FOOTBALL: Claremore looks to upset Coweta, earn first home quarterfinal since 1994

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For Claremore’s senior class, Friday night isn’t just another road playoff game.

This time, it is a chance to rewrite 118 years of Zebras football history on the field of a top-10 opponent. When No. 7 Coweta [9-1] hosts Claremore [7-3] in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs, the Zebras will be playing for far more than an upset.

A win would give Claremore its eighth victory of the season and send the Zebras to the quarterfinals for the third-straight year, a program first. It would also secure the school’s first home quarterfinal since 1994 and allow this senior class to reach 28 wins over the past three seasons, tying the all-time program record for victories in any three-year span set by the teams of 1959-61 and 1961-63.

Not bad for a group that didn’t win a game in seventh or eighth grade and managed just one victory as freshmen.

“Our seniors have a lot to play for,” coach Jarrett Hurt said. “There's a lot out there for us to play for this week. I think our kids see that. I think our kids are motivated by that, and our kids want to keep playing. That's what makes me confident. You have groups where making it to the playoffs is good enough for them, but you have other groups that want to keep playing. I feel like this group wants to keep playing. We've had a great week of practice, a great week of preparation. It's actually our second week preparing for Coweta; we were preparing for them all last week.

“I think we're very evenly matched.”

Claremore closed its regular season with a 47-0 dismantling of Will Rogers, a Senior Night runaway that pushed the Zebras to 7-3 and locked them into the No. 4 seed out of rugged District 5A-4.

Junior quarterback Kellen Gaede was nearly flawless, going 7-of-8 for 106 yards and 3 touchdowns, while senior tailback Cecil Garrett IV needed just 10 carries to rack up 98 yards and a score, his 17th touchdown of the year.

The defense held the Ropers to 45 total yards and never allowed them to cross midfield.

Those numbers fit the bigger picture.

Through 10 games, Claremore has thrown for 1,521 yards and 19 touchdowns — including 1,396 yards and 17 scores from Gaede — and rushed for 1,838 yards at 5.9 yards per carry.

Offensively, the Zebras have turned the ball over 10 times all season, with 4 interceptions and 6 lost fumbles. Defensively, they have piled up 82 tackles for loss and 15 sacks, snagged 9 interceptions, recovered 14 fumbles and notched 3 blocked kicks — two field goals and a punt.

Senior defensive lineman Landon King [37 tackles, 15 TFL, 4 sacks] and disruptors Cam Wolf [42 tackles, 8 TFL, 3 sacks] and Demetrius Cummings [24 tackles, 9 TFL, 4 sacks] anchor a front that prides itself on chaos, while linebacker Blake McCuan leads the team with 62 tackles and 12 tackles for loss.

Claremore is also no stranger to winning playoff games away from home.

The Zebras have pulled road upsets in each of the past two seasons — at Elgin in 2023 and McAlester in 2024 — to reach consecutive quarterfinals. Elgin hasn’t lost a game since and enters this year’s Class 4A playoffs as a defending state champion on a 24-game winning streak.

“It seems like, if you look at our track record, we do some of our best work on the road in the playoffs,” Hurt said. “We've won four games on the road in the playoffs, and we've won two games at home in the playoffs. We're the last team to beat Elgin. I tell people that a lot. That's one of my trivia questions. I say, ‘You know who the last team that beat Elgin was? The Claremore Zebras.

“Anyway, it just seems like things are matching up for this to be a great high school football game.”

Coweta, the District 5A-3 champion, brings a 9-1 mark and one of Class 5A’s most efficient rushing attacks into the matchup.

The Tigers average 229.8 yards rushing per game on 5.6 yards per carry in addition to 109.4 passing yards per game and have turned it over only three times through the air all season, with 2 interceptions thrown by starting quarterback Legend Ellis and another by his backup.

Ellis is the engine of the offense, throwing for 1,070 yards and 14 touchdowns while adding 492 yards and 7 scores on the ground.

Workhorse back Brock Heilmann has piled up 1,292 yards rushing and 9 touchdowns on 213 carries while also catching 28 passes for 248 yards and 4 scores. On the perimeter, Kooper McNac [24 catches, 336 yards, 4 TD] and Noah Finley [11 catches, 230 yards, 2 TD] give Coweta big-play threats when Ellis drops back.

