FOOTBALL: Gaines delivers night of firsts as Claremore beats Collinsville for second

COLLINSVILLE — It was a night of firsts for Ayden Gaines.

First, the Claremore senior threw his first pass of the season. It went for a touchdown.

Then, on his first carry of the game, he raced 68 yards for another score.

But neither meant quite as much as what happened when the final seconds ticked away Friday night. For the first time in his high school career, Gaines had beaten Collinsville.

During his three years at Oologah, Gaines endured three lopsided losses to the Cardinals, who outscored the Mustangs 124-31 in those meetings.

Not this time.

Gaines accounted for 153 yards of offense and 2 touchdowns as the Zebras defeated Collinsville 26-21, securing second place in District 5A-4 and a home playoff game.

“Oh, it was amazing,” Gaines said. “Just the fact that I can get one on them means a lot.”

The victory was Claremore’s first at Sallee Field since 2013, snapping a five-game losing streak at the venue. The Zebras have now beaten the Cardinals three times in four years after losing seven consecutive meetings from 2016-22.

Claremore coach Jarrett Hurt praised his team’s resilience after another closely contested victory.

“It’s hard to win over here,” said Hurt, whose program is now 15-3 in one-score games since 2023. “Coach [Kevin] Jones and his staff do a super job. They play super defense. They run the ball well, as you can see. It’s very difficult to win at Collinsville. They’ve got a great tradition here.

“I’ll tell you what, the best team won tonight, and we had the best player on our team, No. 11, Ayden Gaines. So glad he’s a Zebra.”

Claremore [7-3, 6-1] closed the regular season with five consecutive victories after a 2-3 start and will host Sapulpa in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs next Friday at Lantow Field.

For Gaines, who never reached the postseason at Oologah, that will bring another career first.

“I’m feeling excited,” he said. “I feel like we’re pretty evenly matched. We’re just going to try to do the same thing we’ve been doing the past five weeks.”

Gaines wasted little time making his presence felt.

On the Zebras’ opening possession, he took a direct snap, rolled right and connected with Major Poole-Cain for a 25-yard touchdown pass with 9:45 remaining in the first quarter.

“It meant a lot,” Gaines said. “It was the first score of the game. Set the tone. That was a good start for us.”

However, Collinsville [5-5, 5-2] responded after a roughing-the-kicker penalty extended its possession.

Quarterback Carter Vaughan found Beau Daniels wide open for a 36-yard touchdown pass, tying the game at 7 with 6:21 remaining. Daniels struck again later in the quarter, scoring on a 22-yard run to give the Cardinals a 14-7 advantage.

But Claremore answered in the second quarter behind a fourth-down gamble.

Facing a critical situation, quarterback Kellen Gaede connected with Jahiem Ewen for a 44-yard gain. Three plays later, Gaede scored on a 2-yard run to tie the game at 14 with 5:11 remaining before halftime.

Gaede completed 9 of 12 passes for 113 yards and rushed for 24 yards and a touchdown on 5 carries.

The Zebras then capitalized on a Collinsville mistake in the closing seconds when Ewen recovered a fumble at the Claremore 32 with 22 seconds remaining. On the next play, Gaines took a direct snap and broke free for a 68-yard touchdown run.

The extra-point attempt failed, but the Zebras carried a 20-14 lead into halftime.

Gaines finished with 72 yards and a touchdown on 3 carries, completed his only pass for 25 yards and a score and caught 7 passes for 56 yards.

His performance continued a remarkable stretch that has gained him recognition as one of the Tulsa World’s top-10 players in the region.

“I mean, my whole life is consistent,” Gaines said. “[Every time] I wake up for game day, it’s the same routine every night and every morning.”

Collinsville needed just one play to regain the lead after halftime, with Daniels breaking loose for a 76-yard touchdown run, putting the Cardinals ahead 21-20.

The senior running back finished with 223 yards and 2 touchdowns on 27 carries while adding 2 receptions for 58 yards and another score.

