Oakland-Craig Handles Battle-Creek Huge Loss, Next Up State Championship Game!

Oakland-Craig beat Battle Creek last Friday night 27-14 in a game of revenge for the OC Knights. Battle Creek defeated Oakland-Craig earlier in the season. Now, the Knights are headed to the state championship game against David City Tuesday at 2:45 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.

Below are the comments from OC Head Coach Joe Anderson, who was also on the OC Champion football team of 1995.

“Wow!  What a great atmosphere, what a game.  As we pulled up to the stadium at 6:00 the place was already electric. The boys fed off that energy and really came out and threw the first couple punches. This was key, as the last time we played them, they physically beat us up for four quarters.  You could just see the confidence in our guys grow as the game wore on. 

It is easy to come out and play with that fire in the opening minutes, but to sustain it for four quarters like they did,  is tough. Our kids played very physical and stayed discipline on defense. We had to slow down their potent running game, and we did a decent job of that. Defensively it was total team effort, as the guys did a great job of swarming to the football and making plays. 

Offensively we knew it was going to be tough to run right at them. We worked a lot on our passing game, and installed some new wrinkles this week. The guys really executed things well. Cole threw the ball really well, all the receivers  made some great plays, and the line did a great job of giving Cole time. 

The guys really put in a lot of extra time the last couple weeks preparing for each playoff game. They will now be rewarded with a memory they will not forget,” stated OC Head Coach Anderson.

Don’t forget to come out for the community pep rally this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at the OC new gym to cheer on the Knights! Up after that, Championship game!!! Go Knights!!

The excitement was evident as OC took on Battle Creek! All photos credit of Cheri Droescher.