Alexander stamps his name in series history; Jays win 28-21

The Guthrie BlueJays showed the state exactly what a team win looked like Friday evening as they took on 5A’s defending state champion Carl Albert. In the process, junior running back Idea Alexander had his coming out party.

BlueJay fans held their breath as senior running back Kai Callins slowly walked off the field due to an injury in the second half, but as it turns out it was Alexander’s opportunity to stamp his name in the annual Guthrie – Carl Albert series.

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Alexander finished with 182 rushing yards on 21 attempts with many of those runs between the tackles, including 130 yards in the second half, as Guthrie remained unbeaten with a 28-21 win that was not decided until 90 seconds left in the game.

Callins came back in the game following the injury to collect his team-high fourth interception. And on offense, he finished with over 100 all-purpose yards.

With the Jays trailing 21-14, Alexander broke through the Titans secondary for a 53-yard score to tie the game at 21-all. Later he scored the game’s final touchdown in the fourth quarter with a 7-yard run. The junior now has 13 scores on the year.

Both teams ran for an identical 245 yards in the game, but for the Titans majority of that came in the first half under the direction of quarterback Stevie Thompson. The senior darted the Jays for big runs and finished the night with 266 rushing with nearly 200 of those yards in the first half.

Plays and yards were hard to come by for the Titans in the second half as Guthrie defensive coordinator Kelly Beeby made the proper adjustments. However, the Titans had one final chance to tie the game.

The Titans took over at the Guthrie 17-yard line after the Jays dropped a punt snap with just more than two minutes left in the game. Thompson ran for 2-yards on first down, but then threw three incomplete passes to secure the Jays win.

Thompson blitzed the Jays on the game’s opening drive as the Titans traveled 80 yards before Thompson scored from 1-yard out to go up 7-0.

Guthrie responded later with a trick up their sleeve when Callins on a reverse pass spotted tight end Blaze Hastings standing alone in the end zone to tie the game at 7-all.

Guthrie improves to 6-0 and will be the unanimous No. 1 team in 5A. More importantly, Guthrie moves to 2-0 in the district and will host El Reno on Thursday and will put their 23-home game winning streak on the line. El Reno took down Northwest Classen 28-20 to improve to 2-4.

Series now within a game

Carl Albert leads the overall series at 21-20, but the Jays have narrowed that down by winning 9 of the last 13 meetings. The win also marks Guthrie’s fourth straight win over Carl Albert which marks the second time that has happen (81-84). Guthrie will try to tie their most consecutive wins next year at five which was last done in 1970 to 1974.