“He’s a dynamic athlete,” Hurt said. “We’ve got to stop the run. You’ve got to be able to stop the run.”

Despite Daniels’ production, Claremore prevented Collinsville from scoring again.

The Zebras regained the lead when sophomore Kannon Kinnard scored on a 16-yard run with 6:47 remaining in the third quarter. The two-point conversion failed, leaving Claremore ahead 26-21.

Kinnard finished with 107 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, following his 5-touchdown, 172-yard performance against Pryor.

But his most important carries came in the final minutes.

After the Zebras turned the ball over on downs at the Collinsville 26 with 5:12 remaining, the Cardinals mounted one final possession.

The Claremore defense forced Collinsville into fourth-and-13 at its own 39 with 2:38 remaining, and on the ensuing play, Levi Robinson and Kaden Conley combined for a strip sack of Vaughan, and Preston Hollis recovered the fumble at the Cardinal 37.

Hurt said the defense’s priority on Collinsville’s final possession was forcing the Cardinals away from their rushing attack.

“We wanted to take away the run and make them throw the football because we thought that was to our advantage,” he said. “Turned out we were right.”

The Zebras then turned to Kinnard, who delivered consecutive 6-yard runs for a first down, allowing them to run out the clock.

“I’m just glad that they can believe in me because I can go out there and do it,” Kinnard said. “It’s kind of all like a dream, man. It’s crazy out here, but I’m glad because I’m getting to live my dream.”

Like Gaines, Kinnard said the victory also carried additional meaning after years of struggling against Collinsville.

“Growing up, I’ve always been losing to them,” he said. “It feels so good to beat them.”

Claremore finished with 326 yards of offense, including 188 rushing and 138 passing. The rushing total included three kneel-downs that lost 15 yards on the final possession.

Before those plays, the Zebras had gained 203 yards rushing, averaging 6.2 yards per carry.

“You’ve got to be able to run the football this time of year in Oklahoma to win football games,” Hurt said.

The Cardinals finished with 294 yards, including 219 rushing and 75 passing.

Although Collinsville averaged 7.1 yards per carry, Claremore held it to just 1-of-8 on third-down conversions. The Cardinals did, however, convert 2 fourth downs.

The Zebras also forced 2 fumbles, giving them 7 takeaways over their final two regular-season games against Pryor and Collinsville. That brings the defense to 15 turnovers during the five-game winning streak.

“We preach turnovers all the time,” Hurt said. “That’s how you win. You’ve got to create turnovers if you’re on defense. That gives you extra possessions. When you’ve got a guy like Ayden Gaines, you just need a couple of extra possessions, and he’s going to do something magical.”

The victory also secured Claremore’s second-place district finish after the Zebras entered the season projected by some to finish fourth.

Hurt credited the team’s challenging nondistrict schedule with preparing his players for close games. All three games against Sallisaw, Bartlesville and Muskogee were decided by one possession.

“We said at the beginning of the year that our nondistrict schedule was going to be the difference,” he said. “We lost a couple of those, but I’ll tell you what, it’s paying off right now. We’ve won a lot of one-possession games over the years here because our kids have a lot of heart, a lot of character, a lot of grit, and that showed up tonight.”

Claremore now turns its attention to Sapulpa [7-3], which finished third in District 5A-3 and enters the playoffs riding a three-game winning streak.

The teams last met in the opening round of the 2023 postseason, when the Zebras escaped with a 48-47 victory after the Chieftains’ unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempt. Claremore went on to defeat Elgin 7-6 in the quarterfinals before falling to Del City 34-13 in the semifinals.

A victory over Sapulpa this time would likely set up a quarterfinal matchup against four-time defending Class 5A state champion Carl Albert.

“Our guys have overachieved in a big-time way, according to everybody else, not to us,” Hurt said. “So to play at home is huge. We know it’s going to be another hard-fought game. They’re a very good football team. They’ve got some outstanding athletes, and we’ve got our work cut out for us.

“Our theme this year is ‘Dream Big,’ and we’re still dreaming. We’re not done yet.”