Sports

El Reno High School’s football team was on the road Friday night at Piedmont in the second of three non-district games.

El Reno’s junior high football squads opened the season last week with the seventh grade losing 22-12 to Elk City and the eighth grade winning 42-22.

After home setbacks to cross-county rival Calumet and Elmore City, Union City High School’s fast-pitch softball team snapped the two-game losing streak with two wins in the Covington-Douglas Festival.

The Tigers beat the host school 3-0 before posting a 12-0 shutout of Cherokee to improve to 11-8 on the season.

Union City went 14-of-57 (.246) from the plate in the three games after the loss to Calumet, getting doubles each from Emily Griggs and Oceanna Schranz.

Griggs (.375) led the team with three hits, a run and four runs batted in.

A nine-game win streak to open the fall season came to a grinding halt as Calumet High School’s baseball team, ranked third in Class B, dropped a 5-4 game in extra innings to Amber-Pocasset.

Ampo, ranked No.8 in Class A, scored the winning run in the top of the ninth inning on a wild pitch.

Calumet logged nine hits in the loss as Carson Cooper went 3-for-4 with a run scored. Kyler Thiessen drove in a run and scored once off two base hits.

Hunter Arnold, Kaleb Thiessen, Caleb Meschberger and Kingston Arnold added a base hit each in the loss.

Redlands Community College freshman Ruby Sifuentes (8) and a University of Arkansas Rich Mountain player look to be in step as each tries to control a bouncing ball during their NJCAA Region 2 match at Memorial Stadium last week.

It was the home opener for the Cougars, who host NEO Sunday at 2 p.m.

Redlands Community College’s cross-country teams kicked off the 2022 season recently with a pair of third-place finishes at the Bucks Invitational hosted by the University of Arkansas Rich Mountain.

The women’s team ran the 5,000-meter course with an overall time of two hours and 13:19 seconds, with the average time per runner being 26:29. Alicen Williams was the top finisher in 10th place with a time of 25:29 after running a mile pace of 8:12.

There are several reasons why Piedmont’s football team is causing El Reno High School’s coaching staff to spend extra preparation time this week ahead of Friday night's first road game of the 2022 season.

Those reasons stem from the Wildcats flexbone offense.

“It’s all about misdirection. It’s the triple option and you’ve got to pick up not only the quarterback but the dive man and the pitch man,” said El Reno head coach Russell Cook.

The extra preparation, from a defensive standpoint, comes from the fact it's an offense not seen much.

Errors against a hard-hitting Carl Albert team, ranked eighth in Class 5A, took its toll on El Reno High School’s volleyball team in Suburban Conference action last week.

After a close 25-19 tally in game one, the Titans handed 5A’s 16th-ranked El Reno a 3-0 loss by scores of 25-9 and 25-17.

The setback dropped the Indians to 4-3 on the season and 0-1 in Suburban Conference standings.

El Reno committed 30 errors in the loss, six of those off Carl Albert serves. Three errors came from the Indians own serving line and three more off wide block attempts.

In games such as the U.S. 81 Battle between El Reno High School's football team and its oldest rival Chickasha, a handful of plays can be the thin line between winning and losing.

Unfortunately for the Indians, those plays fell in favor of the Chicks.

After an apparent tie-breaking touchdown catch by El Reno was waved off, Chickasha went on a 10-play, 85-yard scoring drive late in the fourth period to pull out a 20-14 win over the Indians.

The El Reno Tribune’s Football Preview for 2022 contains the following:

2022 El Reno Indians schedule

El Reno Varsity coaches

2022 El Reno Indians

Athletic and Student Trainers