One problem continued for the Shawnee Wolves Friday night on the new turf in their home opener at Jim Thorpe Stadium.

Penalties.

However big plays on offense, particularly Dace Shaw’s four touchdowns and Deetrick Beavers’ 211 yards rushing, along with a stifling defense, enabled Shawnee to post a 34-13 victory over the Ardmore Tigers to even their season record at 1-1 during Hall of Fame Night Festivities.

It was the first time that the Wolves played in their home stadium since 2022 after the April 2023 tornado and its inflicted damage to the stadium forced Shawnee to play home games at Oklahoma Baptist University’s Crain Field.

The glaring problem for the Wolves Friday night were penalties. Try 17 of them for 165 yards.

But the good news, the infractions weren’t enough to overcome a grinding ground game, led by Beavers and Shaw and an offensive line which performed much better than the previous week in a 35-3 loss at Putnam City North.

Shawnee netted 303 yards on 38 carries for the night as Beavers had 24 of them for the 211 yards and the short TD run of 2 yards. Shaw scored four touchdowns – three by rush and the other by pass reception.

Shaw caught a 14-yard scoring pass from Zyron Campbell for the Wolves’ first touchdown of the season in the first quarter. Shaw also had TD run each in the second, third and fourth quarters of 21, 14 and 12 yards respectively. He also caught three passes for 65 yards to go with the one scoring reception.

“We really put a challenge to both this week. Dace did a good job of running and catching the short pass and Deetrick did a good job of finding the (running) lanes and being explosive,” said Shawnee Head Football Coach Jason Madonna.

The second-year head coach was also pleased with Campbell and how he handled things much better in Week 2 of the season compared to Week 1.

“He worked on making better decisions. I thought he controlled the offense well and was able to change the snap count a lot,” Madonna said. “He did a good job of putting us in good positions.”

Campbell was 6-of-13 passing for 113 yards with the touchdown toss to Shaw. He threw no interceptions and tacked on 18 yards on five carries off keepers.

“We put an emphasis on getting to that second level (of running the ball). The offensive line answered the call and made big plays and we were able to throw quite a bit and widen their defense,” said Madonna.

The Wolves were also solid on defense, limiting big plays by Ardmore and creating some of their own.

Ejion Thomas, Demario Joyner and Nokos Wassana were each credited with a tackle for loss as Joyner posted a quarterback sack. Shaw and Jamar Favors each made a fumble recovery.

Additionally, three players – Shaw, Nolan Ward and Jayden Smith-Leonard were in on double-digit tackling efforts. Shaw had four solo stops and assisted on 16 others. Ward assisted on 15 tackles and Smith-Leonard had one unassisted tackle to go with 13 assisted stops.

Lance Williams was also big in two areas as he delivered three solo tackles and five assisted stops and had an impressive 40.2 yards-per punt average in five tries.

“Lance Williams and Dace Shaw did a good job of running them down when they tried to hit the sideline,” Madonna said.

As for the Shawnee penalties, Madonna believes they can be fixed.

“Bone-headed personal fouls and late hits will kill you. Some of the live-ball penalties you can live with, but we’ve got to be cleaner,” said Madonna. “I think these things are fixable. We’re a relatively young team. Lessons can be learned and it’s a whole lot better when you win.”

Despite having two holding penalties on the first series of the game, the Wolves got into the end zone on Campbell’s 14-yard connection with Shaw with 9:21 to go in the opening period. Rhett Neese tacked on the extra point for a 7-0 Wolves’ lead.

That 7-0 advantage stood up through the first quarter.

A big defensive stand by Shawnee wiped out a potential Tiger scoring threat at the Wolves’ 10-yard line early in the second period.

Shawnee then marched 90 yards in seven plays, keyed by a 37-yard pass play from Campbell to Shaw, followed by a 48-yard sprint from Beavers down to the Ardmore 3-yard line.

Finally on third-and-goal, Beavers dove into the end zone and Neese added the PAT to make it 14-0 in favor of the Wolves with 6:39 showing on the clock before halftime.

Another Ardmore drive was squashed deep into Shawnee territory when Shaw scooped a loose ball at the Wolves’ 30 and returned it all the way to the Tiger 26-yard line.

For plays later and after three short Beavers runs, Shaw bulldozed his way into the end zone from 21 yards out and Neese kicked the extra point to make it 21-0 with 2:03 left before halftime.

Ardmore got on the board before halftime when Jaydence Wright scored off a reverse from 9 yards out with 17 seconds remaining until the break. The PAT failed as Shawnee took a 21-6 lead into the locker room.

The Tigers who won the pregame coin flip, opted to defer until the second half, but were unable to slice into the Wolves’ 15-point lead.

Meanwhile, Shawnee took advantage and went 66 yards in six plays, capped by Shaw’s run up the gut 14 yards for the TD with 6:58 to go in the third ad Neese added the point-after kick for a 28-6 Wolves’ cushion. The big play of the drive was a 32-yard scamper by Beavers down to the Ardmore 26-yard line.

The Tigers picked up their only other touchdown with 6:34 remaining in the fourth when Kylan Haskins scored off a 1-yard run and Chris Tellez booted the extra point to pull Ardmore within 28-13.

The Wolves capped off the scoring with 1:13 to go on Shaw’s 12-yard scoring run. A 38-yard run by Beavers and a 15-yard personal foul penalty against Ardmore set the stage for Shaw’s fourth touchdown of the night.

Shawnee is back in action at home again Friday against Duncan at 7 p.m. at Jim Thorpe Stadium.

Note: KGFF Play-By-Play announcer Chris Cox provided statistics for the game.