Sandite Football upsets defending Arkansas State Champions 40-33

A version of this story was originally written for the Tulsa World.

For the first time since 2012, the Sand Springs Sandites are 3-0.

The Class 6A-II No. 5 ranked Charles Page High School football team rolled into Springdale with a big task in front of it. Repeating its last year’s win against the defending 4A State Champions from Shiloh Christian (2-1) wouldn’t be an easy task, but even down 14-0 early in the fourth quarter, the Sandites kept their cool and showed toughness.

“Our kids are from Sand Springs, so we know all about toughness,” said second-year head coach Bobby Klinck. “That’s a really freaking good football team that we just beat. I think we’re lucky to get away with a win, so we’re really pleased.”

As they should be. The Saints are ranked No. 1 in their class, and their only loss last season was 27-26 on the Sandites’ homefield. This time the visiting Sandites prevailed 40-33 behind a monumental effort from senior quarterback Ty Pennington.

Pennington finished the night with a career-high 331 yards and five touchdowns, passing 21-of-32 with one interception. The lone pick was only a tad high of his receiver, who tipped it up into Dax Widger’s hands to set up the Saints’ third score late in the first quarter.

“I’ve said it over and over again,” said Klinck. “He’s the best dang quarterback in the state. He suffers through drops sometimes with our guys, but he never flinches. That guy’s a dang winner. I’m constantly just saying, ‘put the ball in that dude’s hands. We’ve got the best dang quarterback in the state, let’s go get the dang first down.”

The Saints took a 14-0 lead behind a 2-yard run from Eli Wisdom and an 11-yard pass from Wisdom to Ben Baker, but the Sandites soon settled down and found their rhythm. It wasn’t Pennington who gave them their first score, however.

After running back Blake Jones did most of the work to move the chains, it was Brody Rutledge who tossed the first touchdown pass on a 23-yard trick play to Jacob Blevins.

“That’s all Coach (Lee) Kizzar,” said Klinck. “The trick play, that’s all our coaches. I’ve been really hands-off this year. I know I’ve hired great coaches so I let them coach. That’s all them.”

The backup quarterback and leading receiver finished the night with seven catches for 132 yards and one touchdown, a 33-yard pass from Pennington to make it 21-14 late in the first quarter.

“I’ve challenged that kid all through 7-on-7, he kind of had drop-itis during the summertime, and we challenged him,” Klinck said of Rutledge. “Now that guy’s become one our top receivers and I’m freaking proud of that kid.”

Keaton Campbell was the Sandites’ other top receiver with seven catches for 112 yards and two scores, a 49-yarder in the second quarter and a 21-yarder in the third. 

Also collecting passes for the Sandites was tight-end Ryan Shoemaker, who had three catches for 59 yards and two scores. 

Sand Springs trailed 21-20 in the second and stalled out in their own territory, but Kenneth Page recovered a muffed punt to extend the drive, and Pennington found Shoemaker for an eight-yard score. 

The Sandite defense got a turnover on downs to close the half 26-21.

Campbell’s next touchdown made it 32-21 but the Saints negated it three plays later on a 78-yard pass from Wisdom to Cooper Hutchinson, then took a 33-32 lead on a 14-yard screen to Arkansas-commit Kaden Henley. 

The Sandites got back on top with a 34-yard pass from Pennington to Shoemaker to start the fourth quarter, and Shoemaker also caught the two-point pass for the final points of the game.

“We’ve watched film, we knew they were going to come out with stuff we haven’t seen, so we just had to weather the storm,” said Klinck. “We’ve been down big before, so great job by our kids.”

“That’s an unbelievable football program. That’s a good team, they’re going to win it again. So for us to come here and really steal one from a really well-coached football team, that’s huge for our program.”

“That offense is great,” said Klinck. “They’ve been doing that for a long time. We knew it was going to be a slug fest. We knew it was last year. We had to just make one more play. ‘One more play,’ that’s what we kept saying.”

Sandite Football will return to action Friday at 7:00 p.m. with a district homecoming game against Ponca City (1-2) as the team looks to keep its winning streak alive.

Sandite Football stuns Collinsville 17-0 in preseason scrimmage

A version of this story was originally published in the Sand Springs Leader.

