Stiff tests ahead for top-ranked teams

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The top-ranked teams in The Associated Press' Oklahoma high school poll rolled to sizeable victories to maintain their No. 1 rankings last week, but ranked foes linger for three

Wednesday, October 20th 2004, 7:43 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The top-ranked teams in The Associated Press' Oklahoma high school poll rolled to sizeable victories to maintain their No. 1 rankings last week, but ranked foes linger for three of the squads on a busy Thursday across the state.

Each of the state's top-ranked teams _ Jenks in 6A, Carl Albert in 5A, Clinton in 4A, Kingfisher in 3A, Sulphur in 2A, Pawnee in Class A, Weleetka in Class B and Shattuck in Class C _ won by at least 21 points as there were no changes at the top of any of the eight classes.

But Clinton, Kingfisher and Sulphur each face ranked opponents as football action shifts from Friday to Thursday for most of Oklahoma.

Clinton, which beat Edmond-Deer Creek 35-14 last week, will play a fifth-ranked Piedmont team that moved into the top 5 after losses by No. 5 Star Spencer and No. 6 Poteau last week.

Quarterback Kerry Johnson had the game-winning touchdown run as No. 2 Ada beat Star Spencer 22-16 in overtime to keep its ranking while No. 3 Broken Bow maintained its position with a 7-0 win against Poteau.

Oologah kept its No. 4 spot, followed by Piedmont, Star Spencer and Fort Gibson. Poteau fell into a tie at No. 8 with Cushing.

Kingfisher (7-0), which won its 21st game in a row with a 21-0 shutout of Perkins last week, heads to No. 9 Bristow on Thursday. It's the second ranked opponent in three weeks for the Yellowjackets, who beat Tuttle two weeks ago.

The rest of the top 5 in Class 3A was unchanged as No. 2 Seminole, No. 3 Berryhill and No. 4 Victory Christian remained undefeated and No. 5 Eufaula moved to 6-1 with a 43-34 win against Hugo.

Class 2A features a meeting of undefeated teams as top-ranked Sulphur (7-0) takes on No. 4 Davis (7-0). Both teams were state finalists last season _ Sulphur lost in the 3A finals to Kingfisher while Davis lost to Bethany in the 2A championship. The winner of Thursday's game will emerge as the leader of a difficult District 5, which also features No. 10 Tishomingo (6-1).

No. 2 Heritage Hall and No. 3 Kansas also remain undefeated at 7-0.

In notable games from last week:

_Tulsa Union kept its No. 2 ranking in 6A with a 50-10 win against Enid, which fell from No. 7 out of the Top 10 with the loss.

_Midwest City moved from No. 8 to No. 5 in 6A with a 34-14 win against Westmoore, which dropped from No. 5 to No. 8.

_Claremore improved from No. 10 to No. 8 in 5A after a 16-13 overtime win against Tulsa East Central, which dropped from No. 4 to No. 9. Claremore faces 10th-ranked Catoosa this week.

_Waukomis, which upset Morrison a week earlier to move into the Class B rankings, lost to Oklahoma Bible 24-0 to fall from No. 3 back out of the Top 5. Morrison took over the No. 5 spot behind Weleetka, Foyil, Gans and Pioneer.