Sand Springs football downs Del City on the road 21-17, Pennington sets another record
/This story was originally written for the Tulsa World.
Any coach will tell you, when it comes to the playoffs, your record doesn’t matter. What matters is going 1-0 every week.
The No. 6 Sand Springs football team (8-3) is 1-0 for the second straight year after taking down No. 4 Del City (9-2) on the road, and will get a familiar opponent next week.
The Sandites’ 21-17 upset of the District One Champions will put them on neutral territory against No. 7 Edmond Deer Creek (9-2) who they beat 34-29 in last season’s playoffs. The Antlers pulled off a 36-29 upset of their own against No. 2 Choctaw (8-3).
“We’re just on a mission, we’re highly favored,” said Sandites head coach Bobby Klinck. “What an unbelievable football team Del City has. Hard-nosed kids. What a good job the coaches have done over here, but man that’s a big one.”
The Eagles took to the ground for most of the game, and drove 51 yards on their opening possession before Dominic Ornelas made a third-down tackle for loss in the red zone to force a 31-yard field goal from Stanley Johnson.
The Sandites responded three plays later with a 79-yard touchdown pass from Ty Pennington to Brody Rutledge, and the score stayed 7-3 till the fourth quarter.
The Eagles took the lead twice in the final stanza, once on a five-yard plunge by quarterback Virgil Yates, and once on a 55-yard breakaway run by Ethan Lawrence.
But both times, the Sandites responded. Pennington put the Sandites up 14-10 with a 40-yard pass to Keaton Campbell, then took the final lead at 21-17 on a two-yard run, pushed from behind by his O-line.
The third quarter started on a sour note after the heavily recruited Kanijal Thomas picked off Pennington in the end zone, but that didn’t get the star quarterback down.
“I just try to focus on my next drive after a mistake like that and just don’t look back on it,” said Pennington.
In the fourth quarter alone, he was 5-of-5 passing for 95 yards and ran the ball 11 times for 34 yards.
“Why wouldn’t I put it in the best quarterback in the state’s hands right there,” asked Klinck. “There’s not another guy in the locker room who wanted it anywhere else. He proved again he’s the best quarterback in the whole frickin state and we’re going to ride that dude.”
Pennington ended the night 13-of-20 passing for 221 yards, setting the school’s single season passing record unofficially at 2,532 yards. He already holds the school records in career passing yardage, career passing touchdowns, single season passing touchdowns, and career total touchdowns.
Always humble though, Pennington always has more to say about his receivers and his linemen than about himself.
“Man, there is no better feeling. That’s the greatest feeling in the world. I just trust my guys that they’re going to do the right thing, I trust what my coaches are telling me, and I trust my guys to go make the plays.”
“Any game could possibly be the last time I play with these dudes and I’ve played with them a whole lot so it’s definitely a motivation.”
The Sandite defense was clutch against an Eagle unit that averaged 40 points per game coming into the night. Drake Fain tallied 12 tackles and Brooks Dudley had 11 as the Sandites forced two punts and two turnovers on downs.
“We had to stop the run,” said Klinck. “We had to commit to it, and we had to trust our secondary when they took shots to make a play.”
“We have unbelievable players, unbelievable coaches. We’ve got great players in Sand Springs. We are not good coaches without great players. It’s all about those dang kids and the effort and the heart they give.”
Rutledge was 4-121 receiving and Campbell was 3-51. Blake Jones had 16 carries for 44 yards for the Sandites, and Jonathan Daniels was 3-of-3 on PATs. Click here to view the full statistics.
