NO. 10 CLAREMORE READY FOR DISTRICT OPENER

Don't look now, but the Claremore football team is ranked No. 10 in Class 5A. After their 35-21 win over visiting Tulsa Edison, the Zebras are 2-1 and ready for District 5A-4 action Friday as they head to East Central Stadium to play the Tulsa Hale Rangers. Hale is 1-2 and coming off its first win in five seasons, 14-12, at Northwest Classen last Friday. "Hale is coming off a huge win for their program this past week," said Claremore football coach Jarrett Hurt. "Their quarterback (Emile Douglas) is one of the nominees for player of the week in the Tulsa World." Hale hadn't won a game on the field since the 2012 season. They had one win by forfeit in the 2015 campaign. Hale, however, is going to have to have a Herculean effort to make it two in a row as they meet a Claremore team that has learned a lot throughout the pre-district season. "We feel like we have been able to get our personnel in the best positions possible after playing three non-district games," Hurt said. "We are excited to begin district play. These next seven games will determine whether or not we earn a playoff spot." One thing the Zebras learned in last week's 35-21 win over Edison was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." One handoff to Coleman Parsons which resulted in the first score wasn't enough. Another handoff and Parson's had two touchdowns, and tied the game at 14. Trailing by a touchdown seemed to spark the Claremore offense as they broke off 28 unanswered points to take the lead for good. "We just encouraged our offense to execute after an offensive turnover led to Edison taking a 14-7 lead," Hurt said. After Parsons' score tied it, the Zebras took control. A long touchdown pass from Noah Grimett to a wide-open Dylan Kedzior made it 21-14. And right before halftime following an Edison fumble, the Zebras ran the same play with the same result. Claremore led 28-14 at the break. "We called a timeout after our defense got a big stop with three minutes left in the half," Hurt said. "Noah was able to hit Dylan on a play action post route. When Dakota Hudson recovered the fumbled kickoff, we came back to the same play action post for another touchdown." Claremore is now starting district play with two teams likely to finish in the district cellar. But beating Hale and then Memorial next week for Homecoming isn't enough. The Zebras want to get better as the last five games of the 2017 seasons are the toughest and most important in making a playoff run. "We need to focus on us the next two weeks to fine tune our play in all three phases of the game," Hurt said.

NO. 10 CLAREMORE READY FOR DISTRICT OPENER

Photo Credit: Claremore High School Athletics

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