“But they’ve gotten the program to the point where they just get replacement parts,” Patterson said. “Before Stacy, there was Derek Burton and now the Thomas kid (nose tackle Robert). They’re physical and they’ll run you down.”

On offense, Bradley has had three scrimmage sessions and a summer’s worth of work under his belt. Most of that preparation has been aimed at this one game.

“To be honest, I was more nervous in the scrimmages than I’ll be (tonight),” he said. “And that’s because of the preparation. I know Owasso like the back of my hand. I know their coverages and everything so the nervousness is gone.”

Owasso will have its own weapon that has run through the Roughers. Jacques Washington, who scored three touchdowns, two rushing and one receiving, in last year’s 24-21 Muskogee victory. His totals were 162 yards rushing on 35 carries and 47 yards on two receptions. They’ll be missing another in lineman Brandon Webb. The 6-foot-4, 315-pound Oklahoma State commit and son of former Muskogee and OU standout Terry Webb isn’t expected back for another 3-4 weeks.

It’s a bad news, good news combination for the Roughers defense, but Thomas, who would have drawn the Webb matchup, is simply ready to play.

“The way I look at it, we’re taking one game at a time,” he said. “We don’t need to worry about Week 14. We need to worry about Week 1.

“We’re confident right now. But if we win this one, and the next two, I think we have a great shot at winning state.”

In case anyone hasn’t figured it out, that’s the last game Hennesy’s talking about.

But first, Chapter 1.