Guthrie stakes claim to their third state title

The Guthrie football team remained perfect in state championship games and they did it by capping off a perfect 14-0 season.

Photo By Shawn Ingle

The Guthrie BlueJays earned their third state championship in school history with a 24-7 win over Lawton MacArthur inside Oklahoma State University’s Boone Pickens Stadium. The Jays finish with a 14-0 record while the Highlanders finish at 13-1.

Rafe Watkins Interview | Kelly Beeby Interview

Guthrie is now 3-0 all time in championships games (2002, 2007 and 2011) while Lawton Mac falls to 0-6 in title games. The ’07 championship team also went a perfect 14-0.

Both teams entered with prolific scoring offenses and averaging over 40-points a game, but it was a defensive battle particularly for the Jays, who held Lawton Mac to just seven-points and highly touted running back Darius Graham. Graham, just a junior, was held to 57-yards on 15 carries, including just 14-yards on seven carries in the first half.

The Guthrie defense was at the top among many categories, including allowing the fewest yards allowed in the running game. Impressive when you consider Guthrie played seven teams ranked in 5A, including four teams in the top five (Duncan, Deer Creek, Ada, Carl Albert, Tulsa East Central, McAlester and Lawton Mac).

The championship game did not start out as plan. On the first play from scrimmage, Guthrie fumbled and gave the Highlanders the ball at their own 27-yard line. However, the defense held on three downs and then J.T. McFadden came off the edge to block a 42-yard field goal attempt to hold Mac off the score board.

On the following offensive possession, Guthrie made their way down the field and on a fourth down and eight-play, junior quarterback Bryan Dutton spotted a wide-open Donovan Jordan in the end zone for a 25-yard grab to cap off a 5:00 drive.

The scoring drive appeared was going to be stalled out on three-plays, but MacArthur was called for a running into the kicker that kept the drive alive and eventually resulting in the seven-points.

MacArthur was unable to get going offensively in the first quarter as they were forced to go 3-and-out on all three of their possessions.

Photo By Shawn Ingle

With the Guthrie defense clamping down so did the MacArthur defense by forcing Guthrie to punt on their next two offensive possessions, but on back-to-back drives MacArthur muffed two punts to set Guthrie up inside Mac’s 20-yard line.

The Jays were unable to take advantage of the field position by not scoring by missing a 23-yard field goal and turning it over on downs resulting in the 7-0 halftime lead.

On the first offensive possession for the Guthrie offense they traveled 65-yards in seven plays and got a 26-yard field goal from Easu Paez to go up two scores at 10-0. The drive was set up nicely by sophomore Kai Callins’ 42-yard run and senior Luke Davis’ 19-yard catch.

Just 47 seconds later, Guthrie was back on the board and went up 17-0 when Callins jumped in front of a Highlander pass and darted into the end zone for a 57-yard score. In the process, making two Highlanders miss on would be tackles.

MacArthur needed two plays and 24 seconds to respond with a score of their own with a 37-yard jet sweep play and then hitting pay dirt with a 27-yard touchdown score from stand-out Quinton Paras to pull Mac back within 10 points, 17-7.

Photo By Shawn Ingle

Although, Guthrie was unable to put points on the board for a good part of the second half, the offense was able to move the ball with key third down conversions, including plays from Callins, Dutton and senior receiver John Clark. The Guthrie offense finished with nearly 31 minutes of time of possession.

Guthrie was moving down the field with 9:00 left in the game, but fumbled an option play giving Mac hope. The Highlanders got down to the 4-yard line and scored on a jet sweep play, but was called back due to a holding penalty.

Mac was held on third down and missed a 31-yard field goal with 6:13 left in the game.

The Jays responded with the final score of the afternoon when Callins was inserted into the quarterback/wildcat formation and took off with three lead blockers (Dutton, Landry Chappell and Davis) and sprinting in for the 49-yard game clinching touchdown.

Callins finished with 9 carries for 131 yards to go along with his pick six.