EDMOND — There are come from behind wins, and then there are those special playoff nights when a team that should have been defeated simply refuses to die. In last Friday’s 6A-II state semifi nal game at Edmond North Stadium, the Charles Page High School Sandites would not accept defeat.
Down 27–7 late in the first half, pushed around for most of two quarters and bleeding yardage to a physical Putnam City run game, the Sandites could have slipped quietly into the cold November night. Instead, they wrote a lesson in determination and resolve, clawing back for a 28–27 win with determination that was nothing short of instinct for survival.
Putnam City landed the first, second, and third blows that put the Sandites on the ropes. The Pirates opened marching methodically from their own 30, chewing up yards on the ground and converting first down after first down. A 9-yard rushing touchdown capped the drive and made it 7–0 with roughly eight minutes left in the first quarter.
Charles Page’s first possession stalled near midfield and ended in a punt. The Pirates charged back with the help of an offsides call on the Sandites and pushed deep into Sand Springs territory. The first quarter ended with the ball on the Sandite 14 and the Pirates controlling the tempo.
Early in the second, Putnam City finished the drive. Quarterback Dejon Ackerson slipped in from seven yards out to stretch the lead to 14–0 with a tone that said, “We can do this all night.”
They nearly did. Moments later, a Sandite fumble gave the Pirates the ball back at the Charles Page 33. It was a gift that the Pirates unwrapped at the 1-yard line and punched in their third rushing score to make it 20–0 after a missed PAT.
For the Sandites, it wasn’t just the 20-point deficit; it was how it happened. Putnam City was dominating — living in plus territory, leaning on a running game that repeatedly found the gaps in the line, the open edges and eventually, the goal line.
The Sandite offense was stuck in neutral — false starts, timeouts to stop the bleeding and drives that died just as they reached Pirate territory.
The game had gone sideways — down 20, the defense couldn’t crack the Pirate code and the offense couldn’t get the boilers lit. The silence on the sidelines and in the stands was tangible. This was uncharted territory. These Sandites hadn’t lived in tight games — they came in to this averaging 38 points a night while giving up 16 and leading from the opening kick.
Starting from their own 35 with a little over six minutes left in the half, Charles Page’s offense gained steam. They finally looked like themselves. Quarterback Easton Webb strung together first downs and got the ball inside the Pirate 20. With just under two minutes left in the half, Webb’s number was called and he knifed in from 11 yards out, putting the Sandites on the board. Tanner Copeland’s PAT slid through and the Sandites had a pulse.
Putnam City answered, ripping off a late-half drive and in the final minute, the Pirates found the end zone one more time on the ground and tacked on the extra point for a 27–7 halftime lead. For all of Charles Page’s late push, the Pirates jogged to the locker room with their heads high, having owned the half and holding a threescore cushion.
Whatever was said in the Sandites’ locker room at halftime, it worked.
Charles Page opened the third quarter with a long, patient drive that looked nothing like their early struggles. They converted third downs, accepted free yardage when a defensive pass interference call gave them a boost, and moved the ball across midfield. Webb settled in, his offensive line dug in and his skill players followed the cadence inside the Pirate 15.
Putnam City’s fortress could be breached. On third down from the 11, Webb dropped back and found Dominic Forbes streaking across the end zone. The 11-yard strike cut the lead to 27–13 and confirmed that the Sandites weren’t going anywhere. The missed extra point made it a coach’s game, but the tide had shifted. The Sandites now knew they could score on the Pirates, and the defense started playing their OG game.
Midway through the third, the Sandite D posted its first massive stand, turning the Pirates over on downs at the Charles Page 16 after a red-zone series that could have gone the way they all had earlier in the night. But it didn’t, and this was important. That stop didn’t immediately produce points, but it sent a message to the Pirates — you can’t be leaning on the run and expect the same results.
Early in the fourth, another huge defensive stand swung the momentum. The Pirates turned the ball over on downs at their own 1-yard line, and Charles Page didn’t squander the opportunity. Brock O’Dell crashed in from a yard out, and Copeland’s extra point trimmed the deficit to 27– 20 with about five minutes left.
The cold Edmond air got loud. A game that was a runaway victory for the Pirates had suddenly become a one-score nailbiter. Both sides of the stands were raucous and on their feet, clanging cowbells and blasting airhorns.
Putnam City knew they needed to salt it away with one more grinding possession, and they moved the ball out near midfield and chewed up precious minutes. But a false start and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that saw a Pirate ejected shortcircuited the drive, and with just under three minutes to go, the Charles Page defense had forced yet another punt.
That’s when Webb and the offense went to work on the drive that Sand Springs fans will talk about for a very long time.
Starting from their own 34 with roughly two minutes left, the Sandites climbed the field like a ladder. A first down to the 49. Another to the Putnam City 33. Timeouts, tense huddles, and the Sandite Pride drumline holding a steady beat while hearts in the stands were not.
The Sandites nudged to the 21, then the 10, but the Pirates twice forced fourth down, clinging to a sevenpoint lead like a cat at the end of a rope.
Then the flag flew. With less than a minute on the clock, on fourth down from the 10-yard line, a defensive pass interference call on the Pirates resuscitated the Sandites’ drive, their night, their season. Given new downs in the shadow of the goal posts, Charles Page handed it to the player who’d been at the center of the rally all night.
Webb powered in for his third touchdown of the game, pulling the Sandites to within a single point, 27–26. The Sand Springs crowd got a little louder when they realized that the offense had stayed on the field.
Downone,underaminute to go, Klincks decision wasn’t conservative. It was defiant.
Charles Page was going for two — checkmate or check out — win or go home.
O’Dell took the rock and the O-line delivered an opening. He slashed in for the conversion and nudged the scoreboard into the positive for the first time of the night and the only time that mattered — Sandites 28, Pirates 27.
The Charles Page side detonated — Putnam City’s side deflated and the last desperate possession of the Pirates was anti-climactic. When the clock hit zero, a team trailing by 20 in the first half had completed what was certainly the most cinematic comeback of the season and punched its ticket to the big dance — the Sandites third trip — ever — in the history of Sandites.
In the books it goes down as a one-point win — just a set of numbers in the semifinal bracket. For everyone who witnessed this team dig out of that 27–7 hole — behind Webb’s three touchdowns, O’Dell’s late heroics, a defense that bucked up in the red zone, and a staff of coaches that believed in its team — the story is this: On a cold night in Edmond, these boys learned what happens when you keep playing even after your entire season looks like it slipped through your fingers. They found out that it’s not the first, but the last team to believe, that gets to go to the chip.