CPHS Football: Sandites face big test on the road at 6A-I No. 9 Yukon

The No. 7 ranked Charles Page High School football team (2-2) will travel to 6A-I No. 9 Yukon (2-2) Friday evening for their final non-district game of the season as they hope to improve to a winning record for the first time this season. 

Last year the Sandites' season went nearly identically to this year, at least thus far. Last year Sand Springs was totaled by Pulaski Academy, lost a heart-breaker to Choctaw, won a close one against Putnam West, dominated Sapulpa, and heartily defeated the Millers to improve to 3-2. 

Just like last year, the Sandites went down 59-21 to nationally-ranked No. 21 Pulaski (4-0), were edged out 21-20 by No. 9 Choctaw (3-1), then doubled down on No. 13 Putnam (1-3) 28-14 and No. 14 Sapulpa (0-4) 31-16. If history continues to repeat itself, they should be in for a solid win today. 

Yukon, however, is having a much different season under first year Head Coach Jeremy Reed. Last year the Millers went 0-10 under Brian Sauser, but Reed snapped the fourteen game losing streak in week two with a 38-31 win at No. 6 Norman North (3-1).

Reed turned around the 5A Altus program from a 3-7 season in 2014 to an 8-3 year in 2015 and a 2016 State Championship and 13-1 record before leaving for Lake Hamilton, Arkansas. He coached Hamilton to a 6-5 record before returning to Oklahoma. He got his coaching start in Sand Springs as the offensive coordinator in 2006 when the Sandites went 4-6 under Head Coach Brad Odom. The team averaged 26.5 points per game that season.

The Millers took a 31-14 hit in their season opener at No. 7 Mustang (2-1), but followed up the Norman North win with a 28-7 victory over Southmoore (0-4) before falling 56-20 in their district opener against No. 4 Broken Arrow (1-3).

The Sandites are a run-heavy team this year, averaging 259 yards per game with 222 of that coming from Payton Scott. The 5'5" senior running back has carried 126 times this season for 889 yards and eleven touchdowns. Just last week he set a career record of 352 yards on only 29 carries. He also has four catches for 96 yards and one touchdown this year, plus three kick returns for 91 yards. 

Junior quarterback Caden Pennington is steadily improving in the pass game. He sits at 19-50-239-4 this year with two touchdowns, but his passing percentage has gone up every week. He passed for a career-best 6-12-145-1 record against Putnam West two weeks ago.

Hayden Cramer has led a stout Sandite defense with 36 tackles this season, plus a six-yard interception return. Kameron Adcock and Bryson Denton both have forced fumbles. Braden Askew has two interceptions with eleven yards in returns and one fumble recovery. Jerry Lyons has an interception and a forced fumble, plus two sacks for twelve yards. 

First-year kicker Jaden Weiser is 13 of 14 on extra points and kicked his first field goal last week from 25 yards. He has booted kickoffs as far as 59 yards, but averages 36 yards due to several onside and squib kicks.

Click here to Virgil Noah's story from last year's game against Yukon.

Sandite Pride has unanimously picked Sand Springs with Virgil Noah predicting a 42-13 blowout and Scott Emigh calling a much closer 35-28 Sandite win.