by a 1-yard quarterback sneak two plays later.

Claremore recovered the ensuing onside kick and used the momentous play to take a 28-21 lead before Grove ultimately handed it a 35-point defeat, its worst loss since falling 42-6 to Carl Albert in the 2018 Class 5A state quarterfinals.

Hurt said there are many positives moving forward, though, as the Zebras shift their focus to rival Pryor for the Battle of Highway 20. The Tigers are 0-5 and have scored only 59 points — 11.8 ppg.

"That's what I told our guys," Hurt said. "Shoot, we're only halfway done. I think we can make something really special this season. We have a special group of kids, and I'm looking forward to the back half of it.

"We get a chance to go play our archrival next week on Friday night, and we're looking forward to the challenge."