MANNFORD - The Pirates had spent three weeks discovering that District 4A-4 has horrible hospitality and a no refund policy.
Thursday, the Pirates finally got to do the shoving.
Behind a ground game that produced 324 yards and a defense that refused to allow a single point, Mannford rolled past visiting Tulsa McLain 37-0 last Thursday, ending a three-game skid with style. Now Mannford’s postseason hopes are exponentially more hopeful.
They got themselves a district win.
The Pirates improved to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in district play. McLain dropped to 2-5 and 0-4.
For Mannford, the significance stretched beyond getting back above .500 overall. After opening the season with three victories, the Pirates had scored a combined 13 points in losses to Poteau, Sallisaw and Hilldale. That stretch had turned a promising September into an October spent peeking at the standings through spread fingers.
Against McLain, Mannford found room to breathe — and plenty of room to run.
J.J. Hindsman carried 28 (not a typo) times for 137 yards and a touchdown, averaging nearly five yards a trip. His workload supplied the framework for an offense that generated 349 total yards, with almost 93 percent of that on the ground.
Still, the passing game made its one recorded attempt count. Kayden Leslie connected with CJ Russell for a 25-yard touchdown. One for one passing, one TD.
Most offensive coordinators need three assistants operating giant sideline flip boards featuring Squidward, the Waffle House logo and a poop emoji to achieve that kind of efficiency.
On Thursday, Mannford gave itself something it had been sorely missing during the losing streak: an early cushion. The Pirates led 14-0 after the first quarter and 17-0 at halftime, then pushed the advantage to 24-0 through three quarters before adding 13 fourth-quarter points.
McLain’s side of the scoreboard was unemployed the entire night.
Here’s why. Cooper Dodd, Hindsman and Ryder Tidwell each recorded a sack. Fred Giles and Leslie intercepted passes, giving the Pirates contributions from the pass rush and the secondary in their second shutout of the season.
Mannford had also blanked Cleveland 40-0 in September. This one arrived with considerably more urgency. The Pirates needed to stop losing ground in the district race. They accomplished that. Now comes the considerably weightier business of keeping it up.
The Pirates travel to Ada on Oct. 23, host Stilwell on Oct. 30 and finish at Broken Bow on Nov. 6.
Apparently, OSSAA felt the final exam needed to finish with 2,500-word essays.
Ada is the immediate opportunity. Their 2-5 overall record looks like an easy target until the district column enters the conversation. The Cougars have two district victories and remain directly ahead of Mannford in the playoff chase.
Beating Ada would pull the Pirates even at 2-3 and give Mannford the head-to-head advantage between them. Losing would leave Mannford 1-4, with its final two games against teams currently sporting a combined 12-2 overall record.
This is a mightily persuasive argument for the Pirates to treat Friday like it’s win or go home.
The season outlook demands restrained optimism. McLain was a nice win, but beating the district’s last-place only gives the illusion of closing the gap on district leaders.
But a 5-5 finish is a reasonable target: beat Ada, then try to steal a victory from Stilwell or Broken Bow. That would leave Mannford 2-5 in district play if they lost the last two games.
To make the postseason conversation interesting, Mannford needs at least two victories over the final three weeks. That would produce a 6-4 overall record and a 3-4 district finish, although help from the outside might still be necessary. Earlier losses to Poteau and Hilldale complicate potential ties.
Winning all three would put the Pirates at 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the district, giving them a much stronger playoff argument — likely a shoe-in. Even then, the final order could depend on other results and applicable tiebreakers.
The most defensible projection today is a fifththrough- seventh-place district finish, with a playoff berth requiring Mannford to outperform what it has shown against the district’s stronger opponents. Thursday gave the Pirates a reason to believe they can change that projection.
Friday at Ada will tell considerably more about whether they really can.