Sports

Last week’s loss to Lawton MacArthur not only ended El Reno High School’s three-game win streak but for all practical purposes took the Indians out of the chase for the District 5A-1 crown.

To get into a multiple-team tie for the league crown, El Reno would need Elgin to lose to both Midwest City and MacArthur over the final two weeks of the regular season. The undefeated Owls lead the District 5A-1 standings with a 5-0 record.

Then the Indians would need Noble to defeat both the Bombers and the Highlanders. Midwest City and MacArthur are tied for second, both at 4-1.

More than two decades separate their senior seasons, but El Reno High School running back Malachi Nicholson shares an eerie resemblance to the player whose record he is chasing – Marshell Chiles.

“I see a lot of me in him and his running style. I don’t want to take anything away from this young man and the things he has done, but I do see a lot of me in him.

“I’m just happy to see another great running back coming out of El Reno High School,” said Chiles.

El Reno High School’s football team eclipsed the 3,000- yard mark on offense after last week’s win over Ardmore.

The defense logged two interceptions.

Rebounding from a rough outing in its last tourney, Redlands Community College women’s golf team closed out the fall schedule with a third-place team finish in the 2023 Rangers Invitational.

Hosted by Northwestern Oklahoma State University, the event was played on the Meadowlake Golf Course in Enid, with the Rangers winning the team title with a 36-hole score of 627 (317/310).

Kansas-based Newman University was second with a 652 (328/324), while Redlands carded rounds of 326/328 for a 654. Northwestern’s B squad was fourth with a 696 (347/349).

Redlands Community College’s soccer team closed out the 2023 season on a three-match losing streak which included home shutout losses to Seminole State College and Eastern Oklahoma State College.

The three-match losing streak left the Cougars with a 2-14 overall record and a 2-13 mark in the NJCAA Region 2 standings – which was eighth.

The Cougars fell to Seminole State, the Region 2 leader, by a 7-0 margin after allowing five goals in the second half.

Redlands goalie Haley Inglehart allowed all seven goals but logged 16 saves.

On a night when all eyes were on Malachi Nicholson’s quest to break the 2,000-yard rushing mark for the season, the senior served as a decoy on the most critical snaps – scoring chances.

Nicholson was held without a touchdown for the first time this season but El Reno got five scores from three different ball carriers en route to a 35-10 win over Ardmore.

“I’m always all right with that, giving my teammates the ball and not always to me so other teams cannot just focus on me. They have got to worry about other people,” said Nicholson.

Entering the latter stages of the regular season, the phrase “coach speak” tends to pop up in just about every aspect of high school football.

Coaches use phrases like “one game at a time,” “control our own destiny” or “can’t overlook anyone” in interviews and team meetings.

In the case of El Reno High School’s football team, each one of those phrases is a reality with three games left in the regular season.

“It’s really true. We’ve got to do our job first and foremost and take things one game at a time,” said head coach Russell Cook.

Soccer has grown into the fourth most popular sport in the United States with over 31 percent of all Americans considering themselves a fan, according to a 2019 Gallup survey.

And at Redlands Community College, there may be more of those fans in the stands considering a number of the players on the women’s team are from local high schools.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association fields 1,057 women’s teams alone over its three levels of competition, with 347 of those being Division 1 programs.

Steady play on both offense and defense, which carried Calumet High School’s baseball team through a 16-game late-season winning streak, abandoned the Chieftains when it was needed most – the state title game.

Calumet, ranked No.2 in the state, committed four errors leading to six runs for top-ranked Fort Cobb-Broxton as the Mustangs run-ruled CHS 10-0 to win the 2023 Class B Fall State High School Baseball Championship.

Though the end goal of reaching the Class 5A State Championships slipped his team’s grasp, El Reno High School fast-pitch softball coach Jason Little was proud of the way his players competed.

El Reno posted a 2-2 record in the Region 2 Championships, defeating Lawton MacArthur twice by scores of 24-1 and 17-0. The Indians were eliminated from state contention with losses to host and fourth-ranked Elgin by scores of 10-0 and 8-3.

“We played hard and never gave up and hopefully we learned a lot about how to get to that next level,” said Little.