SKIATOOK — With his team needing a touchdown to win in order to clinch a district title and with less than six minutes to play, Skiatook’s Brendon Babb took charge.
On Senior Night, the Bulldogs’ senior quarterback accounted for all but one yard in engineering an 80-yard drive to produce the go-ahead touchdown as Class 5A No. 2 Skiatook rallied to knock off No. 4 Bishop Kelley 13-10 Friday night at rain-soaked Hap Dunlap Field.
Babb capped the game-deciding drive by teaming up with Jaren Knight on a 5-yard TD pass with 2:57 to play to give Skiatook its first lead of the night. With the win, the Bulldogs (9-0, 6-0) clinched the District 5A-3 title.
The three-point victory marked the sixth time this season that Skiatook has won by seven points or fewer.
“The thing about this team is that they never quit,” Skiatook coach Vance Miller said. “They just find a way to win. This group of seniors have been doing this since they were itty bitty.”
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But for the largest share of the game, it appeared that it was going to be Bishop Kelley (6-2, 4-2) that would prevail.
The Comets scored on their opening possession on Hayden Ashley’s 24-yard field goal, and led 10-6 midway through the fourth quarter.
Ashley, however, misfired on a 30-yard field goal try with 5:40 remaining, and the Bulldogs took advantage.
Despite Skiatook having gained just 78 yards of offense and completing only 2 of 12 passes up to that point, Babb and the Bulldogs stepped up at crunch time — as they have done on several occasions this season.
“We had confidence that we could score,” Babb said. “I told everybody on the sideline (before the decisive drive) that we were going to score.”
Babb, who had been sacked for a 5-yard loss in his only carry up to that point, started the game-winning drive from the Bulldog 20-yard line by bolting for 23 yards.
He then added rushes of 6 and 4 yards as the Bulldogs drove to midfield.
“I wanted the ball in that situation,” Babb said. “It was my time. It was my time to prove myself.”
Babb then added his second big play of the drive when he connected with Knight on a 41-yard pass to the Comets 5. The pass completion was just the senior’s third of the evening.
After Babb was stopped by the defense for no gain on a keeper, he located Knight once again — this time on a misdirection play — for the winning touchdown.
Babb said he never saw Knight make the go-ahead catch in the left corner of the end zone.
“Once I threw it, I took a great shot (from a Kelley defender) and hit the ground,” he said.
Skiatook’s late heroics sent Bishop Kelley home with a loss in a game that it controlled statistically.
The Comets held nearly a 100-yard advantage in rushing yards (183-84) and ran 57 offensive plays to just 42 for Skiatook.
Comet running back Jacob Percy (83 yards) and quarterback Jack Woolslayer (76 yards) pierced the Bulldog defense on the ground throughout the game.
After his first-quarter field goal, Ashley added a 7-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to give Bishop Kelley a 10-0 lead.
But later in the quarter Ashley muffed a punt and the Bulldogs’ Grant Appelberg recovered the loose ball at the Comet 22.
After Babb was sacked, he hit Shae Garner on a big 26-yard pass over the middle to the Kelley 1-yard line. Three plays later, Garner went off the right side for a touchdown from two yards out to pull Skiatook to within 10-6 with 3:43 to go in the third quarter.





