To say that Sequoyah has sizzled this regular season in finishing 10-0, averaging 416.8 yards per game in total offense and 41.2 points going into Friday night’s opening round Class 2A playoff game at home against Sperry would be pretty accurate.

It would also be correct to say that coach Brent Scott spent the summer sizzling over his team’s preseason struggle. Before taking that first snap in the season opener against Fort Gibson, the Indians struggled with their play and Scott struggled with his demeanor.

“We went to a passing tournament in Oklahoma City in July and we were embarrassed,” he said. “We didn’t win one game. I told the players right then, ‘When are you going to turn this around?’ We took a kicking in our team camps here and at Muskogee.

“I was pretty frustrated with how we played.”

Chris Hummingbird, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior linebacker, remembers the question.

“Maybe it was because it was the summer and we weren’t thinking about football that much,” came the answer, in retrospect this week.

Moving to late August and the Indians are in the second of two scrimmages. Ryker Salazar, a 5-9, 195-pound senior running back, took a handoff and scampered 50 yards for a touchdown.

Things quickly changed for the Indians after that.

“That showed us what we could do,” said Hummingbird, now the team leader in tackles with 51. “Ryker stepped up. That got us pumped up and motivated that if all of us do our job, we can do this.”

Scott smiles now about that moment.

“We’ve been running ever since,” the Sequoyah coach said.

Sometimes, all it takes is one play to turn around a season or set the course for one. Salazar, the team’s leading rusher with 1,316 yards and 19 touchdowns, doesn’t want anyone to think he turned the team around all by himself but he’s happy with the way his team changed after that long run.

“It gave us a lot of momentum,” he said. “We started playing better and we got things rolling. We also have a lot of confidence going into (Friday).”

The Indians go into the game ranked No. 3 in the final Associated Press Class 2A poll, while 6-4 Sperry, which played 3A No. 6 Claremore Sequoyah and 2A No. 2 Lincoln Christian, is unranked.

Sequoyah’s success this season hasn’t changed its attitude, especially going into the opening round of the playoffs.

“We’re not underestimating or overestimating Sperry,” Salazar said. “We won district (2A-8), but we’re not thinking about that. We’re just thinking about Sperry right now.”

Salazar is also encouraged by his team’s demeanor now.

“The one thing I’ve really noticed is that other teams we’ve had looked ahead and not thinking about the team coming up,” he said. “No offense to those other guys. I love all of them. We’re now talking about getting better and playing Sperry as hard as we can. We know we’re really good, but we don’t want to get the big head about it.”

Though just a freshman, starting quarterback Brayden Scott, Brent’s son, sees the focus on this year’s team.

“We want to be better than we are right now,” he said. “We want to be better in everything we do.”