Cascia Hall bounces back from shutout loss with dominant performance at home against Bristow

By Buck Ringgold 

TULSA - To get back in contention for the District 3A-4 championship, Cascia Hall knew it had to take down first-place Bristow.

And the Commandos knew they had to turn it up a notch offensively, a week after getting shut out by Verdigris.

The Commandos did exactly that, executing a near flawless performance of offense with senior quarterback Cooper Lai making plays with both his arm and feet. Lai passed for two touchdowns and ran in three TD keepers as Cascia Hall built a 28-6 second-quarter lead en route to a 56-22 win against the Pirates Friday night at Ray Siegfried Stadium.

“We executed a whole lot better this week,” Cascia Hall coach Joe Medina said. “We got the ball to our skill players. … The emphasis was to get the ball to Baxter (Robertson), to Cooper, to Jayce Ward and we did a good job with that.”

The Commandos (6-2, 4-1) also forced a three-way tie for first place in 3A-4 with Verdigris and Bristow. Verdigris - which beat Jay on Friday, 56-28, and lost to Bristow earlier this season - has 47 tiebreaker points, with Cascia Hall having 26 and the Pirates (5-3, 4-1) with 17 following Friday’s results.

“Point-wise, Verdigris is in the driver’s seat, but again, two weeks left to play (in the regular season), nobody can slip up,” Medina said.

With Lai at the controls, the Commandos displayed a tremendously balanced offense, as Lai threw for 255 yards - completing 16-of-20 passes - while Cascia Hall picked up 249 yards rushing.

Robertson, a senior receiver, caught nine passes for 112 yards and two TDs, and also added a rushing TD. Ward, a senior tailback, cleared the 100-yard barrier, finishing with 103 yards on 14 carries and a TD. Lai had 72 yards on 13 carries as well.

“They’re the epitome of what you want as senior leader football players,” Medina said. “They put it on their shoulders when we lose kids and (Friday) they just weren’t going to be denied.”

Robertson was one Commando player who was determined to avoid a repeat of last week, when Cascia Hall lost 17-0 to Verdigris.

“Last week, we were just not on; something was off,” he said. “Nobody really knows what it is, and we all realized that, so this past week, we focused in practice and then we had to put it together this Friday.”

Robertson started things from the get-go, scoring on a 13-yard run after the Commandos received the opening kick and maneuvered 79 yards in just six plays to go up 7-0.

“That’s our biggest thing in all the games we play is talking about setting the tone right off the bat,” Robertson said. “Whether it’s on defense or on offense, that’s our motto, it’s always to set the tone.”

Up 7-6 entering the second quarter, the Commandos broke the game wide open by scoring three unanswered touchdowns, all coming from Lai.

On a third-and-6 from the Pirates’ 22, Lai found Robertson in the left flat. Robertson then shook off a tackler and went in for the TD with 7:40 left in the first half.

Cascia got the ball right back after forcing Bristow to punt. The Commandos needed just three plays, covering 60 yards, to extend their lead.

After Ward caught a 23-yard pass and followed it up with a 13-yard run to the Bristow 24, Lai took a keeper initially to his right. He immediately cut upfield and found space, going in for the touchdown, and Nick Eshelman’s PAT upped it to 21-6 with 4:19 remaining in the half.

The Commandos once again forced a punt, and took over at their own 25 with more than two minutes to go. Lai threw three passes on the next drive, including a beautiful 33-yard throw to Ward down to the Bristow 11 on a third-and-long.

Three plays later, from the 9, Ward called his own number again and ran it in, as Cascia extended its lead to 28-6 with 45 seconds to go until the break.

Cascia’s defense also played a vital role in the win. After allowing a 69-yard TD run on Bristow’s opening play from scrimmage, the Commandos limited the Pirates to 37 total yards and two first downs the rest of the first half.

Lai even made a big play on defense, scooping up a fumbled pitch on the opening play of the second half and going in untouched from 33 yards out to make it 35-6, Commandos.

Ward had Cascia’s next TD, a 46-yard run later in the third.

Up 42-22, the Commandos started the fourth quarter on Lai’s 3-yard keeper for his fourth total TD on the night. Then with 3:56 left, Robertson had his third TD, catching a 9-yard pass from Lai.

“I was just looking at this game to set a precedent for the rest of the season,” Robertson said. “I tried to do what I could and our team did what they could and we came away with the win.”

Bristow’s lone first-half TD came on its initial offensive snap, as running back Kaden Hooks took a pitch around the right side and sprinted down the sideline from 69 yards out. The Pirates went for two, but a running play came up short, keeping Cascia Hall in front by a point, 7-6.

The Pirates scored two third-quarter touchdowns; a 61-yard sprint from sophomore tailback Darien Dansby and a 5-yard keeper from senior quarterback Ryder Goodwin.

Bristow finished with 242 yards of offense, all but 19 coming on the ground. Dansby rushed for 137 yards on 18 carries and had two two-point conversion runs to go along with his one touchdown.

Next week, Cascia Hall goes to Inola before returning home on Nov. 4 to take on Dewey in the regular-season finale. Bristow goes to defending 3A champion Holland Hall next week before the Pirates return home on Nov. 4 against Tulsa Central.