Sports

With only two wins and out of the playoff picture in early April, El Reno High School’s boys soccer team has kicked its way into the Class 5A postseason – and they did it in the final 25 minutes of district play.

Trailing Guymon 1-0, El Reno scored two second-half goals to defeat the Tigers 2-1 and clinch the final playoff spot from District 5A-1.

While the top three teams, Southeast, Bishop McGuinness and Capitol Hill are still jockeying for playoff seeds, El Reno and Guymon were tied for fourth going into their district finale at 3-3.

In a period of four days, El Reno High School’s girls soccer team's postseason hopes went from a shot at winning the district title to needing help just to make the playoffs.

After losing to Bishop McGuinness in a battle of unbeaten District 5A-1 teams, El Reno proceeded to drop matches to Guthrie (2-1) and Guymon (1-0) and slip from first into fourth place in the league standings.

“We just squandered this away. Two matches in a row, I thought we were the better team on the field and we just could not finish,” said El Reno head coach Andrea Williams.

The Indians played over the weekend in the 2021 Guthrie 89’ers Day Invitational. El Reno lost 8-4 to Ponca City, but snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 12-5 win over Clinton.

Keith Hill’s team was playing Midwest City when the game was halted in the third inning by heavy rains and was not resumed.

El Reno was scheduled to return to the diamond Monday and Tuesday to wrap up league play against Guthrie.

Kaleb Melvin saved one of his best pitching efforts of the season for his final home game as Calumet High School’s baseball team won the Class A, District 16 Championship.

Melvin tossed a seven-inning no-hitter as the 16th-ranked Chieftains defeated Binger-Oney in the championship game 7-0.

Calumet, now 17-4 on the season, defeated Oklahoma Christian Academy (5-3) in the first round before handing the Bobcats their first loss of the double-elimination tourney by an 11-1 score.

Redlands Community College’s soccer team went into weekend action looking to snap a seven-match losing streak after dropping a 4-2 decision to Murray State College.

Redlands, which defeated the Aggies earlier this season, slipped to 1-8 on the season and in the NJCAA Region 2 standings. The Cougars fell to eighth in the league.

The setback came two days after a close 3-2 loss to Northern Oklahoma College of Tonkawa.

Stepping up its offensive attacks, Redlands had 22 shots in the two matches. Katy Eddy led the way with seven shots, two goals and an assist.

Braydon Armstrong struck out the final batter with the tying run at second base as Union City High School’s baseball team defeated Thomas/Fay-Custer 5-4 to win the Class A, District 14 Championship.

Union City, ranked 14th in the state, improved to 22-8 on the season with the win over the Terriers, its second of the tourney after a 12-5 win in the semifinals. The Tigers opened with a 10-0 shutout of Southwest Covenant.

Playing perennial powerhouse Carl Albert close for seven innings seemed to awaken the sleeping giant as the Titans swept last week’s District 5A-2 doubleheader against El Reno High School’s baseball team at the Hub Reed Complex.

Carl Albert, the district leader, took the opening game of the set by a 6-0 tally, before blanking the Indians 16-0 in game two. The setbacks extended El Reno’s current losing streak to six games.

El Reno is now 12-15 on the season and 8-4 in the district standings, falling to fourth behind Carl Albert, Piedmont and Guthrie.

Redlands Community College is headed back to the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Women's Golf Championships after dominating the field at the 2021 Region 2 tourney hosted at Crimson Creek Golf Course.

The Cougars shot a 36-hole total of 626 to win the regional championship by 151 strokes over runner-up Seminole State College (777). Murray State College (835) was third - 209 strokes behind the Cougars.

It’s playoff time for slow-pitch softball teams in Canadian County and both Union City and Calumet High School head into the postseason on winning notes.

Union City takes an 18-12 record into the Class 2A, District 7 Championship at Fletcher – ranked 10th in the state.

The Tigers are coming off a 2-2 record in last week’s Fletcher Festival, beating Blair (17-1) and Big Pasture (12-2).

Union City lost to Class 3A’s 15th-ranked Boone-Apache (6-0) and Class A’s 18th-ranked Grandfield (10-4).

Redlands Community College’s soccer team is battling through a five-match losing streak after dropping the first two dates of its current road swing.

The Cougars slipped to 1-6 in the Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference standings with losses to Rose State College (7-0) and the University of Arkansas Rich Mountain (3-1).

Those losses came on the heels of a 4-1 setback to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M at Memorial Stadium.