FOOTBALL: 5 takeaways from the first 'Battle of Blue Whale' between Verdigris, Catoosa

Sep. 13—VERDIGRIS — The inaugural "Battle of the Blue Whale" wasn't much of a battle at all.

Verdigris experienced resounding success in every facet of the game, looking every bit of a favorite to win Class 3A this season on the way to a 47-14 victory over Rogers County foe Catoosa on Friday night at home in the first meeting between the programs.

Third-ranked Verdigris is now 31-1 when scoring 40 or more points in the Travis East era (2016-present). The lone loss was a 43-40 decision against Sperry in 2016.

"It's another game," East said of playing Catoosa for the first time. "It's one of those things that's been built up by a lot of other people besides the people involved in the game. It's just a football game. We never played Catoosa there for a long time because they were a lot bigger than Verdigris. They were in 5A at one time when Verdigris was in A. They were a lot bigger, and now we're closer in size. We play in everything else, so we might as well play in football. So we did."

Before the focus turns to the highly anticipated game at Class 2A power Beggs, here are five takeaways from the Cardinals' win:

THE GREAT QUARTERBACK SWITCH(ES)

Caden Parnell put everything he had into the throw, and he had the satisfaction of watching his target — seemingly effortlessly — track down a ball that flew roughly 50 yards.

Tyler Mitchell snagged the pass and outran the Catoosa defense to the end zone for an 81-yard touchdown, increasing the Verdigris lead to 41-0 with 1:51 remaining in the first half. It was Mitchell's third and final catch of the night, but it was only the first pass attempt for Parnell.

Up until that point, starter Dylan White handled the quarterbacking for the Cardinals, completing 8 of 11 passes for 93 yards and an 18-yard touchdown to none other than Parnell.

However, he was given the rest of the night off after guiding them to 34 points in just under 18 minutes of game time. That allowed Parnell, who normally serves as a running back, to test his arm strength.

He passed — no pun intended — with distinction.

"We gotta play him (Parnell) too, and we're kind of getting back into things and gotta have multiple guys ready," East said. "We got in a position a year ago where we needed more quarterback depth, and we're just working on building it."

The senior finished with 134 yards and two touchdowns on 3-of-5 passing in addition to his one reception from White and five carries for 45 yards. His second scoring throw — a 34-yard toss to Dalton Person — gave Verdigris its final points at the 9:55 mark of the third quarter.

Person managed three catches for 66 yards.

Oh, and Parnell ran 22 yards to the Catoosa 38-yard line on a fake punt, leading to a 24-yard touchdown run from Mason Mittasch shortly thereafter.

"There's room for improvement, always," Parnell humbly said. "I can definitely get better. For me, I definitely need to get better."

The Indians switched quarterbacks as well in the second half, but under different circumstances.

Freshman Brogan O'Neal took over for senior Russel Dugger after the latter threw a pair of interceptions and completed only 4 of 14 passes for 36 yards, and he didn't disappoint.

O'Neal's first pass resulted in a 35-yard gain on a slip-screen pass to Michael Blendowski, and just plays later, he threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chris Brown on a fourth down to give Catoosa its first points with 6:43 remaining in the third quarter.

O'Neal threw for 79 yards on 6-of-10 passing, with three of his completions going to Blendowski, who finished with a team-high five receptions for 78 yards.

JACKS OF ALL TRADES

Mittasch, Reese Roller and Tyler Willis did a little bit of everything Friday night.

Mittasch not only led the team in rushing with 111 yards on 10 carries with touchdown runs of 33 and 24 yards, but he also caught one pass for a 10-yard gain and grabbed an interception on defense that led to an 8-yard touchdown run by Mitchell and gave Verdigris a 28-0 cushion late in the first quarter.

"I think I played pretty good, but I gave up a touchdown early in the second half, and I'm not satisfied with that," Mittasch said. "I actually think I did way better on offense, but I missed a couple of blocks. That's my fault, and I take responsibility for that. I gotta work harder on defense on my side of the ball. Loafing around sometimes isn't going to get me anywhere."

Willis' numbers weren't as eye-popping, but it was a similar outing nonetheless. He caught two passes for 28 yards and carried the ball twice for 8 yards while also intercepting a pass, setting up Parnell and Mitchell's 81-yard scoring connection one play later.

Roller didn't pick off the opposing quarterback, but he made an impact in other ways.

The senior defensive end recorded two of the Cardinals' three sacks and had four tackles in all, and offensively he scored the first points of the game on a 1-yard keeper out of the wildcat formation. He carried the ball three times for 7 yards and caught a 17-yard pass for White's first completion.

VERDIGRIS DEFENSE DOMINATES

Catoosa struggled to consistently move the ball all night against the Verdigris defense, finishing with 196 yards on 52 plays, but it was even more of a challenge in the first half.

The Cardinals outgained the Indians 344-40 through the first 24 minutes of action, forcing two turnovers in the process.

Roller tallied two of the five Verdigris tackles for loss, and Drake Marveggio led the team with 11 total tackles. Tripp Fuller added eight tackles and Ty McKnight had six.

"Defensively, we played really well at times," East said. "I thought we played most of the first half great. We had a couple of things they got some yards on and first downs that we shouldn't have given up, and we'll get better."

SPREADING THE WEALTH

Verdigris rushed for 246 yards on 40 carries, which is about 6.2 yards per touch.

Those carries were distributed handsomely, for 11 Cardinals ran the ball at least once. Mittasch and Chris Zaferes accounted for half the touches with 10 apiece for 165 yards combined. Parnell, Peyton Morgan, White and Roller each carried the ball three times or more, and Willis had multiple carries as well.

Person, Antonio Riddle, Mitchell and Austin Boren had one carry apiece.

The same applied in the passing game, for seven receivers caught 12 passes from three quarterbacks.

THIRD-DOWN BLUES

Both teams struggled to convert third downs, as Catoosa went 2-of-11 (18.2%) on plays of that variety while Verdigris was 3-of-10 (30%).

However, the Cardinals punted only once to the Indians' seven which traveled an average of 25.7 yards. One of Catoosa's punts took a bad bounce and netted minus-10 yards.

Verdigris also won the first-downs battle 19-10.