The Guthrie Bluejays will look to continue their winning ways Friday night when they travel to Noble for a 5A-1 district meeting.
The BlueJays, who entered The Oklahoman poll this week ranked No. 1 for the first time this season, will be going for their third best start under head coach Rafe Watkins to begin a season as they look for win number five in a row. In 2008 Guthrie started the season out 6-0 and in 2007 won all 14 games.
Noble, in the meantime, will be coming off their first win of the season. The bears easily handled Western Heights for a 40-13 district road win to halt a four-game losing streak to begin the season.
Class 5A’s top ranked Jays will be heavily favored in a series they have dominated over the past several seasons. In the five past match-ups between the two schools, the Jays have outscored Noble 268-7. Overall, Watkins led BlueJays are 8-2 against the Bears with Noble picking up wins in 2003 and 2004 with both of those wins coming inside Jelsma Stadium.
The Bears offense will be challenged by the Bluejay defense particularly the front seven. The defense is holding opponents to an average of 38 yards a game rushing and a total of 125 yards per game which ranks number one in both 5A categories. Noble enters the game averaging 16 points a game while the Guthrie defense allows a 5A best 5.6 points per game.
Noble will try to get things going with their sophomore quarterback Dakota Boxwell. The young quarterback has been labeled as an accurate passer if given enough time so expect the defense to continue to put pressure on the quarterback as they have all season.
The defense is again led by senior linebacker Landry Chappell’s 60 tackles and seven sacks which ranks him No. 2 in both categories in 5A. Somewhat quietly this season, Trevor Blassingame is having a nice start with six sacks and ranks fourth in 5A in the category. Both Chappell and Blassingame along with Conner Howard, Zac Brown and Vincent Norris have cause havoc by adding pressure on the quarterbacks.
The Guthrie offense will enter Noble with 5A’s number two overall in rushing yards, total yards and points scored with a lot of credit going to the experience offensive linemen in Blake Belcher, Hayden Seifert, Cooper Davis, Malachi Galbraith and Evan Plagg.
Half way through the regular season, the Jays are averaging 279 yards in the running category led by senior running back Luke Davis. Davis is averaging over 7-yards a carry and has piled up 575 yards on the ground to go with 180 receiving yards. He has hit pay dirt 10 times total and is the second leading scorer in 5A with 62 points. Not to be forgotten, Davis averages 33.33 yards on his 12 punts this season.
The center piece of the offense is three-year starting quarterback Bryan Dutton. So far this season he has the best passing completion at 71% and has 10 passing scores to just one interception.
Despite the recent slant of the series and Carl Albert looming, Guthrie is expecting to come out early and have success to try avoid any excitement from the Bears. The game can be heard on Triple Play Sports 105.1 FM and streaming world-wide on Guthrie Sports Page.
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