Defensively, the Tigers are sturdy up front and opportunistic when the ball is on the ground with 15 sacks and 14 takeaways, including 9 fumble recoveries and 5 interceptions. Linebackers Aiven Robbins [78 tackles, 9 TFL] and Mason Groth [65 tackles, 8 TFL] control the middle, while defensive end Hudson Arnold has been a terror off the edge with 11 tackles for loss and 7 sacks.

In the secondary, Lamarko Bell and Tristan Weese have combined for 3 interceptions and 10 pass breakups.

“They're running back and quarterback are really good high school football players,” Hurt said. “They make a great one-two punch on offense, and we have got to stop those guys on Friday night. We've got to pack the box and take away the run game and try to hang on in the pass game. Their defense is very gritty. They have tough country kids. They get lined up correctly, they are in the proper gap and they play hard. So our guys know on Friday night we have to play hard, and we have to play with a lot of grit and we've got to play a four-quarter game.”

Coweta’s resume includes wins over McAlester [22-15], Bishop Kelley [22-20],and rival Wagoner [21-7], along with double-digit victories against Durant, Shawnee and two Arkansas opponents. Its lone loss came in Week 9, a 38-20 setback to Booker T. Washington.

These teams have already seen each other this year, and that August preview suggested Friday’s matchup might be far closer than a typical 4-seed vs. 1-seed pairing.

In a half-game scrimmage at Lantow Field, Claremore’s defense stole the show in a 13-7 Zebras victory. They held Coweta to just 21 yards passing, forced 2 turnovers — an interception by Furious Poole and a fumble recovered by Wolf — stopped the Tigers on all four of their third-down attempts and sealed the win when linebacker Ryker Drake leapt to bat down a fourth-down pass near the goal line in the final minutes.

Offensively, Garrett punched in a pair of short touchdown runs behind an offensive line that has only grown more cohesive as the season progressed, and Gaede completed 11 of 14 passes, with Hayden Lee — who now has 23 receptions for 292 yards and 5 touchdowns — as his top target.

Of course, Hurt said he knows both sides have evolved since that night.

“We could have easily lost it right there at the end,” Hurt said. “I know they've improved a lot since then, but we've improved a lot since then as well, so it ought to be a great game on Friday night.”

Friday’s clash figures to come down to which strength bends first: Coweta’s bruising ground game or Claremore’s disruptive defense.

The Tigers want to lean on Heilmann and Ellis, control the tempo and stay ahead of the chains.

Claremore wants to penetrate and create chaos with King, Cummings, Wolf and McCuan, forcing Coweta into long-yardage downs where Ellis must test a secondary that includes ballhawk Lee, who has 3 interceptions.

On the other side of the ball, the matchup of Coweta’s defensive front against the Zebras' offense is just as compelling.

Garrett’s 1,376 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns have been built on second-level cuts and contact balance, but his 7.3 yards per carry will be tested by Arnold and Robbins crashing off the edge and through interior gaps. If the Zebras can establish the run and protect Gaede, his efficiency can stress the Tigers vertically and horizontally.

Both teams are also strong in the kicking game, which could loom large in a tight playoff contest.

Claremore’s Jaxon Burton is 15-of-17 on PATs and 5-of-9 on field goals with a long of 46 yards, while Coweta’s Landon Stephens is 30-of-31 on PATs and 8-of-9 on field goals, with a long of 38.

Hurt said he believes special teams could very well decide things.

“We both have a great kicker, so it may come down to a field goal by either team,” Hurt said. “It may be that tight of a game.”

Kickoff between Claremore and No. 7 Coweta is set for 7 p.m. Friday in Coweta.

If the Zebras can spring another road upset, they’ll come home to something Claremore hasn’t seen in more than three decades: a quarterfinal at Lantow Field. Awaiting would be the winner of Guthrie-Bishop McGuinness.

“Everybody thinks it's going to be a great game on Friday night,” Hurt said. “We're the Tulsa World Game of the Week. We're the Channel 8 Game of the Week. I think we might be the Channel 6 Game of the Week. So apparently, everybody thinks it's going to be a great game.

“On paper, this looks like it could be a great high school football game.”

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