Throwback Thursday – Collinsville Captures First Title

<em><strong>Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy!</strong></em> We miss football. We miss football a lot. So every Thursday in April, extending into May, we’ll take a look back at the 2021 football season with a Throwback Thursday post. By the end of this series, spring practices will be starting and we’ll have real football to talk about! And we’ll be a few weeks closer to the start of the 2022 football season. Until then, let’s take a look back at 2021 and continue today with Class 5A. For the first time since 2015, someone other than the Carl Albert Titans captured the 5A state championship. And for the first time in school history, it was the Collinsville Cardinals. They knocked off McAlester in what was in our opinion the best state championship game of the year. Those two teams were 1 and 2 all season and they met in a state championship game that will be remembered forever. But in the end, it was Collinsville capturing that first ever state championship. <span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>GAME HIGHLIGHTS</strong></span> <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/nwhwHQ-kjoU" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <hr /> For the first time in school history, the Collinsville Cardinals are state champions. Collinsville has certainly been close to getting the job done but the 2021 team will go down in history as the team that finished the job. Led by their senior “Big Three” of quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="51256" first="Andrew" last="Carney"], running back [player_tooltip player_id="61136" first="Brayden" last="Gilkey"] and wide receiver [player_tooltip player_id="64382" first="Oscar" last="Hammond"], the Cardinals would knock off McAlester in the 5A championship game in what has to be considered the best overall championship game from this season. The won a 42-35 instant classic between the top two teams in 5A. The Cardinals came into this season as our #2 team in the preseason rankings behind only McAlester. Those two teams would end up running the table and the Cardinals would take that top spot from McAlester in the title game. Collinsville was absolutely dominant throughout the season and had to deal with adversity on their way to a 14-0 season. They lost their star quarterback for several weeks right in the middle of the regular season but the Cardinal offense would adjust and Gilkey ended up being the star of this year’s offense as he finished with well over 30 touchdowns on the ground. When Carney came back late in the regular season, the Cardinal offense picked right up where they left off and absolutely dominated their final two regular season games against Pryor and Tahlequah, arguably their two toughest district opponents. After rolling to a first round win, the Cardinals would go back to back weeks against 5A powers Bishop McGuinness and Carl Albert. The Cardinals would run for over 500 yards to beat McGuinness in a shootout, setting up a semifinal showdown with five-time defending champion Carl Albert, a team that had ended Colllinsville’s season several years in a row. Collinsville made more history in the semifinal round as they were the first team to ever beat Carl Albert in the semifinals, ending the Titans’ reign over Class 5A. In the state championship game, these two teams lived up to all the hype as it was the most anticipated game of all the championship match-ups and it was without a doubt the best game. After exchanging big plays and touchdowns all night, Collinsville took the lead with just under two minutes to play on an [player_tooltip player_id="51256" first="Andrew" last="Carney"] touchdown run. Carney finished the game with two passing touchdowns and four rushing touchdowns. The Cardinals would knock down a hail mary attempt from the Buffaloes to win their first ever state title. <span style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong>LOOKING AHEAD</strong></span> For the first time in a decade, two east side schools met for the Class 5A state championship when Collinsville and McAlester clashed. Class 5A has been a class that has been dominated by the west side of the state but that was not the case in 2021. Well, things might be getting back to "normal" in 2022. Looking ahead to the landscape of Class 5A in 2022, it’s hard to see two east side teams making it back to Edmond to play for a state championship. Instead, the power might be shifting back over to the west side as perennial powers Bishop McGuinness and Carl Albert appear ready to make it back to the top. Throw in teams like Ardmore and new teams to 5A like Del City and Midwest City and you have a class where all the top teams might be coming from the west side of the state. Collinsville will be the defending champion but they have to rebuild in a big way after losing some serious star power. McAlester will still be in the mix with reigning Prep Redzone Oklahoma Player Of The Year [player_tooltip player_id="91049" first="Erik" last="McCarty"] but he’ll have plenty of new faces around him as well. Other east side teams Bishop Kelley, Coweta and newcomer Grove (who’s moving up from 4A) will also be in the mix. But when our preseason rankings drop on July 1st, we have a feeling that the majority of the top teams will be from the west side of the state and the power might be shifting back in 2022.