Road To Wantland – Edmond Santa Fe
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The Class 6A-D1 state championship is set for 1PM on Saturday night at UCO’s Wantland Stadium. We’ll see a familiar face in the Jenks Trojans, but their opponent is somewhat surprising after Edmond Santa Fe beat Union in the semifinals on Saturday, making it to their first title game in almost two decades. Prep Redzone Oklahoma will have preview content throughout the week to get you ready for Saturday afternoon’s title game. In this latest post, we take a look at the “Road To Wantland” for the Edmond Santa Fe Wolves, looking back at their 2020 season.
Preseason – Ranked Number 5
Coming into the 2020 season, Edmond Santa Fe had high expectations after the way they ended the 2019 season. They captured the district championship after beating Broken Arrow and Jenks on the road. However, it didn’t end completely how they would like. The Wolves were upset by Moore in the quarterfinals and would fall short of the ultimate goal. They came into 2020 as our number five team in the preseason rankings. With six starters back on offense and six starters returning on defense, the Wolves appeared to be one of the best teams in 6A-1. However, like all teams from the westside, they would have to back up that hype on the field to show that they could contend with some of the big boys in 6A-1. They showed that in 2019 to a certain extent, they were hungry to finish the job in 2020.
August 28 – Lost To Owasso 48-21
It was a top five match-up as defending champion Owasso would host the Wolves in the season-opener. This would answer some early questions about Santa Fe about how serious they were as a contender in 6A-1. I was personally on the sideline for this game and my main takeaways were Owasso had zero rust as defending champs, Santa Fe had some things to learn and the final score was not completely indicative of how this game went. Owasso would win 48-21 but the game was really over by the end of the first quarter. Santa Fe turned the ball over, had quick possessions ending in poor punts and Owasso capitalized on all of it. The Rams would lead 35-7 after the first quarter and really put it on cruise control from there. Santa Fe would fall to 0-1 and would have to regroup quick with another game against a top ranked team coming up in Stillwater.
September 4 – Lost To Stillwater 45-32
It would be a much closer game the following week but the result was the same as Edmond Santa Fe lost 45-32 to Stillwater. The Wolves played much better following their loss to Owasso but they simply could not stop or contain Stillwater star running back
Qwontrel Walker
Qwontrel
Walker
5'8" | RB
Stillwater | 2021
State
OK
. Granted, not many teams in the state can say that they have been able to stop Walker. In their week one meeting, Walker torched the Wolves for nearly 250 yards and five touchdowns on the night. Somewhat similar to the week before, Stillwater was able to get out to a big start but they weren’t able to cruise like Owasso. They would lead 29-6 halfway thru the second quarter but the Wolves would rally. But ultimately, that rally would fall short and Santa Fe would fall to 0-2. However, that would be the last time Santa Fe lost all season.
September 11 – Beat Edmond North 42-35
Edmond Santa Fe didn’t know it at the time but their close victory over rival Edmond North would be the start of what is now a ten game winning streak heading into Saturday’s championship game. While 42-35 is much closer than most people would have predicted coming in, Santa Fe improved to 1-2 and would have some time off before district play began. It was a breakout game for two players on Santa Fe’s offense. Junior star receiver
Talyn Shettron
Talyn
Shettron
6'3" | WR
Edmond Santa Fe | 2022
State
OK
, who is one of the best wide receivers in the country would catch three touchdowns in the win over Edmond North. While just about everyone in the state knew about Shettron, not many knew about the other breakout performer, senior running back
Ethane Hyche
Ethane
Hyche
6'0" | RB
Edmond Santa Fe | 2021
State
OK
. The senior running back would carry the ball nearly 30 times for 216 yards and three touchdowns. This would begin a streak of five straight games with 170+ yards for Hyche.
