NORMAN — Norman North fans won’t have to worry about divided loyalties come Friday. The basketball season was scheduled to kick off that night, but the games have been rescheduled due to the Class 6A state title game that night, where North will meet Jenks for the championship.
The Timberwolves have rescheduled their planned contests against Midwest City for Jan. 7 on the Bombers’ home court.
Evans adds another touchdown return: Linebacker and kick returner Jordan Evans makes teams plan differently, thanks to how dangerous he has been on returns this year.
The senior entered Friday’s semifinal game against Owasso with four touchdowns this season on returns, including one against Broken Arrow in the second round of the playoffs that changed the game.
It was clear that Owasso went out of its way to keep the ball out of his hands. The Rams tried kicking it to the opposite side of the field. They tried squib kicking it. They tried to kick it out of the end zone.
But Evans was able to get his hands on the ball several times, and he made the Rams pay on one in the second quarter. He took the kick on the 30-yard line and danced his way down the sideline, sidestepping a pair of would-be tacklers near the 10-yard line and making his way into the end zone for his fifth touchdown return of the year.
“I knew that I would have some chances, and I just tried to make the most of them,” Evans said after the game.
T-Wolves overcome turnovers: Norman North ran into some problems in the turnover category on Friday. The T-Wolves lost two fumbles and threw two picks while only forcing a single giveaway from the Rams.
But while the turnovers hurt the Timberwolves, they were able to overcome them with strong defense, particular on several fourth-quarter first downs, and big plays from the special teams, mainly on big returns from Bryan Payne and Evans.
“We knew they were good, but we all came together as a team and stepped up,” linebacker Jaxon Uhles said.
Cramps don’t slow down Gasso: North linebacker DJ Gasso went down on the field several times late in North’s victory on Friday. Luckily, it wasn’t an injury bringing him down, it was instead a simple case of leg cramps.
Unfortunately for Gasso, they were cramps that wouldn’t go away. Trainers had to take the field several times to assist him in the fourth quarter, but Gasso was able to fight through the pain and come up with several huge plays.
The first came late in the game, when he was able to make an unassisted tackle behind the line of scrimmage on an Owasso fourth-and-goal. He also had a huge pass breakup on the Rams’ next drive that helped to secure the victory for North.
“There was no way I was going to come off just because of some cramps,” he said. “It may have been pure adrenaline, but I was going to fight through them no matter what.”
Corbin HoslerFollow me @Chosler88chosler@normantranscript.com
For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.
