Class 3A Season In Review

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy!</strong></em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 2022 football season has come and gone. Once again, the football season has just flown by. Over two weeks removed from the final football games of the 2022 season, we officially kicked off our postseason coverage last week. We continue things today with our season in review series. And we move on to Class 3A, taking a look back at the 2022 season. We look at who lifted the gold ball, crown a player of the year in the class along with recognizing many other top players from this season. Then we dive into the top storyline from this year and take a very early look at the 2023 season. Keep it locked into Prep Redzone Oklahoma every day for a new class in this week long series taking a look back at the 2022 season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>STATE CHAMPION</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong><em>Heritage Hall Chargers (13-1)</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Heritage Hall came into the 2022 season as the #3 team in our Class 3A preseason rankings and they remained in that spot for the majority of the season, up until they captured another state championship. The Chargers brought back the majority of their starters and the offense was going to get a boost from their new quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='207182' first='Andy' last='Bass']. The junior signal caller had to sit out his sophomore season and even before the 2021 season, the Chargers knew they had something special with Bass, even if he had to miss that '21 season. And it didn't take long for him to have a big impact for the Chargers in 2022. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Heritage Hall opened their 2022 season on the road against 2A rival Millwood on a rainy Thursday night in Oklahoma City. It had rained for hours prior to kickoff, making the grass field at Millwood a mud pit fairly quickly. Bass would lead the Chargers to a 35-28 win and they were off to the races in 2022. The following week, they suffered their only loss of the year when they fell to Clinton at a somewhat surprising outcome. But they bounced back immediately with a 43-0 win over John Marshall in the non-district finale. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Chargers went into district play with a 2-1 record and a boost from the return of senior standout [player_tooltip player_id='155875' first='River' last='Faulkner'], who had to sit out the first three games of the year. The Chargers had a new district slate after the redistricting shuffle but they were still the favorites to capture the district crown. The Chargers were dominant in their new district but their three toughest opponents were in the final three weeks of the season, with the last two games both coming on the road. It didn't slow down the Chargers as their closest game in district play was a 24-point win in week ten against defending 2A champion and new district foe Marlow.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Chargers were rolling at the right time and they didn't stop once the playoffs began. They beat up on Anadarko and Stigler in the first two rounds with ease. Then came a top five showdown with Verdigris in the semifinals. Heritage Hall won by 21 and would punch their ticket to the championship game after three consecutive losses in the semifinal round. The Chargers were big fans of the redistricting shuffle because that put them on opposite ends of the bracket from Lincoln Christian, the team that had beaten them in the semifinals every year from 2019-2021. And they would see a team from Tulsa in the title game but it was Metro Christian after they beat Lincoln in their semifinal clash.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Class 3A championship game would kick off the first week of title games in Edmond on Thursday night. And the Chargers and Patriots set the bar fairly high with a title game for the record books. Heritage Hall would run for nearly 500 yards and Metro Christian would pass for over 600 yards but the Chargers would win the wild record-breaking shootout 72-56 to capture their first state championship since 2018. Led by their dynamic backfield duo of Bass and Faulkner, the Chargers ended 2022 with another gold ball. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtr7w_HkTps","type":"video","providerNameSlug":"youtube","responsive":true,"className":"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtr7w_HkTps </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>PLAYER OF THE YEAR</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/evaluation-block {"name":"acf/evaluation-block","data":{"player_evaluations_0_player":["38790"],"_player_evaluations_0_player":"field_62ab9d62ecf2c","player_evaluations_0_override_profile_image":"","_player_evaluations_0_override_profile_image":"override-player-profile-image","player_evaluations_0_not_in_database":"","_player_evaluations_0_not_in_database":"field_62aba48cecf2d","player_evaluations_0_evaluation":"Arguably the best passer this season in Oklahoma was Metro Christian senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='38790' first='Kirk' last='Francis'] and it wasn't particularly close. The senior would help lead Metro Christian back to the state championship game and they would finish with a 13-1 record and Francis played some of his best football in the semifinal and championship games. In those two games alone, he threw for over 1,000 yards combined. Francis would finish off the season with nearly 4,400 yards and 58 touchdowns. He definitely benefitted from