September 28 – Beat Edmond Memorial 46-20
Santa Fe came into district play with a 1-2 record and would have to wait a couple extra days to get district play underway. After having a bye week in week three, Santa Fe would face another Edmond rival in Edmond Memorial in week four. However, that game would be postponed from Friday to Monday night. The Wolves wouldn’t be slowed down by the postponement as they had no problems dispatching Edmond Memorial 46-20. However, the Bulldogs wouldn’t go down without a fight. They would score right before halftime to make the score 20-13 in favor of Santa Fe. Memorial would then score on their opening possession of the second half to tie the game at 20. But it was all Santa Fe after that as the Wolves would score the next 26 points to improve to 2-2 on the season and 1-0 in district play.
October 3 – Beat Westmoore 69-14
Because of the Edmond Memorial postponement to Monday, Santa Fe’s week five game would have to be pushed as well to avoid Santa Fe playing on a Monday and then Friday. Instead, they played Westmoore on Saturday afternoon, just four days after they beat rival Edmond Memorial. Despite playing Westmoore on an abnormally short week, the Wolves didn’t show it as they absolutely thrashed the Jaguars 69-14 on a Saturday afternoon. Santa Fe got out to a fast start and would never look back. They led 28-7 after the first quarter and then 49-7 at halftime. All in all, the Santa Fe offense would total ten touchdowns on the afternoon. Hyche would have his third straight game where he would score three touchdowns. Junior quarterback
Scott Pfieffer
Scott
Pfieffer
6'3" | QB
Edmond Santa Fe | 2022
State
OK
would throw four touchdowns during the rout. That would be his season-high. Well, until Santa Fe met up with Westmoore again in the playoffs.
October 9 – Beat Yukon 42-21
Up next was a showdown with a Yukon team that came in this match-up on a four-game winning streak and was also 2-0 in district play. Santa Fe’s defense would have to play sound football as Yukon runs the flexbone offense. And after the first quarter, it appeared we were in for a shootout with these two offenses. Both teams had no problem scoring in the first twelve minutes as we were tied at 14 after one quarter. Yukon would have some fumbling problems and Santa Fe capitalized on that, leading the Millers 21-14 at halftime. Yukon would tie the game at 21 in the third quarter but it was all Santa Fe after that. The Wolves would add touchdowns from Hyche, running back
Micah Snoddy
Micah
Snoddy
5'10" | RB
Edmond Santa Fe | 2021
OK
and Hyche again. Meanwhile, the defense kept Yukon off the scoreboard and gave the Wolves a huge district win, heading into Fall Break and a massive match-up with the Jenks Trojans.
October 15 – Jenks Game Cancelled
Covid had caused some schedule changes but Edmond Santa Fe managed to not have any real disruptions to their season until Fall Break. They were supposed to play Jenks on the road in a very highly anticipated rematch from the year before, when Shettron caught three touchdowns and Santa Fe knocked off the Trojans. Santa Fe was determined to prove that the 2019 win wasn’t just a flash in the pan and this was the new normal. However, just a few days before the game was to kickoff, Jenks announced that several players and coaches were in isolation, related to Covid and the game would have to be postponed. The game was later cancelled. Fortunately for Santa Fe, this would be the only major disruption they would have to manage all season. And as we know now, these two teams will finally get their shot at one another.
October 23 – Beat Broken Arrow 35-28
After the Jenks game was cancelled, Edmond Santa Fe had to regroup and focus on their next opponent as it was another tough one in the Broken Arrow Tigers. Santa Fe had beaten Broken Arrow the year before and they knew the Tigers were going to want some revenge. Broken Arrow is known for being a running team and they have a pretty good duo in their backfield at running back. However, it was the one-two punch of Hyche and Snoddy for Santa Fe that led them to the win. Both players finished with over 100 yards rushing as they would beat the Tigers for the second straight year. This game would be close throughout as the teams exchanged the leads multiple times. However, it was a touchdown run from Snoddy with a little over six minutes left in the game that would put Santa Fe up for good. The win put Santa Fe at 5-2 and more importantly 4-0 in district play with big wins over BA and Yukon.
