In a close game, Sapulpa managed to strike last in a much-needed win on the road against the Claremore Zebras 21-14. The game came down to a couple of big plays by the Chieftain playmakers to take away another close game from Claremore this season.
The Claremore Zebras have had a rough go of it, losing most of their games by a single score. In two of their losses, they lost by a single point.
Sapulpa entered Friday’s game coming off a tough loss to Pryor, effectively putting themselves in the middle of the district in regards to rank.
The Chieftains struck first and led the Zebras 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. Two minutes later, Claremore put themselves on the board for the first half.
Tyrese Jones answered with a vengeance, running 100 yards to put Sapulpa back on top, 14-7. The rest of the half remained scoreless by both teams. The Chieftain crowd was nervous, as Claremore was set to receive the ball in the second half.
The teams continued to fight for the ball throughout the first 9 minutes of the half before Claremore struck back with their second rushing touchdown of the night. The game was tied and was looking like another nail-biter.
Last year’s game was canceled due to COVID, so this was the first time in two years the teams were getting the chance to see what the other was made of.
After trading the ball back and forth, Sapulpa managed to hurl it into the end zone with less than a minute left on the clock, giving the Chieftains their win after an anxiety-ridden second half. An interception with just 37 seconds left in the fourth quarter sealed Claremore’s fate.
Claremore will travel to second place Pryor for their final game. Pryor will be coming off a devastating 63-8 loss to number one Collinsville and will look to put an exclamation mark at the end of their season at the cost of another Zebra loss.
Sapulpa, after their much-needed win, will host Glenpool in the final game of the season. With a win against Glenpool, the Chieftains could end the season with a winning record in the district and looking to continue to improve their standings in the conference going into next year.
This story was updated to correct some details about the 2020 Claremore vs Sapulpa game.
