Division 6A-II Sandite Pride Week 2 round-up/ Week 3 Rankings and Predictions
/By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief
Five teams remain undefeated in 6A-II after the week 2 bouts. Here are the new Sandite Pride rankings and predictions for this upcoming weekend.
#1 Charles Page (2-0, 0-0) District-1
The Sand Springs Sandites walked all over Enid in a 33-7 sabotage of the Plainsmen's homecoming. CPHS had over 400 yards of total offense and limited the home team to only 162. Last week the Sandites leveled the Hale Rangers 61-8 while Enid was smashed 41-14 at Ponca City. Sand Springs will take on 5A Guthrie at home this Friday.
Last week I picked CPHS by 24; the Sandites slightly outdid my expectations with a 26 point win.
Week 3 Pick: Sand Springs 35, Guthrie 24
#2 Bixby (1-1, 0-0) District-1
The 2014 6A-II State Champions, improved to 1-1 overall with a 71-7 win over 5A East Central (0-2). Bixby's first game was a 58-24 loss to the 2014 6A-1 State Champs at Jenks who this week affirmed their #1 ranking with a 45-27 win over Union. East Central's first loss was a 47-0 shutout to Bartlesville (2-0).
Last week I picked Bixby to win by 54 points which was 10 points shy of the damage they actually did.
Week 3 Pick: Bixby 54, Springdale AR 13
#3 Booker T Washington (2-0, 0-0) District-1
BTW put a 62-16 beat down on 4A Tulsa Central Friday, improving on their 28-16 win over Midwest City last week. The numbers are solid but their enemy was not. The Braves are 0-2 and unranked. Last year they won only two games and aren't expected to fair much better this year. The Hornets should breeze through their next four opponents and won't experience a real challenge till Bartlesville and Bixby at the end of October.
Last week I picked BTW by 35 points--an underestimation of 9 points.
Week 3 Pick: BTW 56, East Central 6
#4 Midwest City (1-1, 0-0) District-2
Midwest City won their first game of the season against cross-town rivals 5A #4 Carl Albert (1-1) in a close 28-21. It turned from a beat down to a dog fight as MWC's 28-0 3rd-quarter lead quickly dissipated and Carl Albert was barely held off from a touchdown drive that could have forced overtime. MWC has nine new starters on both sides of the ball and they'll need to really break them in before Del City this weekend.
Last week I picked MWC by 12 points.
Week 3 Pick: Del City 35, MWC 31
#5 Bartlesville (2-0, 0-0) District-1
#12 Enid (0-2, 0-0) District-2
The Bruins may be off to a better start than last year, but considering their wins were 46-0 over unranked 5A East Central and 42-14 over the 4A #6 Cascia Hall, its unclear how well they'll do when it comes to district play. Enid however, has been walked all over this season and hasn't had a win yet.
Last week I picked Bartlesville to win by 35 and was one touchdown off from their 28 point win. Enid lost by 2 points more than my 24 point prediction.
Week 3 Pick: Barlesville 35, Enid 12
#6 Choctaw (2-0, 0-0) District-2
The Choctaw Yellowjackets may be undefeated, but it's against teams that are at the bottom of everybody's list. 38-12 in Week one over Sapulpa and 24-13 over unranked 6A-I Putnam City Friday. Choctaw has a lot to clean up before they'll make anyone's top picks this season--especially after committing 22 penalties for 172 yards against PC. Their passing game needs some major workup too as they connected on less than half of 26 attempts for under 100 yards.
Week 3 Pick: Choctaw 34, Putnam City North 28
#7 Muskogee (0-2, 0-0) District-1
The Rougher's record may not look good this season, but it's a noticeable improvement over last year. Muskogee suffered a 33-22 loss to 5A #5 McAlester who defeated them 35-7 last year, and Friday they lost 34-25 to 6A-1 #5 Owasso who shut them out 34-0 last year. The Roughers were 3-7 last year and should be expected to finish around 5-5 or better this year.
Either I put too much faith in Owasso or too little in Muskogee as the Roughers only lost by 9 points as opposed to the 3 touchdowns I expected.
Week 3 Pick: Fayetteville AR 21, Muskogee 0
#8 Putnam City West (1-1, 0-0) District-2
The Patriots narrowly lost 47-42 in week one to 5A #1 Del City and smoked cross-town rivals PC North 29-6. PCW hasn't had a winning season since 2000 and in the last 14 years they've gone 18-122. It appears the team may finally be on the up-and-up.
Last week I picked PCW by six points. The game was actually won by 23.
Week 3 Pick: Putnam City 18, PCW 16
#9 Ponca City (1-1, 0-0) District-1
The Wildcats started the season hot with a 42-14 win over Enid, but choked against 5A unranked Guthrie, 28-19.
I had picked Guthrie by 14 points, the blue jays won by 9.
Week 3 Pick: Ponca 28, Shawnee 7
#10 Claremore (2-0, 0-0) District-1
The Red Zebras may not be winning by a lot, but they're undefeated and have won as many games this year as they did through all of last year. They narrowly beat Pryor 21-20 this week, but had a solid edge on Rogers, AR 18-7.
Last week I picked Rogers by six and was happily wrong as our Okies won by 11.
Week 3 Pick: Siloam Springs 28, Claremore 21
#11 Lawton (1-1, 0-0) District-2
#14 Sapulpa (1-1, 0-0) District-1
The Lawton Wolverines are far from a team to laugh at, but they've certainly fallen off their pedestal from last year. They won 56-35 over Salina, Kansas last week--a team that they beat 49-3 the year before. This week they barely put up points against in-town 5A rivals, MacArthur. MacArthur's starting QB went down with a leg injury early in the 2nd quarter, but even with the backup in, Mac managed a 13-0 lead into the half. MacArthur's 33-12 was a notable improvement over their narrow 35-33 winlast year. With divisional play not starting till the Wolverines travel to Sapulpa next week, there's still plenty of time for them to find their mojo and make a run at the state title--but they'll definitely need to make some improvements if they're going to stand a chance against District-1's top dogs.
Sapulpa is healthily recovering from a 1-9 record last year with a new head coach and a 55-0 shutout of Tulsa Hale. At the least, they'll tie their record from last year. I expect them to do a little better but I doubt if I'd pick them for a winning season. They lost 38-12 to Choctaw in week one. 55-0 sounds impressive, but Hale has lost their last 27 consecutive games and 8 of those were shutouts of 50+ points. 55-0 was the same score Sapulpa managed last year.
I picked Sapulpa to win by 41 points last week and they outdid my expectations by a pair of touchdowns.
I picked Lawton by 13 last week and was way off as Mac topped them by 21.
Week 3 Pick: Lawton 48, Sapulpa 27
#13 Stillwater (0-2, 0-0) District-2
The Plainsmen are non-contenders this year, losing 31-7 to 5A unranked Deer Creek and 41-14 to 6A-1 Mustang.
I picked Mustang by 31 points last week and was only 4 points off.
Week 3 Pick: Stillwater 21, Edmond North 14
#15 Eisenhower (0-2, 0-0) District-2
Eisenhower is off to a rough start this year after a 58-6 loss to #3 Fayetteville, AR and a 41-14 loss to 5A #1 Del City. Last year they went 4-6--this year I expect them to do worse.
Week 3 Pick: MacArthur 35, Ike 9
