Class 6A-II No. 8 ranked Charles Page High School (0-1) hosted Mansfield Summit Friday night at Memorial Stadium, kicking off the 2018 season with a Border Brawl match-up. The visiting Jaguars won the bout 41-28, but Sand Springs ended on a high note with a two-touchdown comeback.
Several Frontier Valley Conference teams hosted Mansfield high schools Friday night, and the Tulsa-Metro programs will travel to Texas next year. Bixby (1-1) defeated Mansfield Timberview 36-33. Union (1-1) defeated Mansfield Lake Ridge 36-30. Broken Arrow (2-0) defeated Mansfield High 28-6, and Jenks (2-0) defeated Mansfield Legacy 35-14.
Texas State-committed quarterback Brysen McKinney led the Jaguars to an 8-5 record with 2,600 yards and 31 touchdowns last season. He didn't disappoint in his performance against the Sandites, throwing 13 of 22 for 243 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior Caden Pennington was equally impressive for Sand Springs with a career-best 14 of 20 for 196 yards and two touchdowns. His previous best was 9 of 21 for 151 yards and three touchdowns last season against Muskogee.
Sand Springs went 5-6 in 2017 with most of their offense coming in the hands of University of Central Oklahoma freshman Payton Scott, who set the all-time Class 6A single season and single game rushing records.
Senior Track and Field star Joel Mackey made a solid replacement with fifteen carries for 97 yards and two touchdowns. His two receptions for 38 yards put him in the triple digits and he was also remarkable on kick returns.
Mackey gave the Sandites a good start with a 37-yard kickoff return, but the first possession was turned over on downs and the Jaguars made the most of it. The visitors marched 56 yards in five plays, scoring on a 35-yard touchdown pass from McKinney to Jaelon Travis, but Austin Meza missed the extra point.
Sand Springs's second and third drives also failed to convert. Tristian Amerson scored on a one-yard run and McKinney scored from four yards out. Meza made both of those kicks and the Jaguars were up 20-0 after one quarter.
The visitors continued to push their advantage with a six-play 72-yard march, scoring on a 23-yard pass from McKinney to Brendan Sirls. Sand Springs finally had an answer, however, and prevented the first-half shutout with a 27-yard run from Mackey.
Mansfield took nearly six minutes on their next drive, draining the clock to fifteen seconds before scoring on a fifteen-yard keeper to ride a 34-7 lead into the locker room.
The second half belonged wholly to Sand Springs.
A huge fourth and two defensive stand gave the Sandites a turnover at their own 24, and they put together a fourteen-play march to the goal line. Mackey was piled into the endzone and Jaden Weiser hit his mark with the extra point.
McKinney responded just two minutes later on a 47-yard pass to Hal Presley just after the start of the fourth quarter. And two minutes later it was Pennington with a 24-yard pass to Jacob Snodgrass.
Freshman Brooks Dudley picked off the first interception of the season on the opening play of Mansfield's next drive, and the Sandites broke out a trick play on their next sequence. Junior backup QB Braden Foster took a lateral from Pennington and found sophomore Daren Hawkins for 41 yards, setting up a first and goal at the Jaguar seven-yard line. Pennington punched it in to Snodgrass from six yards out for the final points of the game.
Sand Springs nearly had another redzone penetration with 3:15 to play, but a fourth-and-eleven pass from Pennington to Hawkins came up just a foot short of the visitors' 25, and the Jaguars drained the clock.
The Sandites will return to action Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Putnam City (0-1), the first leg of a three-week streak of road games. Mansfield will host Lake Travis (1-0), the Texas 6A State Runners-Up currently ranked No. 9 on the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National Rankings.
Head Coach Dustin Kinard is 60-61 in his twelfth year at the helm and has led the Sandites to an all-time town record with six-straight years of playoff berths.
