Guthrie falls to Tuttle in season opener, looks to regroup during bye week

The Guthrie Bluejays dropped their season opener on the road Friday night, falling to Tuttle 38-13 in a matchup between last year’s Class 5A and 4A state championship teams.

“I was disappointed in myself, my coaches, my offense, my defense, my special teams tonight. In no part of my mind could I envision a game that was not going to be competitive tonight,” Jays head coach Kelly Beeby said in his post-game interview.

Tuttle opened with a 10-0 first-quarter lead before Guthrie junior quarterback Daelon Rice punched in a 4-yard touchdown run — the Bluejays’ first score of the 2025 season — to cap off an impressive 14-play, 63-yard drive that took 7:28 off the clock. A missed extra point left Guthrie trailing 10-6 with under two minutes before halftime.

The Tigers responded quickly, connecting on a 50-yard touchdown pass with just 51 seconds left in the half to extend their lead to 17-6 at the break. Tuttle carried that momentum into the second half, scoring three more times to take a commanding 38-6 advantage. Guthrie added a late touchdown when Rice found Amare Watson from five yards out to close the scoring.

“The things that we typically do well — affecting the quarterback, making them one-dimensional, and tackling in space — we didn’t do a good job of tonight. We didn’t execute very well on offense, and then we had some special teams miscues that we typically don’t have.”

The Jays finished with 213 total yards of offense, while Tuttle posted 366, fueled by a precise short passing attack. The Tigers’ quarterback completed 22 of 34 passes for 273 yards, helping Tuttle even the all-time series at 2-2, winning the last two matchups.

With a bye week ahead, Guthrie will have extra time to regroup before returning to action at home against Duncan on Sept. 12.

“Duncan’s got a much-improved ball club.” Beeby said/ :They’ve got one of the better quarterbacks in the state who throws it well and can flat fly. Then we pick up Blanchard, and it’s a long road. We’ve got some things to figure out, but I think all the pieces we need are there.”