Eagles secure home playoff game

Prior to the season starting, Hennessey football coach Mark Cox suggested that although this year’s team is smaller in numbers, it might be better on the field.

The Eagles promptly started 0-2 and were outscored 94-27 by Cashion and Chisholm.

Since then? They’ve made Cox look quit prophetic.

Hennessey closed out the season by winning seven of its last eight games.

The Eagles’ 19-6 home win over Casady last Friday night locked up second place in District 2A-II-1 and secured a home playoff game this week.

Hennessey will host Dibble in the first round of the playoffs.

“I’m definitely proud of the way they responded,” Cox said. “After those two losses, they rallied and came together well. They kept grinding and doing the work they needed to and put themselves in position to win games each week.”

Hennessey also started to do what good teams do. The Eagles improved as the season progressed.

“We figured out some things along the way… found the things we could do well and capitalized on that,” Cox said.

Chief among them was running the ball.

Hennessey returned every bit of its young, but stout offensive line this season.

Although Cox had a lot of faith in Mario Lopez running the ball, he knew the Eagles needed to complement him to not only provide another weapon, but not wear him down.

As it turned out, that person was already in the backfield in the form of Levi Ferrell.

The junior quarterback morphed from the player Cox had in mind when the season started.

“I envisioned him as more of a pocket passer,” Cox said. “But with us leaning on our run game more, we needed him to run it more so we didn’t run Mario into the ground.

“And he’s been very effective at it.”

Ferrell toted the ball 17 times for 80 yards against Casady. he scored on a 5-yard touchdown run in the first quarter then capped the scoring with a 3-yard TD in the third to put his team up 13.

Lopez got 14 carries and had 46 yards. He scored on a 1-yard run in the third as Hennessey started to get some breathing room.

The defense made sure the offense didn’t need much.

The Cyclones never found the end zone and only got two first-half field goals from Frank Ross.

“They were exceptional on Friday,” Cox said of that unit. “We made several mistakes on offense that took us out of drives.

“But the defense kept bailing us out.”

The Eagles gave up 310 total yards, but Cyclone quarterback David Lawler only completed half of his 30 pass attempts for 205 yards.

Hennessey didn’t pick him off, but did sack Lawler six times.

Titan Root had two of those and also forced one of two Casady fumbles.

Luis Macias-Montoya recovered both Casady fumbles.

Sophomore Jameson Ladwig led the team with 13 stops.

Ben Smith added 11 and Brytan Gardner had 10, including two for a loss. The Eagles had nine tackles for a loss overall.

“To keep Casady from scoring any touchdowns was huge, especially as well as they’re able to throw it around,” Cox said. “I couldn’t have been more pleased with the defense on Friday night.”

Hennessey will see a different kind of challenge coming to town this Friday night in the Demons.

“Dibble is tough,” Cox said. “Really tough.”

That’s not coach speak. The Demons are 8-2 overall and were 6-1 and in a three-way tie for first atop District 2A-II-2 along with Davis and Holdenville.

They beat defending state champ Davis in overtime, but lost to Holdenville (which lost to Davis).

Dibble dipped to third in the district with the fewest amount of district points among those three teams.

“They’re really big up front and start a couple of linemen over 300 pounds,” Cox said. “And some of their skill guys are really big, too.”

The Demons’ Wyatt Malchaski has run for 1,139 yards and 13 touchdowns. He averages 6.3 yards a carry.

Jett Norman has added another 752 yards and 12 scores on the ground.

He also has 110 tackles on defense, second on the team to Gannon Malchaski’s 124 stops.

“They give you a lot of looks on defense and they’re really well-coached,” Cox said. “We’re going to have to play really well to have a chance to beat them.”