Oakes, ND (NewsDakota.com) – The Oakes Tornados are going back to the playoffs for the 8th straight year despite losing to #4 Central Cass in their final home game of the season by a score of 34-8.
The game started out well for the Squirrels as they marched down the field and into the Oakes red zone but the defense would stop them from scoring and force a turnover on downs. Oakes would take over but Beau Thorpe would be picked of by Colton Cruchet who would return the ball to the endzone for the pick six. They’d get the extra point making it 7-0. The Squirrels would score again in the 1st as Brody Kegley would connect with Kale Pearson to make it 14-0 just a few minutes later.
The Tornados offense would continue to struggle as they couldn’t get much of a run game going into the 2nd quarter and several dropped passes would also stymie several drives. Oakes would eventually get to the red zone only to be stopped again by Central Cass. The Squirrels would get back on the board late in the half with a 27 yard pass to Pearson again would make it 21-0 heading to half time.
The Tornadoes would show glimpses of life with several explosive run and passing plays to start off the 2nd half but they still could not find their way into the end zone. Central Cass’ fast paced offense however kept Oakes’ defense on the back foot as the Squirrels would score again off of a Cruchet 4 yard run to make it 28-0 through 3 quarters of play.
The Squirrels would score again from Cruchet in the 4th quarter on a 1 yard run to make it 34-0. On the ensuing kick off however Reese Nitschke would run the ball 85 yards back to the house to get Oakes on the board 34-6. Oakes would get 2 more off of Jack Thorpe stopping a run in the Central Cass’ end zone on the ensuing drive to force a safety making it 34-8 for the final score.
Despite the loss Oakes will make it back to the playoffs due to Kindred beating Thompson 52-13 and EEK beating Northern Cass 35-14. Oakes is locked in as the 4 seed from Region 1 and will play in either Langdon or Harvey-Wells County depending on this weeks results in Region 2. A LEM win against Grafton on Thursday would send Oakes to Langdon, while a LEM loss and HWC win against Park River Area on Saturday would send Oakes to Harvey in the first round of the postseason.
Central Cass on the other hand already had clinched a playoff berth and will now play #5 EEK on Friday in Casselton for the #2 seed from Region 1.
Oakes will play their final regular season game on Friday against the #1 Kindred Vikings in Kindred. The game will start at 7:00 pm with pregame on KDDR The Tornado starting at 6:30 pm.