New Desk – $75
New whiteboard – $200
New pool – $1.5 million
New auditorium – $3 million
New building (with windows) – $52 million
School spirit – Priceless
With apologies to a popular t-shirt being worn around Oxford High School, let’s also add, ‘making the state high school football playoffs? to what is considered priceless.
The Wildcats guaranteed their invitation to the state tournament with a 34-8 victory over Fenton on Friday night.
The Cats then learned on Sunday their opening game will be at Davison at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct 29. The Davison coach gave the Wildcats a little locker room incentive with his comments about Oxford.
Coach Jeff Putnam wasted little time in showing his glee that Oxford would be their opponent. He told media outlets that his team hoped to meet Oxford in the playoffs to avenge an earlier loss of 24-7 to the Wildcats.
Putnam thought his team deserved to win the game and he stated publicly that he wanted another crack at the Wildcats because he believes his team is much improved. In that contest, which was the second game of the year, the Cardinals fumbled four times and Oxford converted three into touchdowns.
After starting 2-2, Davison won its final five games of the year to finish with a 7-2 mark. Oxford ended the regular season at 6-3.
Following the Fenton victory, Oxford Coach Bud Rowley said it didn’t matter who his team played, he said they were excited about being in the playoffs and would play typical tough Oxford football.
The Wildcats had a breather against Fenton as the Tigers went winless for a season for the first time in more than 45 years.
The first score came on a three-yard run by Sergio Schlak with 4:06 left in the first quarter. Jeremy Bukoski, who was knocked out of bounds on the one-yard line, set up the touchdown on a 50-yard punt return.
Mike Jones kicked the first of his four conversions to give Oxford a 7-0 lead.
The Wildcats got two more touchdowns in the second quarter, on a one-yard run by Schlak and another on an 11-yard score by Hugo Gomez.
The Wildcats amassed 284 yards in the first half and held Fenton to only 59 yards. Schlak ran for 79 yards in the half and Gomez rushed for 76.
Oxford scored two more times in the second half, one on a 13-yard option run by quarterback Jones and another on a 15-yard run by Jay Regan.
Fenton got its only score midway in the fourth quarter on a 20-yard touchdown pass, followed by a two-point conversion. Oxford had a 34-0 lead when the Tigers finally got on the board.
Coach Rowley played all of his players in the second half, which gave Regan a chance to run for 122 yards on only 12 carries. Schlak was the leading rusher with 129 yards on 13 carries and Gomez ran for 91 yards.
The Wildcats amassed 397 yard rushing and the Wildcat defense held Fenton to 114 total yards.
Following the game, Coach Rowley praised his seniors for their dedication and hard work in winning the final two games of the season to qualify for the playoffs, which included the thrilling overtime win the week before against Linden.
‘You’re only as good as your seniors,? he said. ‘Our seniors are awesome. They are tough kids, players, winners, hard workers and it showed.
‘Everyone got to play tonight and our second team nearly scored three times. Our second team showed they are tough, too. The knocked the heck out of them.?
These is little doubt the Wildcats will look to knock a little something out of Davison this week.
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