The surest sign of a mature football team is the ability to not look back — because that’s not where you’re going. Whatever happened to the Purple Pirates last week in Perkins did not matter. They knew where they were going — they were going to Bristow to reclaim the “Battle of the Boats” hardware.
The trophy rattled like loose change on Bristow’s sideline as Mannford’s defense made its final stand on a clear, loud Friday in Bristow. The storm known “Battle of the Boats” has a way of turning solid game plans into quivering gelatinous masses, but the Pirates from Mannford sailed straight into the storm and came out the other side grinning and hoisting the Boat trophy, 21–18.
“This was a great win for the Pirates,” said Mannford Head Coach Kenny Gooch. These kids played their guts out for four quarters. They deserved the result that they got. Super proud of the effort they put in.”
It wasn’t one lone ship taking the credit so much as the entire fleet. At the helm, senior quarterback Max Moore threw only seven passes, and that was by design — Mannford leaned on the kind of ground game that shortens nights and tests defenses. Junior hammer J. J. Hindsmancarried22timesfor 134 yards and a touchdown, with a 43-yard catch-andscamper TD thrown in to keep the secondary guessing. Senior Brayden Rodriguez ran the rock like he stole it — 14 carries, 120 yards, and a touchdown — while sophomore Luke Naylor knifed for 46 rushing yards and added a 17-yard grab that kept a drive alive. When coach called his number, Moore answered, darting for 39 yards on just two keepers, then flipping his mouth piece over and playing relentless defense — two-way football like it was 1981 again.
That’s the part Bristow didn’t bargain for: Mannford controlled the tempo, stacked first downs, chewed the clock, and made 65 snaps feel like 85. The Pirates won the line of scrimmage and the little moments in between — Naylor falling forward, Hindsman setting his pads to turn threes into sixes and Rodriguez popping chunk plays that made the Bristow drumline forget their cadence.
“We had amazing contributions from everyone offensively. We controlled the clock and the game,” said Gooch.
The numbers only tell part of it. Mannford out–firstdowned Bristow 17–16 and ran ten more plays, a siege in slow motion that forced the home side to ask the same question every series: When can they get off the field?
Mannford said, “not yet.” When Bristow made a push, the Mannford defense countered with a wave. Hindsman and Rodriguez each posted eight tackles and a tackle for loss; Naylor added seven more in space; senior Ricky Morgan scraped and filled for six; and Moore—yes, the quarterback—stacked up a game-high 10 tackles with two behind the line.
Behind the lines, it got nasty, as seniors Kendal Howard and Hagen Anderson combined for four sacks — that’s right, four, with junior Steven Condit adding another and Moore and Rodriguez splitting two more.
Poor Bristow. Hindsman picked off a pass, Morgan picked another, and Moore added one more — then later punted three times when Bristow was able to get a stop.
The stat sheet read like roll call with way more than 11 names getting on the list and that’s exactly how Gooch wanted it.
“Defensively, we stepped up after a bad outing last week. I am super proud of these seniors. They deserved it and they earned it,” said Gooch.
The keys to the win were fundamental, simple and old-fashioned. First, protect the football. The Pirates did. Second, trust the seniors. They did that — Anderson, Rodriguez, Morgan, Howard, and Moore took turns shutting doors in the fourth quarter. Third, make Bristow pay a bounty for every inch. On a rivalry night this intense when penalties could have cut either way, Mannford kept its head, absorbed the flags, and kept digging where the game lives: between the guards and at the sticks.
By the time the trophy switched hands and the crowd pressed against the railing, you could see what had changed since the stumble the week before. Mannford didn’t chase highlight plays; the Pirates stalked first downs and dared Bristow to match their patience. And at the end of the game, those boys were gassed. Tired. They left it all on the field with little to spare.
Mannford is 5–1, with a record that says a lot and a box score that says even more about how they did it.
“On to the next one. Lone Grove is a good football team. It is going to take another great effort on Thursday night of Fall Break. Long trip. Another chance to go 1-0! We’ll keep pushing to see what this team is capable of,” Gooch said, the emphasis fitting the week and the win.
There’s no rest in October, and there’s certainly no downhill stretches. The traveling trophy will look good in Mannford for a year, but Thursday brings a long bus ride and a district road test at Lone Grove. The Longhorns are 2–4 and licking wounds after a 53–21 loss to Sulphur, but road weeks have a way of inventing problems. Mannford’s blueprint? Likely lean on Hindsman and Rodriguez to move the ball, let Moore pick his shots, keep Naylor in the mix to keep ‘em honest, and turn Howard, Anderson, Condit and friends loose like the feral Pirates they are. On Friday night the Pirates went across the county and plundered the coveted Boat. Now they have to cross a ton of mile markers and prove themselves again.