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October 29, 2009

Twin cities — both thinking playoffs

By JAYSON KNIGHT The McAlester News-Capital Thu Oct 29, 2009, 10:16 AM CDT

The Hartshorne Miners travel to Spiro Friday night to keep playoff hopes of a home game alive.

The Spiro Bulldogs are a true contender that will test the mettle of the Miners. The (3-5) Bulldogs have all of their wins by shutout margins, outscoring their opponents 95-0 in those wins. After a 34-0 victory over the Diggers, the Bulldogs will be waiting for the Hartshorne Miners with confidence.

Hartshorne Head Coach Bill E. Williams describes the opposition as, “pretty multiple. It’s hard to get a beat on them. They have a lot of good athletes.”

More focused on his own squad, Coach Williams added, “Our goal this week is to play good, fundamental football. We’ve played some sloppy football and, at times, haven’t done the things we’re trademarked to do.

“Our goal is to earn a home game in the playoffs. We’re getting ready and we expect to be a better team this week than we have been all season.”

That belief is further cemented with Austin Kirkes returning from a leg injury. Williams will be able to utilize the playmaker as a “wide receiver and defensive back, he’s pretty versatile. He’s the best open-field tackler we’ve had in years.”

Austin Kirkes has ten touchdowns this season. Defensively, the sophomore has an interception and he’s hitting the ball-carrier about five times per game.

Kirkes is one of the many key position-injuries the Miners have suffered this season. Much like the coal miners of old though, they will press on and attempt to persevere through any adversity they face.

“We’ve out-blocked, out-tackled, out-hit and out-hustled teams all season long and now it’s time to do it and cut the mistakes.”

All of Hartshorne’s coaches will be wearing pink ribbons to support breast cancer awareness month. The coaches as well as the players have been demonstrating their support for breast cancer research in every game this month.

“The coaching staff is right on this year,” said supportive mother of Austin Kirkes, Carrie Kirkes. The proud mom is a 13-year breast cancer survivor who was just recently awarded the Frank Rayburn award.

In the “twin city” of Haileyville, the head coach of the Haileyville Warriors Michael Martin prepared for his ninth away game this weekend.

Coach Martin feels the Pirates will hit his Warriors with the “passing game. They’re going to throw it quite a bit.”

Coach Martin plans to limit Gore’s quarterback, who leads the team not only in passing yards, but rushing as well. Martin has an answer for that, “We have a talented secondary and we’re going to use Josh Copeland as a [QB] spy. We want to put our best athlete on their best athlete.” That is a legitimate gameplan with the 13 tackles-per-game average that Copeland hopes to increase.

Coach Martin says, “This is the game that’s going to give us the momentum to beat Quinton and then carry on into the playoffs. With Savanna, Gore, Quinton, and ourselves fighting for the two spots left, our team needs to dispose of Gore and Quinton.”

Haileyville has Gore Friday with Quinton coming up on Nov. 7.

Contact Jayson Knight at jknight@mcalesternews.com

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