The Oakdale High School football team has had a rollercoaster of a season this year, with tremendous wins and embarrassing losses. They had just come off of a terrible loss against Fort Hill on October 2, but against Gwynn Park, they were under even more pressure to win because it was their homecoming game. 

    As  soon as the game started, Oakdale began to rev up the crowd with a few touchdowns, and it soon became clear that they would control the pace and momentum of the match. Gwynn Park’s defensive strategy was crumbling, and they couldn’t get a spark on the offensive end either. 

  In fact, Oakdale was outplaying Gwynn Park so much that their coach let bench players get some action. Players such as Defensive tackle Michael Long and wide receiver Kyle Malone got about 25 minutes of playing time each. When asked what his goals were for the game, Malone stated, “ I wanted to get in a little bit…I’m not a starter so I eventually did, and one of my goals was to at least beat them by a lot, and I think we accomplished that.” 

In the second half, with the score at 25-0, Gwynn Park looked slightly more energized, and made defensive plays that were encouraging for their fans, but they still could not get any points on the scoreboard. By the fourth quarter, Gwynn Park was visibly discouraged, and their level of effort decreased with every passing minute. Oakdale took advantage of their disheartened demeanor and took over the game once more, eventually winning the game 47-0. When asked how he felt about the win, Long voiced, “We really wanted to show everyone that doubted us that we can play, and we can win…It feels amazing, we came off two losses… It feels really good to win at Homecoming and win at home.”

Oakdale has had a rich history of winning. Ever since 2010, they have just gotten drastically better en route to a conference championship in 2016 and ultimately a state championship in 2018. This season the team wishes to bring back championship glory to Oakdale High School, and although it’s been an up-and-down season, every single player on the team has faith that they can win states.