Tonkawa will face its toughest challenge of the season so far this Friday night when 8th ranked Pawnee invades Buc Stadium.Kick off is at 7 p.m. Friday here. While the Bucs are 4-0, the Black Bears are 3-1, falling to top-ranked Hominy 22-55 last week. “They’re big and strong and will be as tough as it gets,” Buc Head Coach Mike Kirtley said this week while preparing for Pawnee.“They’re really good,” Kirtley said, “They duked it out with Hominy until the Bucks pulled away late in the game,” he said.Pawnee opened the season with three straight wins -- 62-0 over Okemah, 64-20 over Mooreland and 46-40 over Meeker.The Blackbears continue to run their double wing offense. “What will cause us problems is what they call severe angle blocking,” Kirtley said, “That makes for no gaps and makes it very hard to defend.”On defense, they’ll be in a five front with multiple defenses. Tonkawa is coming off a 27-0 win over Chouteau, their second shut-out of the season. Since the opener vs. Newkirk, the Bucs have allowed but one touchdown and that came against Blackwell on a fluke kickoff return setup.“If we continue to follow the play of our senior leaders, then I think we’ll continue to get better and better each and every week,” Kirtley said.District A-5 Standings... Dist. SeasonHominy 1-0 4-0 Tonkawa 1-0 4-0 Woodland 1-0 4-0 Pawnee 0-1 3-1 Morrison 1-0 3-1 Chouteau 0-1 1-3 Chelsea 0-1 1-3 OK Union 0-1 0-4This Week’s Games*Pawnee at Tonkawa *Woodland at Chouteau *Morrison at Chelsea *Hominy at OKU *Denotes District A-5 gameLast Week’s Results Tonkawa 27 Chouteau 0 Woodland 60 Chelsea 8 Hominy 55 Pawnee 22 Morrison 30 OKU 8Bucs ranked as high as 3rd in Class AThe statewide Class A ratings by MaxPreps has Tonkawa’s football Bucs ranked sixth this week. Skordle ranks them 3rd.They follow: 1. Hominy, 2. Fairview, 3. Colcord, 4. Woodland, 5. Minco, 6. Tonkawa, 7. Gore, 8. Pawnee, 9. Hinton, 10. Stroud.Skordle ratings follow: 1. Fairview, 2. Hominy, 3. Tonkawa. 4. Woodland, 5. Colcord, 6. Minco, 7. Crescent, 8. Gore, 9. Hinton and 10. Walters.The top photo is from the camera of Melissa Swords and he bottom photo is from the camera of Jacquelyn Heinrich. Both show Çlayton Lopeman (27) diving for the goal-line at the end of a 10 yard run for the first Buc TD against Chouteau.
