They’ll take it.

The Oak Harbor High School football coaches weren’t sure what they would get heading into the Monroe game Thursday, Nov. 4. Now that’s it’s over, they’ll take the 55-6 season-ending win.

Playing a non-counting game at the end of the year can be tricky, and it wouldn’t have been surprising had Oak Harbor come out and played like it would rather have been somewhere else.

The Wildcats (6-4) had their playoff hopes crushed last week in the league finale and had hoped to be entering the first round of the tournament this week, not in Monroe (3-7) playing a game that had little bearing on the season. Also, Oak Harbor was missing a handful of players because of injuries and athletic code violations.

To top it off, they were facing Monroe, a team that was talented enough to finish tied for second in the Wesco 4A division and would have won the league title had it won its final conference game.

If the Oak Harbor coaches were worried their team would come out flat, Josiah Miller took care of that when he gave the Wildcats an emotional boost by scooting around left end for 39 yards on the game’s first play. From there the Wildcats never stopped.

The Oak Harbor offense produced a pounding ground game that punished the Bearcats. The Wildcats never punted and threw just three passes.

Defensively, the stone-wall front completely shut down the Bearcat running game and harassed QB Joey Roppo all night.

And, the Oak Harbor special teams were, well, special, returning two punts for touchdowns and blocking a punt for a safety.

After Miller started the first Oak Harbor drive with his 39-yard lightning strike, the ‘Cats were hit with two penalties for a first-and-25. Miller took care of most of that with a 20-yard run and Oak Harbor eventually scored when John Lanningham took it in from the 3. Peter Franssen kicked his first of five PAT’s.

After Monroe punted, Oak Harbor drove 71 yards, with Lanningham doing most of the damage, for its next score. Zach Ayer’s three-yard carry finished the drive.

The second quarter belonged to Miller.

First he returned a punt 44 yards for a score.

Then he capped a 61-yard drive with a 10-yard TD run. The drive featured Oak Harbor’s only pass completion of the night when Jordan Oliver hit Conner Meyer for 31 yards.

Then Miller added a second 43-yard punt return for a six.

Monroe scored its only touchdown just before half and Oak Harbor led at the break 34-6. It could have been worse for the Bearcats. Another Oak Harbor drive, set up by Denzel Massey’s interception and 20-yard return, died at the Monroe 9.

On Oak Harbor’s first drive of the second half, Miller scored again on a 45-yarder, but it was wiped out by a holding call. Sam Wolfe got most of it back with a 34-yard run, then Isaiah Trower scored from the 14.

Miller’s 41-yard burst set up the next TD, a 3-yarder by Trower.

Franssen’s 24-yard run recorded the Wildcats’ final touchdown.

Aaron Boesch finished the scoring when he blocked a Monroe punt that rolled out of the end zone for a safety.

Oak Harbor piled up 392 rushing yards, led by Miller who finished with 108 yards on 10 carries. Wolfe had 91 on only five carries; Lanningham 85 on 14 and Ayer 71 on 10. The Wildcats averaged over 8 yards per rush.

Oliver was 1-for-3 passing for 31 yards and one interception.

Even with all the distractions, the Wildcats had a good week of practice, head coach Jay Turner said.

He said they were worried about Monroe’s passing game (Roppo was one yard from the Wesco North passing lead), so they “invented” some new defenses to “get pressure.”

Defensive lineman Boesch, Kyle Frank and Brent Ryan challenged Roppo all night, leading a strong effort from the Wildcat D.

Turner added, “We wanted to send the seniors out on the right note and get the young guys off to a good start for next year.”

Mission accomplished.