Plainview football gets win and some help to clinch District 3A-2 Championship

The Plainview High School football team celebrated its District 3A-2 Championship in an unusual location Friday night. The Indians, who had already beaten Pauls Valley, stayed on the field watching the final minutes of Sulphur at Lone Grove on their cell phones.

And once the score went final, it was pure jubilation.

“The kids were super excited about it,” said Plainview head coach Joe Price. “We had to sit there and listen to the end of the Lone Grove at Sulphur game. But once everybody knew that deal went down, everybody was whooping and hollering.”

And that celebration started when the Indians took care of business in a 41-21 victory over Pauls Valley. It was never in doubt though, as Plainview scored early and never looked back.

“The big focus during the week was making sure we played well and played within what we were trying to do,” Price said. “And just executing really well. That’s the big thing. We were trying to get the kids to make sure our execution was good. We had the right intensity when we started the game.”

That mentality should pay off down the stretch, as the Indians look to make a deep playoff run. However, it might have been a different story if Plainview's seniors didn’t meet with the coaching staff following a 42-34 loss to Lone Grove on Oct. 14.

Price mentioned that they were upset about the setback and wanted to correct the mistakes by watching film and doing the little things that would make them better.

“I’m really proud of this bunch of seniors,” Price said. “They’ve had good leadership for the other kids and done a great job of bouncing back from a loss against Lone Grove that a lot of other teams might have said, ‘Our season is over now that we’re not in first place anymore,’ or something like that. But these guys just put their heads down and went back to work. Everything they could do to win a district title, they went and did it.”

The Indians now have home-field advantage on their side for a pair of playoff games, with the first being a matchup with Kingfisher at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 12.

Only time will tell how far Plainview advances this season, but this year’s seniors have plenty of familiarity with the postseason as they were sophomores on the 2019 squad that made it to the state championship game.

“I remember all those guys playing against Verdigris because we were way ahead in that semifinal game,” Price said. “Really in all those playoff games, we were enough ahead that those guys played. … There’s some experience factor there that hopefully will help us down the road through this whole deal.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Ardmoreite: Plainview football gets win and some help to clinch district title