Sports

Three players have been key stats producers for the Indians over four games.

The COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc with most sports in Canadian County for the regular season, but the virus ended up dealing Union City High School’s softball team a crazy playoff scenario.

Just days after beating Fletcher to close the regular season, the Tigers were supposed to join the Wildcats in Ninnekah for the Class A, District 27 Championship.

However, the Owls were forced to back out due to the virus, leaving Union City and Fletcher playing a best of three series for a spot in the regional round of the postseason.

It was rough going for both Union City and Calumet high schools in the recent Class A fall baseball playoffs, with the two county schools combining for just one win and 18 total hits.

Union City, ranked 20th in the state in the final regular-season poll, was playing in the District 10 Championships at 10th-ranked Amber-Pocasset. The Tigers defeated Glencoe 10-0 in the opener but dropped back-to-back games to the host by scores of 3-1 and 11-0.

Ludy Griggs’ team ends the season with a 17-5 record.

El Reno High School’s boys cross country team took part in the recent Edmond Pre-State Meet Class 5A Division, taking 18th place overall.

The Indians posted a team score of 484 but had all its runners place at 102nd or better out of a field of 134 runners.

Matthew Chaffee led the El Reno effort with a 91st-place finish with a time of 20 minutes and five seconds over the 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) course. He posted a kilometer split of just over four minutes.

Due to changes in the college landscape from COVID-19, Redlands Community College’s cross country team is one of just two sports competing this fall.

The Cougars got in their first action of the fall with a dual meet against Cameron University. Since it was a dual meet, no team scores or individual places were recorded.

The Hunter Showdown, a new stop on the Southern Drag Boat Association’s 2020 racing schedule, brought some interesting boats, paint schemes and speeds to Lake El Reno over the weekend. The SDBA event was the fourth stop on the 2020 tour but it was the first time the nationally-recognized racing series has held an event in El Reno.

Year in and year out, there are very few games in the District 5A-1 lineup each week without some sort of playoff implications.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the length of the district schedule as well as the 2020 season as a whole still remains up in the air.

“It’s about to get crazy,” said El Reno head coach Chuck Atchison, whose team travels to Lawton Friday night to take on MacArthur.

Two games last week in the District 5A-1 lineup were canceled due to COVID-19 as Duncan, Lawton MacArthur, Altus and Capitol Hill did not play.

El Reno High School’s volleyball team, ranked fifth in Class 5A, moved one victory away from reaching the 20-win plateau last week with a 3-2 win over Noble in Suburban Conference action.

The 25-15/20-25/25-14/21-25/15-12 win lifted the Indians to 19-5 on the season and 2-1 in the conference standings.

El Reno won this match at the net on offense with 47 kills, led by 16 from Kadin Patterson, followed by Bailey Denwalt with 10. Madison Nichols led those in single digits with six kills, while Avery Peffer posted five.

After dropping back-to-back games to frontrunner Carl Albert, El Reno High School’s softball team looks to have wrapped up third place in the District 5A-1 standings with a 15-5 win over Duncan.

El Reno closed out league play with an 8-6 record after the win over the Demons and improved to 12-18 on the season. The Indians lost games to the Titans by scores of 17-0 and 17-3.

Nearly a year removed from blowing a 20-point halftime lead in a shootout loss to the Noble, El Reno High School's football team found itself in an eerily similar situation Friday night.

El Reno held a 27-0 lead over the Bears at the half and opened the third period with the ball, close to the same scenario as the 2019 meeting.

“That was too eerie and I told the kids in the lockerroom not to forget what happened last year. We needed to stop that trend,” said El Reno head coach Chuck Atchison.

His team listened.