playing in a Metro Christian offense where they threw the ball the majority of the time on offense. But Francis was also one of the more efficient quarterbacks while putting up some absolutely monster numbers. Francis' senior season will go down as one of the better single seasons from a quarterback in recent memory. Francis has been one of the top quarterback prospects for several years now and he showed why this fall as he ran away with the 3A Player Of The Year award.","_player_evaluations_0_evaluation":"field_62aba51aecf34","player_evaluations":1,"_player_evaluations":"field_62aba7547dc44"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-63aa90f153905"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>BREAKOUT STARS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='207182' first='Andy' last='Bass'] - Quarterback - Heritage Hall<br>[player_tooltip player_id='442209' first='Breck' last='Nauman'] - Wide Receiver - Metro Christian<br>[player_tooltip player_id='315546' first='Jordyn' last='Harris'] - Wide Receiver/Defensive Back - Heritage Hall<br>[player_tooltip player_id='127357' first='Luke' last='Milligan'] - Quarterback - Lincoln Christian<br>[player_tooltip player_id='287380' first='Trenden' last='Collins'] - Running Back/Defensive Back - Muldrow</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>OTHER TOP PLAYERS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='110756' first='Brytan' last='Gaddy'] - Defensive Back - Sulphur<br>[player_tooltip player_id='370215' first='Cooper' last='Lai'] - Quarterback/Defensive Back - Cascia Hall<br>[player_tooltip player_id='231978' first='Dylan' last='White'] - Quarterback - Verdigris<br>[player_tooltip player_id='353415' first='Elijah' last='Thomas'] - Wide Receiver - Checotah<br>[player_tooltip player_id='370220' first='Ethan' last='Stites'] - Linebacker - Berryhill<br>[player_tooltip player_id='62997' first='Justin' last='Humphrey'] - Athlete - Pauls Valley<br>[player_tooltip player_id='268323' first='John' last='Washington'] - Running Back - Lincoln Christian<br>[player_tooltip player_id='38782' first='Morgan' last='Pearson'] - Athlete - Plainview<br>[player_tooltip player_id='157524' first='Orie' last='Walker'] - Wide Receiver - Heritage Hall<br>[player_tooltip player_id='38787' first='Parker' last='Jenney'] - Running Back/Linebacker - Holland Hall<br>[player_tooltip player_id='38813' first='Reese' last='Roller'] - Linebacker - Verdigris<br>[player_tooltip player_id='155875' first='River' last='Faulkner'] - Running Back/Linebacker - Heritage Hall<br>[player_tooltip player_id='38802' first='Tagg' last='Campbell'] - Athlete - Metro Christian<br>[player_tooltip player_id='231981' first='Tre' last='Stevenson'] - Running Back/Defensive Lineman - Perkins-Tryon<br>[player_tooltip player_id='276646' first='Tyler' last='Johnson'] - Linebacker - Lincoln Christian</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>TOP STORYLINE</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>Private Schools Dominate Again</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Until something changes, this will routinely be the overwhelming storyline when it comes to Class 3A football. That's what it was before the season and after the year, it remained the same. For the third straight year, two private schools would meet in the state championship game. And as we've always said, we are not on one side of the argument or the other, we're just stating what has been a massive theme in terms of 3A football. We do believe that change is inevitable and also believe that the ball is starting to roll on there being a change in the landscape of high school football which would put private schools in a separate class from the public schools for playoff football. And we're not saying whether that's good or bad. Just stating facts and opinions from what we've heard. But throughout the year, private schools did make up the majority of the top five teams within the class. And when the semifinals took place, three of the final four teams were private schools. And we'll look at 2023 in our next section but we'll go ahead and give you a heads up right now that private schools will more than likely make up the top two Class 3A teams heading into next season. And when our 3A season preview comes out in August of 2023, don't be surprised to see this once again be the leading storyline heading into the new season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>EARLY LOOK AT 2023</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As we look ahead to the 2023 season and the Class 3A landscape, it's hard to imagine that things are going to change very much. We think that the private schools will once again be at the top of the food chain and it starts with champion Heritage Hall and then you have to look at a Lincoln Christian squad that was #1 all year until the semifinal loss to Metro Christian. Both teams bring back their quarterback and will be at the top of the ranks again next fall. After those two teams, it's anybody's guess who else contends because most of this year's serious teams like Cascia Hall, Metro Christian and Verdigris all get hit hard by graduation. We think we could end up seeing teams like Kingfisher and Perkins-Tryon, who both made the quarterfinal round this year, those two teams could threaten the private school powers. Also keep an eye on a Sulphur program that has a wealth of young talent and if they stay healthy, they could once again be back in the mix. But after those top two teams, we think Class 3A is going to be very wide open considering all of the unknowns and new faces that will be asked to perform in 2023. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->