Red Oak stuns OA-BCIG 20-7 in district opener

The Red Oak football team made a lot of noise in Class 2A District 8 Friday night when they defeated Odebolt-Arthur-Battle Creek-Ida Grove. Red Oak (1-2 overall, 1-0 district) knocked off OA-BCIG 20-7 to get their first win this season.“It felt really good and I give credit to the kids. They did one heck of a job,” Red Oak football Coach Barry Bower said. “They executed the game plan accordingly and played as a team and that’s what I love about them.”Evan Mellott had two touchdowns and 70 yards rushing, while quarterback Carlos Guerra scored a third rushing touchdown to score the upset win on the road.Mellott’s first touchdown came on a one-yard run with 8:29 left in the first quarter. Red Oak missed the extra point, but the lead was 6-0. “We have some schemes that kind of worked to our benefit,” Bower said. “When you can pop it about five yards per time, we’re going to keep doing it.”The next Mellott touchdown came with 4:13 left in the quarter on a two-yard run. Red Oak made the point after try and led 13-0, which would be the score at halftime.“Once you start to execute and put in that effort, I think anything is possible and that’s what our kids did,” Bower said.OA-BCIG stayed in the game thanks to a Cash Wilcke 18-yard touchdown pass to Ben Dotzler. OA-BCIG trailed 13-7 heading into the fourth quarter.However, Guerra put the game away with a one-yard touchdown run with 2:49 left in the game. Evan Drake’s PAT was good and OA-BCIG was kept in check.Guerra only threw two passes in the game, completing one for 19 yards to Phillip Decker.“Carlos did a nice job of stepping in and leading the team and I think the kids really backed him to the fullest and you could tell that on Friday night,” Bower said.Guerra played quarterback for Ryan Leininger, who did not play for undisclosed reasons. Brock Isaacson led Red Oak in rushing Friday night as he carried the ball 42 times for 186 yards.The Tiger defense played a key role in the OA-BCIG win as they gave up 225 total yards and forced five turnovers (three interceptions and two fumbles.“One of the things we did was we didn’t get out of position,” Bower said. “I think everybody had their purpose, they did their jobs and once everybody communicates in that process, then it’s going to be good.”Decker had one of the interceptions and also recovered two fumbles. Austin Streicher and Nick Black had the other interceptions. Streicher led the team in tackles with 15. Tanner Gilliland and Brendon Birt each had eight tackles, while Nathan Guffey recorded four.The Tigers lost last year’s meeting with OA-BCIG, at home, 52-12.Red Oak will try to get to 2-0 in the district this week when they host Greene County at Benda Field. Greene County is 0-3 and fresh off a 19-15 home loss to Shenandoah last week. In last year’s meeting, Greene County defeated the Tigers 28-0. The win proved to be a difference in terms of playoff seeding. Greene County eventually attained the third seed, while Red Oak took fourth.The action kicks off at 7 p.m.