Defense Spurs Sand Springs Football to 30-13 Homecoming Win Over Ponca City
/While other four-year-olds dream of being pilots, NFL players, or the President, Cooper White dreams of being on the Sandite flag crew.
Cooper can often be seen running around the playground with his own flag, imagining he’s one of the Sand Springs baseball players who storm onto the field hoisting the four “CPHS” flags after touchdowns on Friday nights.
Now he no longer has to imagine it. As the Sandites rolled to a 30-13 win over Ponca City Friday night on Homecoming, Cooper got to tote his own miniature flag across the turf while wearing an official crew-member t-shirt, presented to him by the baseball players before the game.
“He’s been coming to Sandite games since he was newborn, and he’s always been obsessed with the flag boys running onto the field,” said Cooper’s mom, Bailee White. “We watch YouTube videos of old games just so he can watch the flags. This is a dream come true.”
The Sandite football players can rest easy knowing their number-one fan will be back in the stands when they return home Friday, October 8th against Booker T. Washington.
A version of this story was originally published in the Tulsa World.
On a night when the typically lethal Sandite offense struggled, the defense stepped up and made some big plays to lead a second half comeback on Homecoming.
Down 13-10 late in the third quarter, junior linebacker Drake Fain saw the ball pop loose deep in Wildcat territory and scooped it up for a 20-yard touchdown return to take the lead.
Class 6A-II No. 5 ranked Charles Page High School (4-0, 1-0) came away with four takeaways and rattled off 20 unanswered points to overcome Ponca City (1-3, 0-1) Friday night at Memorial Stadium.
“Dom (Ornelas) told me he hit it out,” said Fain. “I didn’t really see it. I was thinking ‘we need a touchdown right now.’ It was great for the team.”
“I couldn’t do it without my interior defensive linemen,” he added. “We call ‘em ‘Shake and Bake’ like Ricky Bobby. I love them dudes.”
Sand Springs had little difficulty moving the ball, amassing 410 yards, 22 first downs, and reaching the red zone eight times. They struggled with finishing, however, and turned the ball over on downs four times.
Fortunately, the defense was ready to make a statement.
Landon Hendricks blocked a PAT in the first half, then forced a fumble in the third quarter that Brooks Dudley recovered. Ryder Barnes added an interception late in the third, then Hendricks added another takeaway late in the fourth.
“That was just kind of organic how that happened,” said head coach Bobby Klinck. “We knew they were going to come out and kind of pound the ball and try to shorten the game. They had a great gameplan.”
“Coach (Scott) Harmon’s been doing this a long time, he’s a great coach and they caught us on a few things. Luckily we just had a few more playmakers help us out tonight.”
Ty Pennington was 16-of-30 passing for 197 yards and one touchdown on the night, a 64-yard catch-and-run by Jacob Blevins who had 142 yards on nine catches.
Pennington also had two rushing scores and carried the ball 21 times for 89 yards. Blake Jones added 128 yards on 21 carries.
Sand Springs is now 4-0 for the first time since 2012 and will return to action Friday night at Muskogee (1-3, 1-0). Ponca City will host No. 2 Choctaw (3-1, 1-0).
