Guthrie shut-outs Classen; headed to Lawton for playoffs

Moments after the final team huddle, the Guthrie football team learned to get back to the state championship game they are going have to be road warriors.

Bryan Dutton

The BlueJays needed a win over Northwest Classen along with a Bishop McGuinness win over Deer Creek to earn at least one more game inside Jelsma Stadium. Just one of the two came true with the Jays shutting out the Knights 49-0. Deer Creek rallied in the second half to secure the district title with a 25-12 win.

Guthrie jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead before adding one more score in the second and four more scores in the second half. Classen never was a threat to score as the Jays pitched their fourth shut-out this season.

Senior Bryan Dutton finished the night by throwing four touchdown passes and scored one of his own on the ground. He was named the F&M Bank Player of the Game.

Receivers Jarvis Moore and Donovan Jordan each hauled in two touchdown receptions. Jordan had scoring receptions of 34 and 40 while Moore brought in grabs of 15 and 16.

With the Deer Creek win, the 5A-2 district standings finished in a three-way tie at the top with Deer Creek, McGuinness and Guthrie each with one loss. In such cases, a tie-breaker system is used to determine playoff positioning. After the points, Deer Creek finished first, McGuinness second and Guthrie third. The fourth spot goes to Carl Albert, who won a play in-game at El Reno 28-0.

Guthrie concludes the regular season with a 9-1 record and have now won at least nine games in eight of the 12 seasons under the direction of Rafe Watkins. Watkins and the Jays will go for win number 10, on the road, next Friday night in the first round of the playoffs with a rematch of last years 5A state championship game with Lawton MacArthur (8-2).

It will be the third time in seven years the Jays and Highlanders will have met up. In 2006, Mac held off the Jays in the second half to win 14-12 in the state semifinals. Guthrie even the series last year with a 24-7 win in the championship game.

Watkins is 8-2 in first round games with the program winning their last seven opening round games. Since 2002, Guthrie is 4-3 in playoff games when playing true away games in either the first or second round.

The last time Guthrie was not at home to begin the playoffs was in 2009. The Jays were underdogs to both Duncan and Tulsa East Central that season, but pulled out both closely played games on the road before falling to Bixby, 27-20, in the semifinals.

Class 5A Playoff Bracket – all games will be played on Friday night.