Stillwater thwarts Choctaw for first state title in 55 years

Dec. 3—EDMOND — Stillwater High football coach Tucker Barnard took two steps forward, two steps back and then stopped. With his hands on his hips, he wanted to see it with his own eyes.

A few seconds later, immediately following Pioneers quarterback Gage Gundy taking a knee to put a bow on the 26-21 win over Choctaw in the Class 6A-II title game on Friday afternoon at Chad Richison Stadium, Barnard received the Gatorade bath he's been waiting on for nearly 12 years.

That's what almost dropped him to his knees. Barnard matched the players' jubilation for his first few steps onto the field. Then he stopped, hunched over and let it all out.

"I wasn't ready, honestly. I wasn't ready," Barnard said before choking up. "It was just kind of a rush of emotions, man. It's an emotion dump right now. You put in a lot."

The 5-point triumph marked Stillwater's first Gold Ball since 1967, rewarding a storied program that's had its fair share of success since, and before, Barnard took over prior to the 2011 season.

Throughout all of the trials and tribulations, the Pioneers, once again, are able to call themselves champions.

"I've been praying for this for probably 14 weeks now," said Gundy, a senior. "And it came true."

The Pioneers (13-0) overcame their slowest start of the season to eventually get rolling. At the end of the first quarter, Stillwater's offense had run 10 plays for a total of 31 yards.

Those struggles continued deep — almost too deep — into the second quarter. And then, facing a 7-0 deficit in the waning moments of the first half, the Pioneers dialed up one of their most creative plays of the season.

Gundy received the snap and handed it off to junior wide receiver Talon Kendrick, who has served as Stillwater's Swiss Army knife all year. Kendrick faked running to his right before throwing downfield to fellow wideout Julius Talley, a senior, who went up over the defender for the catch and kept his footing on his way to the end zone with 19 seconds left before the break.

"It was awesome. Big momentum shift," Talley said. "I saw the ball and the air and knew I had to go get it. Once I caught, I was like, 'I gotta go score. Nobody's gonna stop me here.' It was amazing."

That jumpstarted the Pioneers, who found the end zone three more times before the game was over courtesy of a 10-yard connection between Gundy and wideout Heston Thompson, a 54-yard run from Gundy and a 9-yard run from Zac Tyson.

It was Stillwater's defense that left its mark, though, doing so in a fashion that's terrorized opposing offenses the entire season.

The Pioneers were called upon to slow down Yellowjackets senior quarterback Steele Wasel, who's committed to the University of Akron.

Call answered.

Wasel entered the game having thrown 36 touchdowns and only four interceptions. During Choctaw's two playoff games prior to Saturday, he had thrown for 811 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception.

The Pioneers made Wasel go 19 of 33 for 281 yards. But most importantly, they forced him into three interceptions — with Talley, senior Trey Gregory and junior Ryker Martin the recipients. That was the plan, though, and Stillwater showed that with a lively front seven that was hellbent on pressuring Wasel for the entirety of four quarters.

'We talked about this all last week," said Pioneers senior linebacker Cameron Johnson, who had seven tackles. "We were like, 'We're gonna make 'em see ghosts.' What did he throw, three? I said two, but three's good."

In the aftermath of the win, standing in the middle of it all, Barnard laid eyes on a group of players who played for him in his first year at the helm of the program in 2011. It was a reflective moment, one that featured Barnard taking a look at where the Pioneers were while standing exactly where he always wanted them to be.

Barnard couldn't express what finally accomplishing the mission meant to him, to the program and to the city. He doesn't know how you quantify something with such joy, he said.

A few minutes before that, with his royal blue sweatshirt now navy from the Gatorade, Barnard told those in front of him that he had talked with some of his former colleagues. One of them asked Barnard what the team was planning to do once arriving back in Stillwater.

"They're gonna smile a lot, They're gonna laugh a lot," Barnard said. "That's what these guys have in store for them for a while. We're gonna smile for a week before we ever think about anything else."