Seiling QB Kaden Manuel runs over Velma-Alma leading Wildcats to Class B football title

BETHANY — Kaden Manuel made sure a state title didn’t slip out of reach this time.

The Seiling senior quarterback remembered the disappointing feeling of settling for a runner-up trophy last season, so he did exactly what he needed for a different result.

He scored every one of his team’s touchdowns.

Seiling rolled past Velma-Alma, 48-16, for the Class B state title Friday night at Southern Nazarene University Football Stadium with seven touchdowns from Kaden in his high school football finale. The top-ranked Wildcats (15-0) captured their first state championship since 1988 and their sole crown under seventh-year head coach Gary Manuel, Kaden’s father.

After Kaden took a knee with time expiring in the fourth quarter, he could finally share the emotions of the moment with his dad.

“Man, it’s truly a blessing,” Gary said. “I couldn’t be more happy for him because he really wanted this. He felt like last year, especially the state championship game, he felt like he let his team down, and he was looking forward to this today.

“He was bound and determined to make sure we went home with the gold ball.”

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That determination surfaced with every triumphant trip to the end zone.

Kaden, who finished with 27 carries for 355 yards, capped Seiling’s opening drive with a 5-yard touchdown rush. After Velma-Alma took the lead, he erased it with a 25-yard score. When defenders chased him out of the pocket, he simply veered left and found a crease for his third touchdown.

Then he elevated his game with his fourth excursion to the end zone, spurting into a gap and accelerating for a 78-yard romp while leaving a defender at his heels.

All of this happened before halftime.

Kaden concluded the first half with five touchdowns, so the Wildcats were in a safe spot as they headed to the locker room with a 36-8 lead.

The defense added to that level of comfort. Seiling limited fourth-ranked Velma-Alma (13-2), a typically high-scoring team, to its lowest point total of the season.

“It was incredible,” Kaden said. “On our defense, we got eight dogs out there.”

The lopsided score couldn’t reflect the stellar performance of Langston Walker, the senior receiver who led Velma-Alma with 13 catches for 236 yards and a touchdown. Velma-Alma quarterback Slade Strickland completed 16 of 27 pass attempts for 255 yards and an interception while the Wildcats skillfully stifled the Comets’ run game.

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Meanwhile, Kaden barely needed to throw the ball. He completed six of nine pass attempts for 64 yards, but he had no reason to abandon his electric run game when it was carrying his team to victory. Sophomore tailback Rush Hunt added some balance to the offense with 89 rushing yards on nine attempts, but Kaden took on most of the load.

The quarterback craved this opportunity and prepared for it for years. As an infant, Kaden sat in coaches’ meetings with his father. In kindergarten, when children were learning how to read and count, Kaden absorbed an additional skill: how to be a quarterback. Gary would quiz the youngster about plays, Kaden recalled.

When Gary launched Seiling's third- and fourth-grade programs, he said he had a feeling that group of kids would be special. Kaden was in third grade then.

Friday night, Kaden fulfilled his dad’s prophecy with the same teammates he has known since those youth days.

“It’s been special,” Kaden said. “Ever since we were little, we knew we weren’t always the biggest, we weren’t always the fastest and we weren’t always the strongest, but we always had it in here.”

He pointed to his heart.

“My dad instilled that in us at an early age and told us that we were gonna do something special one day, and it finally happened.”

Hallie Hart covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Hallie? She can be reached at hhart@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @halliehart. Sign up for The Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Hallie's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma high school football: Seiling routs Velma-Alma in Class B