CPHS Football Preview: Sandites host Bartlesville Friday in last home game

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The last time Sand Springs beat Bartlesville was in 2017 behind a school-record 507-yard rushing performance from Gatorade Player of the Year Payton Scott.

The Class 6A-II No. 8 ranked Charles Page High School varsity football team (4-4, 2-3) will host No. 11 Bartlesville (3-5, 2-3) Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in their last regular season home game. Prior to the game, the Church That Matters Tailgate Crew will be grilling up burgers, hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches outside the stadium as a fundraiser for Sandite Cross Country and Track and Field.

Per a new OSSAA ruling due to the number of district contests that have been canceled this season, the game won’t actually help or prevent either team from making the playoffs. If they want to play in the postseason, they get to regardless of record. But it will be crucial in playoff seeding as both teams try to give themselves the most favorable match-up possible when Week 11 rolls around.

Sand Springs currently ranks No. 4 in District 2 and Bartlesville is ranked No. 6. Both teams are 2-3, but Sand Springs’s losses all came to the top three teams in the district. Bartlesville has yet to play No. 2 seed Choctaw, and they suffered a 10-7 loss to No. 5 Ponca City, who Sand Springs beat 35-10. The Sandites also beat Sapulpa 21-17, and Bartlesville lost 48-21 to the Chieftains in non-district play.

The Sandites

Junior quarterback Ty Pennington is 88-of-183 passing this season for 1465 yards and ten touchdowns with only three interceptions. He is 203-414-2900-6 in his career with 23 passing touchdowns. He emerged as a running threat this season with 119 carries for 347 yards and nine more scores.

Junior running back Blake Jones has 73 carries for 338 yards and four touchdowns this season, and is 183-724 with five scores in his career.

Keaton Campbell has 34 catches for 469 yards and six touchdowns this season, and is 79-1162 with nine scores in his career. He also averages 7.4 yards per punt return and 12.5 yards per kick return. Jacob Blevins is 16-364 receiving this season with one score. Ryan Shoemaker is 13-158.

Jamon Sisco has 21 catches for 457 yards and three touchdowns, and also has 30 carries for 106 yards. He averages 22.7 yards per kick return, including a 93-yard score, and he has blocked three kicks. He has 36 catches for 695 yards and seven touchdowns in his career.

Zach Heinen is 16-of-16 on PATs this season and 35-of-36 in his career. He is 2-of-3 on field goals with a long of 28, and his only miss was from over 40 yards. Backup kicker Jonathan Daniels is 3-of-4 on PATs and 2-of-2 on field goals with a long of 26.

Sango Whitehorn has 70 tackles, 16 for loss, six sacks, and two blocked kicks. Landon Hendricks has 70 tackles, 16.5 for loss, four sacks, five fumble recoveries, and one forced fumble. Drake Fain has 67 tackles, 6.5 for loss, one sack, an interception, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.

Brooks Dudley has 59 tackles, 11 for loss, 1.5 sacks, an interception, and a forced fumble. Lane Webster has 32 tackles, 14 for loss, and two sacks. Brycen Peterman has been in on seven turnovers this year, forcing one fumble, recovering four, and making two interceptions.

The Sandites are averaging 294 yards per game against top-notch defenses, including three teams that are ranked No. 1 in their classifications. Their offense ranks ninth in Class 6A-II and their defense ranks 11th in points allowed.

The Bruins

Dual-threat senior quarterback Paxton Bradford is 52-119-720-8 passing this season with seven touchdowns and is 90-508 on the ground with four more scores.

Gage Keaton has 24 catches for 353 yards and four touchdowns. Caden Davis has two scores, and Braedon Winters has one.

The team has a large pool of capable rushers. Winters has four touchdowns, Caleb Perry and Davis have two apiece, and Colton Sutton has one.

Dylan McCoy is the top running back with 127 carries for 839 yards and five touchdowns. He is also perfect kicking this season with 26 PATs and four field goals, with a long of 33.

The defense ranks 13th in points allowed, but is third in defensive scoring, with two safeties, two fumble recoveries for touchdowns, and one pick six. Their offense ranks ninth, tied with Sand Springs.

The Series

Bartlesville schools lead the Sandites 40-25 all-time. The current high school, which unified two older schools under one program, leads the Sandites 20-15 since they first met in 1982. The two programs have met annually since 2000, and the schools are tied 10-10 in the 21st Century. The Sandites are 6-4 when hosting the Bruins in the past 20 years.

Last year the Bruins were 0-5 rolling into their game against a 2-3 Sandite program. Bartlesville picked up a 54-34 win and went on to finish the season 3-7 while the Sandites ended 2-8. Sand Springs led 14-13 after one quarter, but Bartlesville won the second quarter 21-0 and the teams tied in the second half.

Pennington passed for then-career-high yardage of 296 and scored his first-ever rushing touchdown in that game. Keaton Campbell had six catches for a career-best 139 yards, and Daren Hawkins made an 83-yard pick six.

Bartlesville also won the 2018 meeting, surging back from a 20-7 deficit to a 29-27 win to spoil the Sandite Homecoming. In 2017 the Sandites pummeled Bartlesville 55-13 behind a school-record 507-yard rushing performance from Payton Scott, who scored seven touchdowns in the game.