BETHANY — Bethany senior kicker Cody Martin had his teammates and coach’s confidence when he lined up for a 48-yard field goal Friday (Sept. 25) against Woodward.

Martin, a soccer player in his second season kicking for the football team, booted it through with plenty to spare to propel the Bronchos to a 10-7 win over the Boomers in the 4A-1 opener for both teams.

Bethany coach Jon Arthur said Martin was booting 50+ yard kicks during practice earlier in the week with his teammates cheering him on.

“We had faith in him,” Arthur said. “It’s funny how that works. He just did it a couple days ago and he stepped up (tonight) and did it.”

The winning kick with 4:52 left in the game came after a defensive struggle between the two squads. Each team moved the ball at times but couldn’t find the end zone.

Mistakes and penalties stifled the Bronchos early on.

Junior Pierson Anderson gave Bethany good field position in the first quarter after he recovered a muffed punt by Boomer senior Jake Graf at the Broncho 43-yard line. This came Bethany was backed up at the 4-yard line before the punt by senior Brody McLaren.

Three plays later, McLaren was picked off by Woodward sophomore Blake Boone, who returned it into Bethany territory.

However, the Broncho defense, which gave up 156 yards in the contest, forced a turnover on downs.

The Bethany offense moved the ball, but had several big plays called back to penalties.

Near the end of the second quarter, the Bronchos moved the ball to the Woodward 42-yard line with 14 seconds left. Later, McLaren connected with senior Eli Mars at the 27-yard line in front of the Bethany sideline but he didn’t get out of bounds before time ran out, erasing a scoring opportunity.

Three plays into the third quarter, McLaren was intercepted by Graf.

This time, the Boomers cashed in two plays later. A lapse in the Bethany secondary left Woodward senior Luke Talley wide open near the goal line. Quarterback Kash Carter connected with Talley for an easy score to make it 7-0.

The Bronchos tried to sustain a drive, even trying a fake punt with McLaren who’s the quarterback and punter. But, It was the Bethany defense which got redemption.

With 4:13 left in the third quarter, senior Deacon Howell picked off Carter and returned it to the Boomer 31-yard line. Just three plays later, junior Xzavier McGee tied the game at 7-7 with a 23-yard touchdown scamper.

In the fourth quarter, the defense set up the offense again. Graf, the Boomers punter, couldn’t handle a bad snap and Broncho senior Trey Brooks pounced on it at the Woodward 22.

The Bronchos went backward on offense from there but Martin gave Bethany the lead for good with the 48-yard kick.

The Boomers couldn’t get out of their own territory on their final drive, turning it over on downs. Bethany was able to run out the clock for the win.

McLaren was 11 of 21 with 87 yards and two picks.

Arthur said the bubble screen keyed the effort.

“I think our receivers blocking out there on that at were just unbelievable,” Arthur said. “That’s kind of what won us the game and let us move the football throughout the night.”

The Bronchos rushed for 101 yards in an uneven effort, led by 36 yards from McGee.

“We’ve got to be more consistent in the run game,” Arthur said. “We were one guy away (from breaking runs) a lot of times in the run game. I didn’t feel we ran it as well as we did last week at Shawnee.

“I thought we did a nice job at times and just a little bit undisciplined at the point of attack, and so got to get better on that.”

Like in the win against Shawnee, turnover and penalties posed a problem.

“Not sure what was going on on that deal, but certainly got to overcome those,” Arthur said, lamenting four drives against Shawnee where penalties put the Bronchos in 1st-and-20 situations. “So, just got to be much cleaner in that area.”

Bethany had two turnovers and committed eight penalties in the win.

The game started an hour late after storms moving through caused a lightning delay.

UP NEXT

The Bronchos will be on the road for the next three games, with a bye sandwiched in between. Bethany (2-3, 1-0) travels to Cache (4-1, 1-0) next Friday (Oct. 2) in 4A-1 action.

The Bulldogs pulled out a 27-21 road win over Elk City on Friday.

Photographs courtesy of Kristie Escoe of Life in Action Photography.

WOODWARD – Talley 23 pass from Carter (Graf kick), 3Q
BETHANY – McGee 23 run (Martin kick), 2:31, 3Q
BETHANY – Martin 48 field goal, 4:52, 4Q

Updated September 25, 2026 at 11:00 PM