It comes down to this: Want to play at home or travel 3 or more hours by bus next Friday for the first round of the Class A state championship playoffs?That’s how Head Coach Mike Kirtley is viewing this week’s final district game between Tonkawa and Woodland.Kick off is at 7 p.m. Friday at Buc Stadium. And the weatherman says expect it to be wet. Both teams are deadlocked behind Hominy with identical league records of 5-1. The winner finishes second and gets to host the first round playoff game. The loser goes on the road to Hartshorne or Allen.Woodland is “really good, athletic and well-coached,” Kirtley said. Their offense is similar to Chelsea’s scheme. “They will run anything from a double tight to a single wing to a spread. Defensively, they’ll be in a four front most of the time because of their size and strength.”Kirtley predicts two things will be on the mind of both teams. “We’ll be deciding who gets to play at home or travel three hours by bus.”So what do the Bucs have to do to win? “We’ll have to play like we did last Friday night against Chelsea. We gotta keep takeaways to a minimum or least stay on the positive side and keep penalties to a minimum. We had way too many last week” -- the Bucs were penalized 11 times for 110 yards.Woodland is 6-3 on the year. They beat Commerce 44-15 then lost a couple of close calls to Newkirk 30-31 and Pawhuska 46-48 before reeling off five straight wins over Chelsea 29-14, Chouteau 22-0, Pawnee 24-0, OK Union 46-0 and Morrison 28-8 before losing to Hominy last week 20-33.On the Chelsea 48-14 win last Friday, Kirtley said “Our defense got to the ball and tackled really well, way better than we did vs. Hominy. We got off our blocks and made our assignments. Offensively, we ran and passed very well -- very balanced.”Kirtley said he was “proud of the kids for overcoming Homecoming distractions. “If we play like that every week from now on we’ll have a chance to compete and win.”