October 30 – Beat Enid 41-21
Santa Fe would roll into week nine just a few wins away from another district championship. Standing in the way was a week nine clash on the road against Enid. Santa Fe would get another win, their sixth in a row and more importantly, they would set up a week ten clash against Norman and as long as they would win, they would be district champs. The Wolves beat Enid 41-21 and Hyche would finish with four touchdowns on the night. That would end up being his season-high for a game. Now all eyes would be on their week ten clash with Norman as Santa Fe was unbeaten in district play but Jenks was also unbeaten and needed Santa Fe to trip in week ten to claim the district title.
November 5 – Beat Norman 42-31
This game would have some drama as Norman didn’t just hand Santa Fe the district title on a silver platter. The Wolves would have to come out and not only earn it but simply take it from Norman. Hyche would end up scoring four more touchdowns for the second straight week in the 42-31 win over Norman. But we mentioned we had drama and this was no cakewalk for Santa Fe. With less than six minutes to go, Norman had the ball near the Santa Fe goal line, with the game tied at 28. They would kick a field goal to put the Tigers on top. However, the Wolves had a response immediately. On the kickoff, senior
Angelo Rankin Jr.
Angelo
Rankin Jr.
5'10" | ATH
Edmond Santa Fe | 2021
State
OK
would get loose and go all the way to the house to put Santa Fe up for good. They would add another touchdown and head into the playoffs with a 7-2 record and captured a second straight district title.
First Round – Beat Edmond North 63-24
Santa Fe would come into the playoffs as district champion and would see a familiar face in the first round of the playoffs. They would meet Edmond North, the team they beat 42-35 back in week two. This playoff meeting would not be anywhere close to the regular season match-up as the Wolves blasted their rivals right out of the playoffs with a 63-24 victory. Hyche had another big night and would finish with 250 yards on the ground, that would end up being his season-high in yards. The result was never in doubt as Santa Fe took control from the opening snap and would roll to the 39-point victory. That set up another rematch with a team that Santa Fe had bullied during the regular season.
Quarterfinals – Beat Westmoore 56-22
After beating up on rival Edmond North, Santa Fe would advance to the quarterfinals with another regular season rematch, this time against a Westmoore team that they dominated in week five, winning that 69-14. And we mentioned during that breakdown that Pfieffer had thrown what was a season-high four touchdowns against the Jaguars. That was until they met again in the playoffs and he had the best game of his career. He would finish the night 20-23 for over 300 yards and five touchdowns as the Wolves punched their ticket to the semifinals. However, despite the score above, the Wolves would have to fight more than they had to in the regular season meeting with Westmoore. They actually trailed the Jaguars 14-7 after the first quarter. But Santa Fe would outscore Westmoore 49-8 over the next three quarters to clinch their semifinal spot.
Semifinals – Beat Union 21-14
Edmond Santa Fe was searching for their first championship appearance since 2003 and only the second time ever. Standing in the way was a Union team that had started the season 0-4 but had been rolling going into the semifinal round. Santa Fe actually had experience with Union as they met each other in August for a mini game scrimmage. Union would win in overtime by a score. However, that was just a mini game and more importantly, it was in August and both teams were much different in late November. Santa Fe got out to a great start as they would intercept Union on the opening possession and then Pfieffer would find Rankin Jr for a touchdown. The next possession, Rankin Jr would intercept Union and then would score again on offense to put the Wolves up 14-0 in the first quarter. Union found themselves in a hole before they could blink. On the first play of the second quarter, Santa Fe would score to put the Wolves up 21-0. From there, Union did a good job of containing the Santa Fe offense. But the hole was too much to overcome. Santa Fe would go scoreless for nearly three quarters but would still come out with the 21-14 win. Union’s final drive to potentially tie the game was ended when Shettron came up with an interception on the goal line to punch their ticket to the state championship game.