They say in sports it's hard to beat a team twice. And last Friday night the Oak Creek Knights proved why. They fended off Kenosha Bradford to advance to level two of the playoffs.
“It was pretty much a microcosm of our season where we played well in spots, didn't play well in spots,” explained Knights Head Coach Mike Bartholomew. “And we really did some things to ourselves throughout the season that really put us on the brink of not getting in [to the playoffs] and I was really proud of their ability to handle the adversity as it faced them.”
Oak Creek had to win their way into the playoffs. They did and had Kenosha Bradford waiting for them. The first time these two teams played earlier in the season, Oak Creek lost by one in the final seven seconds.
“Nobody really likes to lose that way,” said senior running back and captain Roy Harden. “It was a tough loss but we got back up and we knew we had them again and we said we're going to get them this time, so we got the job done.”
Like their first outing, the Knights came out strong, up 14-0 at the half. Only this time, they hung on to win 38-28.
“Good teams they have to change from each game,” said senior quarterback and captain Jakup Sinani. “We learned from all of our mistakes so that was really the biggest thing we feel that we accomplished.”
Now as they advance in the playoffs to play archrival Franklin, they hope to correct one more mistake and it’s clear what it is.
“No turnovers,” Harden said.
“Turnovers,” Sinani echoed. “The first time we played Franklin we had way too many turnovers.”
“We have to limit turnovers,” Coach Bartholomew said. “We turned the ball over four times against them the first time... And if we can limit our mistakes, turnovers, penalties, if we play together we can be pretty successful.”
Congratulations, Oak Creek Knights on being named TMJ4’s Football Frenzy Team of the Week.
