Teams Rising from the Dead

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We're a couple weeks away from the playoffs and the race for those playoff spots are heating up. As we get ready to kick off games in week eight, we're taking a look at six teams that like zombies in movies have absolutely risen from the dead in the last month. For all six of these teams, they stumbled out of the gate, going 0-3 or even 0-4 to start the season. But when district play began, a new season began for these six teams and they are back in the mix for playoff spots and for some of these teams, they are still in the running for the district title in their respective district. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>COLLINSVILLE CARDINALS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Collinsville Cardinals came into this season confident that they would be a playoff team in a loaded Class 5A but they were also relatively young on both sides of the ball. That youth, combined with a tough early schedule would see the Cardinals start the season 0-4. They opened district play with a shutout loss to Bishop McGuinness but as the calendar flipped to October, things started to turn around for the Cardinals. Collinsville won two straight against Nathan Hale and then Edison before going on the road and taking down Tahlequah in impressive fashion. Now, they host Pryor on Friday night and if they win, they will certainly open a lot of eyes across the state. Leading the way during this three-game winning streak has been sophomore running back [player_tooltip player_id='1726786' first='Beau' last='Daniels']. He's ran for nearly 700 yards and 11 touchdowns during those three wins.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PANAMA RAZORBACKS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Out of the six teams on this breakdown, Panama is the only one that was not ranked coming into the season, had the slow start but has found their way into the top ten in the last few weeks. The Razorbacks dropped the opener to Stigler and in that game they lost senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1832501' first='Aryn' last='Seamans'] for a few weeks and had to turn to a freshman. They started 0-3 but district play began and they won three straight, including a 43-14 win over Vian in week five that opened up a lot of eyes (including ours) across the state. They are coming off a 21-14 loss to Coalgate as district 4 continues to produce ultimate chaos. Panama beat Vian, who beat Pocola, who beat Coalgate, who beat Panama. It's a vicious cycle but the Razorbacks are still in the hunt for that district title and we wouldn't have said that at the start of the season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PUTNAM CITY PIRATES</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Putnam City is another team that was left for dead after an 0-4 start but that was clearly a mistake with a team that was a minute away from playing for the 6A-2 state championship a year ago. The Pirates began 0-4, including a district-opening loss to Piedmont. But things turned around in week five when they beat rival PC North by a point in overtime. The following week, they went on the road and took down Norman, again, by a point in overtime. They beat another rival in PC West by nearly 30 points last week. Those back to back overtime wins not only turned things around for Putnam City but it kept the Pirates in the hunt for a high seed in the playoffs. They host Choctaw on Friday night, a team the Pirates stunned late in the game last season. If they can do it again in 2026, they could end up back in the district championship hunt. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>UNION REDHAWKS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Union is another perfect example of a team that was "left for dead" a month ago. However when the calendar flipped to October they've made things very interesting. The Redhawks dropped their first four games and they weren't very competitive during that stretch, which definitely was a red flag. They started October with a non-district win on the road over Booker T Washington and then they rallied from a second half deficit against Yukon and handed the Millers their first loss of the season. Perhaps that was the spark to a turnaround that will see Union go on a run. They also beat Moore last week by 30 points and host Deer Creek on Friday night. If they win their next two games, that sets up a week ten showdown in Owasso that could become very interesting to the playoff picture in Class 6A-1 and not many outside of the program saw that coming.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>WAGONER BULLDOGS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Similar to Panama, Wagoner struggled out of the gate without their star quarterback. The Bulldogs were without [player_tooltip player_id='1718189' first='Keyshaun' last='Brown'] and started the season 0-3 and ultimately 1-4 at the halfway mark of the regular season. They knew they would be challenged in the non-district schedule, facing all 5A opponents, including two 5A opponents currently in the top five of that class. But Brown is back in the lineup and the Bulldogs have looked explosive in the last two weeks. And despite the 1-4 start, they still have everything in front of them in the district championship race. They go to Fort Gibson this week and face Grove and Cushing in the final two weeks. If they take care of business in those three games and close out the regular season with a 6-4 record, believe it or not, the Bulldogs will be the district champions heading into the playoffs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>WOODLAND COUGARS</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Down in Class A-2, the Woodland Cougars are the smallest 11-man football team. One stat we throw out all the time when talking about Woodland is the fact that not only could they be playing 8-man football, but they could be playing in B-2. But this is a community that takes pride in 11-man football and they are firmly in the district title hunt. It didn't feel that way back in late September. The Cougars started the season with an 0-3 record, granted it was against a very difficult non-district schedule. But they started 0-3 and they were also in a district that featured top five teams in Hominy and Ketchum. After the 0-3 start, they've won four straight games and that includes a 28-20 win over Hominy in week six. That was a win that showed Woodland wasn't going anywhere. There's a week nine showdown looming with #2 Ketchum next week.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->