Oak Harbor High School did more than play football Friday night; it did the Hokey Pokey.

Oak Harbor put Arlington in the center of Wildcat Memorial Stadium and shook the Eagles all-about for a 41-27 win.  Then the Wildcats formed a giant circle at the 50-yard line and performed the childhood-dance, a tradition after winning the homecoming game.

The win was more than a feel-good victory on homecoming-game night. It established Oak Harbor as the favorite to challenge Marysville-Pilchuck for the divisional title.

The Wildcats, Arlington and Marysville-Pilchuck entered play Friday undefeated in conference action. Now Oak Harbor and the Tomahawks are on course for a third-straight winner-take-title game Friday, Oct. 24.

Before that can happen, though, the two teams have to navigate through two more weeks of Wesco action.

Next up for Oak Harbor (2-0, 3-1) is a game with Marysville Getchell (0-2, 1-4) at Quil Ceda Stadium at Marysville-Pilchuck High School at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10. M-P, which defeated Getchell 51-7 Friday, next plays winless Everett.

In Oak Harbor’s win over Arlington, the key Wildcat possession, ironically, might be the only one that ended in a punt.

The Wildcats were leading 41-14 when Arlington scored on the second play of the fourth quarter and trimmed the lead to 41-20. The Eagles then recovered an onside kick and appeared to have the momentum to put a dent in the once secure Oak Harbor lead.

The Wildcats, however, recovered a fumble on the first play after the onside kick and took over on their own 17-yard line with 11:04 left in the game.

When the time-chewing drive ended with the Wildcat punt (a quick-kick by QB Clay Doughty out of the shotgun formation), just 3:10 remained on the game clock, leaving the Eagles with little time to get back into the game.

During the drive, Oak Harbor coach Jay Turner made a gutsy call, going for it on a fourth-and-two at the Oak Harbor 38.

“If we can’t get two yards on fourth down,” Turner said, “we don’t deserve to have the ball.”

After the punt, the Eagles went 66 yards to score again, but only 17 seconds remained in the game.

Mistakes were the only thing that slowed either offense in the first half. Every possession ended in a touchdown or turnover.

Fortunately for Oak Harbor, the Eagles turned the ball over twice in their first three offensive plays, which turned out to be their only offensive plays of he first period.

Oak Harbor received the opening kickoff and finished a 64-yard drive with a six-yard Dejon Devroe run. The big play of the drive was a 19-yard Zach Jones run.

The Eagles completed a 30-yard pass on their first play but fumbled.

Oak Harbor took over at the Eagle 45 and scored on a two-yard Quinn Karney run. Jones, again, had the drive’s big play, a 23-yard run.

Mark Johnston’s point after was blocked (he hit the other five PAT kicks), and Oak Harbor led 13-0.

On Arlington’s second play of its second possession, a 16-yard run, the Eagles coughed up the ball again. The sting of the turnover, however, was soon soothed.

On the first play after recovering the fumble, Oak Harbor botched an exchange in the backfield and Eagle lineman Benico Madrigal-Ries scooped up the ball and ran 45 yards for the score.

Oak Harbor then went on a 73-yard scoring drive that spanned the first and second quarters. Doughty stepped up in the pocket and hit Jones for a 21-yard score on a fourth-and-16 play.

Arlington followed with a score with 5 minutes left in the half, making it 20-14.

From there, Oak Harbor took off.

The 21-point run began when the Wildcats scored with two seconds left in the half as Princeton Lollar rammed in from the 1 on fourth down.

After failing to force Arlington to punt in the first half, Oak Harbor stopped the first two Eagle drives of the second half.

“We changed a few things at half,” Turner said, “and the kids responded and we got some stops.”

Oak Harbor followed each of those Arlington punts with scoring drives, building a 41-14 lead.

First Devroe burned the Eagles on a 77-yard run.

Then Oak Harbor completed a 72-yard drive with a Doughty-to-Dyllan Harris score from the 10, set up by a 23-yard tackle-breaking run by Devroe.

Johnston’s kick made it 41-14.

Throughout the game, Oak Harbor softened Arlington with Lollar runs between the tackles. The big sophomore finished with 74 yards on 20 carries. Karney periodically spelled Lollar and added 26 yards on five attempts.

That set up the outside runs of Devroe and Jones. Devroe ran for 145 yards on 13 carries, and Jones had 84 yards on 13 totes. Devroe also had a 73-yard run erased by a penalty.

Doughty completed seven of nine passes for 99 yards.

Oak Harbor finished with 432 total yards to 239 for the Eagles.

Most of Arlington’s yardage came through the air; Andrew Kalahar hit 10 of 19 passes for 144 yards.

Johnston and Chris Humphries paced the Wildcat defense with seven tackles each; Blaine Coleman recorded a sack.

Oak Harbor’s attention now turns to Marysville Getchell.

“We are looking forward to next week,” Turner said. “They have one of the league’s best running backs outside of Joyner (Austin of Marysville-Pilchuck).”

That weapon is running back Collin Montez.

Going into last Friday’s game, Montez, a 6-foot, 3-inch 190-pound sophomore, had almost twice as many carries and yards as any other Wesco North runner with 137 rushes for 1,031 yards (a 7.5 yard average).

Earlier this season, he ran for 314 yard on a whopping 45 carries against Jackson.

Quarterback Taylor Kollemer has completed 13 of 41 passes for 196 yards. Justin Cook has six catches for 147 yards.