No doubt about it, it was a great night for a football game. Wasn’t too hot, the crowd was fantastic and spirits were high.
The Choctaw Yellowjackets had made the trip to Collins Stadium for their opening game of the season. The Chieftains were looking to give them a proper Sapulpa welcome.
Unfortunately, a couple of critical mistakes cost them the win they were hoping for.
After last week’s loss to Duncan, Sapulpa knew what they needed to do to improve their game for this week, and they did it. Whereas last week they had a problem getting their defense off the field, this week the plays were much more closely aligned, Sapulpa ran 60 plays, Choctaw ran 68.
And earlier this week, I talked to Coach Borgstadt about whether or not they knew how to respond the Yellowjackets method of play. Coach said they like to do short, quick passes and then run the ball from there—he nailed it.
He also said that we needed to work on our tackling game and not miss those tackles that came up as a result of these one-two punches that Choctaw delivered. To that end, from my seat, they did much better on that this time around.
Choctaw drew first blood with a one-yard run to a TD, but missed their kick.
Three different times we were within 20 yards or less of a touchdown in the first half, and finally managed to make it stick on the second quarter, putting Sapulpa in the lead at 7 to 6.
At the third quarter, the defense was beginning to slow down, and it allowed Choctaw another TD to place them at 13 over Sapulpa’s 7.
The mistake that arguably cost them them game happened just one minute into the 4th quarter. A bad snap from Choctaw looked like we were going to get a sack, but the QB hoofed it down the field and with Chieftains scratching and clawing at him, threw a 50 yard pass to the receiver in the end zone. Wow.
Bad snap, puts Choctaw back 20 yards, but in a hail mary, QB throw to the endzone and he caught it! 19-7 Choctaw. 11 minutes left in the 4th
— Sapulpa Times (@sapulpatimes) September 2, 2017
Sapulpa more or less spent the rest of the game just trying to catch up, but at several times, it looked as though they would pull it off. One particularly awesome moment happened in the fourth, When Williams was under serious pressure and about to be sacked, he managed to hurl the ball down the field to Sanders, who caught it at a stumbling run and put Sapulpa with 1 touchdown again.
FANTASTIC THROW by QB puts a touchdown on the board!
— Sapulpa Times (@sapulpatimes) September 2, 2017
That was awesome. He was being chased down, broke the tackle and kept his head on enough to throw it down the line. Great, great play.
— Sapulpa Times (@sapulpatimes) September 2, 2017
Unfortunately, Sapulpa couldn’t fight off the repeated snap-pass-run plays of the Yellowjackets. It was a common play for them, but it also gave several options and they just wore us down over time, eventually getting to 14-27, Choctaw. Sapulpa managed to score one more TD in the last few minutes bringing up the score to 21.
Sapulpa Plays Bishop Kelley next week at an away game. Kickoff is at 7pm.
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All Images courtesy of Aryn Ward.