Anytime a team graduates 27 players, including a top receiver, a top running back, several top defenders, and almost the entire offensive line, they might be sweating their ability to reload the next year.

But not Sand Springs. After watching their Friday-night scrimmage against Collinsville, a person might reasonably conclude that this was a veteran group.

In two quarters of action, the Sandites blanked 5A Collinsville 17-0. Despite being a lower classification, the Cardinals are a no-joke program that was unanimously voted by the coaches in its district to repeat as district champs. They went 11-1 last season, only falling in the playoff semifinals to eventual champion Carl Albert.

The Sandites forced two punts, Alex Turner returned a pick 45 yards, and the Cardinals’ two other drives ended with the clock. Meanwhile the home team scored on three of their four possessions and only punted once. 

Senior quarterback Ty Pennington was 7-of-11 passing for 192 yards and two touchdowns behind a fairly young offensive line. Keaton Campbell stole the show at receiver, scoring both touchdowns on three catches and racking up 154 yards overall, and backup QB Brody Rutledge had three catches for 30 yards. 

The offensive line is a younger unit as well after the team graduated five linemen with starting experience. Mason Harris, Matthew Shelton, Morgan Eubanks, Owen Higgins, and Marcus Sims will anchor the offensive front this time around.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys,” said Head Coach Bobby Klinck after the game. “Coach Medrano has come in here and just done an unbelievable job. That goes for the rest of this coaching staff. This is the least amount of work I’ve ever done getting ready for a season. I told them, this camp, practice, and everything in this scrimmage - man we’ve been on point. I’m very proud of this coaching staff, and we’ve got some good football players on this team. 

Jason Medrano is leading the Sandites’ offensive line this season after a two-year stint as Catoosa’s Head Coach. Lee Kizzar is taking over as offensive coordinator after Stephen Hogan returned to his hometown of Greenwood, Arkansas for the same position there. Kizzar previously coached tight ends for the Sandites. 

Not much has changed on the defensive side of the ball, and defensive coordinator Shane Ingram’s unit looks ready to go, based on their performance Friday night. 

Brooks Dudley, Drake Fain, Landon Hendricks, Turner, Conner Light, Gabe Brown, and Dom Ornelas are among the names to look for on the defense this season.

It won’t be an easy road. Bixby is the odds-on favorite to repeat, having won three-straight titles and six of the last seven. Choctaw, last year’s State Runner-Up, and Booker T. are also in the same district as the Sandites. The Washington Hornets are the only other team besides Bixby to win a Class 6A-II title.

The Sandites remain loaded at the skill positions. Top running back Blake Jones returns after amassing 484 yards and seven TDs in an injury-riddled campaign. Campbell and Jacob Blevins will give Pennington options at receiver as both posted over 600 yards apiece and combined for ten TDs last year. Ryan Shoemaker also showed skill at tight end, collecting 226 yards. 

Pennington is already ranking among the top QBs in Sandite history with over 3600 yards passing and 27 TDs, as well as 744 yards rushing and 14 TDs in the past two seasons.

“Keaton Campbell’s a two-sport star,” said Klinck. “Our quarterback’s a two-sport star. These are guys that are going to make big plays all year, and college recruiters need to start waking up a bit.”

Despite their success, the team wasn’t flawless. They gave up a handful of penalties, had a three-and-out, and stalled in the red zone on their first drive.

“We’ve got a lot of things to get better at in terms of penalties,” said Klinck. “We scored points on big plays, we have that capability. I’d like to see more sustained drives. I’d have liked for us to have finished that first drive instead of kicking a field goal.”

The Sandites are coming off a 7-5 mark in their first season under Klinck. Last year they won their rivalry game at Sapulpa, dealt Shiloh Christian their only loss of the season, finished fourth in the district, and won a playoff game against Deer Creek before falling to powerhouse Stillwater on the road.

Prior to that, they went 10-21 over the previous three seasons, but were perennial playoff contenders from 2012 to 2017, including a State Runner-Up performance in 2015. 

The Sandites will start their season Friday at 7:00 p.m. with the 95th installment of Highway 97 Rivalry when they host Sapulpa. Sapulpa leads the series with a 45-44-5 record, and the two teams have met annually since 1930.