Santa Fe shuts down North

Eric Spruill
The Edmond Sun

September 18, 2007 03:23 pm

— The Edmond Santa Fe football team couldn’t have dreamed it up any better, as the Wolves knocked off Edmond North 42-20, to win their third straight city championship at Wantland Field on Friday night.
The first offensive series was something straight out of Wolves head coach Dan Cocannouer’s dreams.
“What it was, our coach imagined it and it happened. I’m just glad we’re city champs,” Santa Fe running back Steve Sumpter, who rushed for 152 yards and one touchdown, said. “He told us before the game on the first play we’re going to get a few yards, on the next play we’ll get a first down, and on the third play we’re going to score on a pass play.”
That is exactly what happened as quarterback Michael Hodges hit Matt Jackson on a 45-yard touchdown strike with 9:56 left in the first quarter.
“I was ready for it, we worked on it all week,” Jackson said. “We got it down pretty good, and we executed it.”
Everything the Wolves did in the first half worked, as Santa Fe racked up 352 yards in the first two quarters of play. That’s not to say the defense wasn’t holding up on its end.
WIth the Huskies driving down the field on their first possession, Wolves linebacker Josh Tebbe recovered a fumble at their own nine-yard line.
Two Wolves possessions later Sumpter broke free for a 44-yard gain, and Antonio Stayton capped it off with a five-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 at the end of the first.
Santa Fe started the second quarter with a bang, as quarterback Cord Pape left defenders in the dust with a 66-yard touchdown run down the sidelines, giving the Wolves a 21-0 lead, with 6:43 left.
After a missed field goal by North, Sumpter followed a 25-yard gain on the ground, with a 57-yard touchdown reception from Hodges, as Santa Fe went up 28-0.
North finally got on the board with less than a minute remaining, to cut its deficit to three touchdowns at halftime.
“We did everything we thought we could do against them,” Coccanouer said. “The only thing I was disappointed with was on kickoffs. Their guy made a few moves on us, and had some good returns.”
The Wolves scored on the first possession of the second half, as Brian Mills went 35-yards for a touchdown, for a 35-7 lead.
After North scored a couple of touchdowns to make the game interesting, Sumpter picked off a Casey Goben pass to seal the game.
Hodges threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jackson with 7:58 remaining in the contest to round out the scoring.
Coccanouer was proud of his seniors, who have never lost the city championship.
“This is the first senior class to ever come through Santa Fe that can say they were always the city champs, they never lost. I think that’s something to say about this class, of all the great teams to come through here, this is the first that can say that,” Coccanouer said.
Santa Fe finished with 550 yards of total offense, while holding North to just 256. Hodges finished the night 6-of-9 for 132 yards, with three touchdown passes, while Jackson had five receptions for 122 yards.
The Wolves (2-1) will host Norman North on Thursday night.