Guthrie Football hits the midway point of regular season

 

Stats and numbers are an interesting way to look at sporting events and sometimes they describe how a game played out. However, that was not the case in Ada last Friday evening.

The most important numbers are on the scoreboard and the Jays won that department with a narrow 13-7 win over the Ada Cougars. The Jays improve to 4-1 on the season and more importantly move to 2-0 in district play and barring a monumental collapse will host a first round playoff game.

Looking at the final numbers, the Jays had 328 yards of offense while Ada managed just 70 yards. Guthrie threw for 190 yards, Ada only 42. The Cougars managed only 28 yards of rushing offense and the Jays had 138 yards on the ground.

Despite the gap in the numbers, the Cougars had one last possession to try to tie the game with under two minutes left in the game, but went 4-and-out.

The Jays never trailed the entire evening and the defense really never seemed threaten by Ada. The Cougars biggest play came on a 33-yard pass and catch in the fourth quarter.

Disabled list of running backs

Derrik Kelley came in and played nine straight quarters until injuring his ankle again in the Ada game. Luckily, the stable of running backs had Luke Davis available to fill in for the injuries.

Kelley and Wilcots are likely out this week for Noble and head coach Rafe Watkins said they will get others ready for this week. The likely candidate at this time is sophomore J.T. McFadden.

Dutton nearing BlueJay history books

The spread offense has changed many record books in the college and high school game and it appears that will be the same for Guthrie High School.

Quarterback Bryan Dutton needs just 415 yards to become Guthrie’s all time passing leader and touchdown passer. Currently, Dutton has 3,130 yards and is narrowing the gap with 2009 alum Keaton Callins.

Callins finished his career by throwing 3,544 on 219-of-348 passing (.629). Callins put up the impressive numbers in just a season and a half in 2007 and 2008. Callins is also the all time Jays quarterback with 47 career touchdown tosses.

Dutton, currently, has 36 career touchdown passes and is 208-of-336 passing (.619). Half of Dutton’s 36 touchdown passes have gone to senior play maker Kentrell Brothers with 18 in 18 games that dates back to last years season opener.

Quick strike offense

With the balance offensive attack of the Jays, the points are coming quick and are coming in the first half. This season, Guthrie has scored a total of 150 points with over half (80) have come in the first quarter.

The Jays have outscored their five opponents 80-6 in the first 12 minutes and 129-20 in the first two quarters.

However, the Jays have put just 21 points on the second half scoreboard, including 14 against Enid. Guthrie opponents are outscoring the Jays 37-21, but 30 of those 37 points were at the hands of the Enid Plainsmen (Guthrie’s only loss).

In those three games of not scoring in the second half, Guthrie has won by a combine score of 79 to 14.

Mr. Do-It-All

Cal Ripken Jr was the Baltimore Oriole’s iron man and Luke Davis is the BlueJay iron man.

Davis serves as the Jays key member of the defensive secondary and has 45 tackles and one interception. A year ago he finished with 112 stops.

Davis is the rugby style kicker and has punted 17 times for an average of 33 yards a punt. He has taking over in the running game with the injuries and has 23 carries to go with 10 catches.

BlueJay D impressive with 14

The defensive numbers are impressive midway through the first half of the season, but perhaps the most impressive number is 14.

14 is the number of quarters the defense has shut-out their opponents this season in the 20 quarters played.

Tackles continue to add up for linebacker

Junior linebacker Landry Chappell continues to pile up tackles in the middle of the Guthrie defense. Chappell has 71 tackles as his team hits the midway point of the regular season. His 71 leads Class 5A and is in the top 10 in the state. A year ago, Chappell collected 170 to finish second in 5A.

Chappell is the first to give credit to his defensive line that allow him to be in position to make a good part of his tackles up the middle.

Here a sack, there a sack

Enough can not be said about the Guthrie defense and a big part of the success is the ability of getting to the opposing quarterback and that is what three Jays are doing often.

To no surprise, Kentrell Brothers leads the state in sacks with nine. He led the state a year ago with 17, but not too far behind is his younger brother, Richard Brothers.

Richard Brothers added two sacks in the Ada game to climb up to seven for the season. Just behind the Brothers brothers is junior linebacker John Clark, who has five.

In 5A, Kentrell is the leader, Richard is third, and Clark is fourth overall in the sack department.