Douglass, Star Spencer playoff look-ahead

After a brutal stretch of back-to-back 14-7 losses to McGuinness and Weatherford, Douglass needs a strong finish to make the playoffs and, even if they do, avoid a No. 4 seed coming out of 4A-1.

I don’t think that’ll be an issue for Douglass. The Trojans’ defense will be too tough for Woodward this week (which would officially give Douglass a playoff berth) and Piedmont the week after shouldn’t offer too much resistance. And though Douglass officially stands in fourth right now, with Weatherford (5-0), McGuinness (4-1) and Elk City (4-1) ahead of them, that’s a bit deceptive. Elk City still has games against Weatherford and McGuinness remaining and Douglass already holds a 24-9 win over the Elks.

So barring something crazy, Douglass is going to finish third in 4A-1 and be forced to the road to beging the playoffs. This is where it gets interesting.

In the first round, they’ll play the second-place finisher in District 4A-2. Both of the possibilities there offer plenty of intrigue. It appears that district will come down to next week’s showdown at Glenpool between the top-ranked Warriors and Star Spencer. A Glenpool win would mean a rematch of Douglass-Star Spencer in the first round. Douglass beat Star Spencer 34-28 in the season’s second week but Star came on strong in that game and has consistently gotten better as the season goes on.  A Star Spencer win there would send Douglass to Glenpool, where they’d have to face Marco Nelson, Glenpool’s very talented running back who is committed to Tulsa.