CPHS Football Preview: Sandites host No. 1 Bixby Thursday

It’s Fall Break in Sand Springs, which means Thursday Night Lights for the Sandite football team. Class 6A-II No. 8 ranked Charles Page High School (4-2, 2-1) will host No. 1 Bixby (5-0, 2-0) at 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. Prior to the game, Church That Matters will be grilling up burgers, hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches at a tailgate party benefitting Sandite Baseball.

Sand Springs

After three losing seasons and a 2-8 record last year, the Sandites pulled the trigger on a new coaching staff under first-year Head Coach Bobby Klinck, formerly a State Championship-winning Defensive Coordinator at Owasso. The students have bought into the new system and are 4-2 for the first time since 2016.

In week one the Sandites knocked off their rivals from Sapulpa 21-17 on the road. They barely lost 28-24 to 5A No. 1 Bishop Kelley after leading till the final minute, then won a 27-26 upset against Arkansas 4A No. 1 Shiloh Christian. They beat Ponca City 35-10 on the road and Muskogee 45-14 on Homecoming before the success train stalled out in a lopsided 49-0 defeat at No. 5 Booker T. Washington.

Junior quarterback Ty Pennington has completed 81 of 153 passes this season for 1287 yards and eight touchdowns with only three interceptions. He also leads the team on the ground with 87 carries for 260 yards and eight more scores. Blake Jones is the top running back with 47 carries for 253 yards and three touchdowns.

Keaton Campbell is 31-430 receiving with five touchdowns, Jacob Blevins is 16-342 for one TD, and Ryan Shoemaker is 13-116. Jamon Sisco is 17-382 receiving with two touchdowns, 19-91 rushing, averages 29 yards on five kick returns with one score, and he has blocked three kicks.

Zach Heinen is 14-of-14 on PATs and 1-of-2 on field goals with a long of 28. Jonathan Daniels is 3-of-4 on PATs and 2/2 on field goals with a long of 26. Heinen averages 32 yards per punt, and Greg Reed averages 50 yards per kick.

Sango Whitehorn has 56 tackles with 12 for loss, four sacks, and two blocked kicks. Drake Fain has 55 tackles with 5.5 for loss and a forced fumble. Landon Hendricks has 50 tackles, with 14.5 for loss, 3.5 sacks, and four fumble recoveries. Lane Webster has 30 tackles with 13 for loss and two sacks. Bryson Chase has 21 tackles, a forced fumble, a recovery, and a blocked kick. Brycen Peterman has 15 tackles, two interceptions, one forced fumble, and four recoveries.

Both the offense and defense rank eighth in the division.

Bixby

Sandite alumnus Loren Montgomery is in his 11th year leading the Spartans, with an 87-38 record at Bixby and a 96-39 mark in his career. Since the creation of Class 6A-II in 2014, the Spartans have played for the gold ball all six years, and have won five of them. They haven’t lost a game since the 2018 season-opener and their 30-game win streak ranks 10th in the nation. They are ranked 49th in the country by MaxPreps.

The Spartans opened the season with a 34-0 shutout of Union, then won a 42-35 shootout with Jenks. They dominated Bartlesville 74-7 and then-5A No. 1 Carl Albert 56-14 in a battle of defending State Champs. The Titans have won the past four-straight 5A titles. Bixby is coming off a surprisingly-close 24-13 win over No.5 Choctaw. The Yellowjackets held the Spartans to their lowest-scoring output since the 2018 Semifinals.

Senior quarterback Mason Williams is 92-133-1109-2 passing this season with 14 touchdowns, while junior running back Braylin Presley is 92-788 on the ground with 13 scores, and is 30-295 receiving with four more. Zach Blankenship is also a rushing threat with 25 carries for 143 yards and three TDs. They have the No. 2 scoring offense in 6A-II.

Jack Puckett, Connor Stacy, Beau Bertelli, and Ky Roller lead the team in tackles for loss. The Spartan defense has made only eight sacks this season, and forced only one fumble, with two recoveries and five interceptions. They have also played a brutally tough schedule, however, against several top offenses. Their defense ranks third in the division in points allowed.

Special teams are also solid in Bixby. The return team averages 20.4 yards on kicks and 6.2 on punts. Connor Nolan is 30-of-30 on PATs and 2-of-3 on field goals.

The Series

The Spartans lead the series 18-12, and have won the last six-straight meetings. At the beginning of the 6A split, the two teams met in the playoffs for three-straight years. Bixby beat the Sandites in the 2014 and 2016 semifinals. The Sandites shut out Bixby 20-0 in the 2015 regular season, but the Spartans got revenge 38-28 in the State Championship.

Bixby’s current six-game streak is the longest win streak in series history. Sand Springs has won three in a row on two separate occasions. Sand Springs’s biggest win was 33-7 in 1994, and Bixby’s was 75-0 last year, which also happened to be the worst Sandite defeat in 95 years. The lowest-scoring game was a 5-3 Sandite win in 1984, and the highest-scoring game was a 48-35 Spartan win in 2010.