For the second straight week, the Guthrie BlueJays set the tempo offensively by driving down the field and scoring on the opening drive. However, the Jays took it to another level by scoring on all five offensive series in the first half.
The Jays scored two touchdowns in first quarter and three more in the second quarter en route to a 43-7 win over 6A Ponca City. Guthrie begins the 2011 season with two road victories while Ponca City falls to 0-2.
Senior Luke Davis led the charge by scoring the first three scores for the Jays with a 33-yard reception and touchdown runs of six and three yards.
The running game proved to be solid again for the team in royal blue and white with 227 yards on 49 attempts.
Guthrie traveled 59 yards down the field to begin the game in just five plays taking just over two minutes. The extra point failed and the Jays held a 6-0 lead and soon after dug into their bag of tricks.
On the ensuing kickoff, Guthrie performed a well executed onside kick in the center of the field. The ball traveled 12 yards of the required 10-yards, but Guthrie failed to jump on the ball as then the front line of Ponca City had enough time to react and recover the ball at the 48-yard line.
The Wildcats took advantage of the short field when senior quarterback Brent Wilson scored from 10 yards out and with the extra point the Jays trailed for the first time this season 7-6. That, however, did not last long.
This time, Guthrie would go on a “death march” as Jays head coach Rafe Watkins likes to refer to by going 10 plays and 61 yards in 4:29 to take the lead back for good,13-7, with Davis’ run and Easu Paez’s extra point.
Ponca controlled the next possession with multiple first downs and a couple of BlueJay penalties, but were unable to finish the drive with a failed field goal attempt of 28-yards.
The Wildcats passing game was tamed with just 94 yards on 28 passing attempts. Last week, Ponca aired it out 47 times for 396 yards. In addition, the rushing game was not a factor either with 54 yards on 18 rushes.
The Jays took over from the 20-yard line and marched down the field in 9 plays and taking 4:38 to do so to increase the lead up to 20-7 with 4:52 to play in the half with Davis’ third score.
The Wildcats, again, were unable to put anything together and was forced to give Guthrie the ball back with what appeared maybe one more drive for the Jays, but turned out to be two more possessions and two more scores.
Quarterback Bryan Dutton, who kept his right hand in the holster for most of the evening last week, unleashed a 39-yard pass to sophomore Donavan Jordan down the left side boundary for the score and capping off the 3-play drive.
Dutton finished the game 9-of-11 passing for 133 yards.
Ponca City took the next possession down the field in a timely manner, but squander another scoring opportunity as sophomore Kai Callins intercepted Wilson’s pass in the end zone to give Guthrie the ball back at their own 20. With the final seconds winding down in the first half, it appeared if Guthrie was going to be content and run the clock out, but that simply was not the case.
From their own 39-yard line and less than 30 seconds, Dutton handed the ball to running back Callins on what seemed a normal stretch play, but instead of running Callins dropped back and found a wide open senior John Clark streaking down the field with the half back pass. Clark made one defender miss at the 5-yard line and found pay dirt with the 61-yard score with :17 left in the half. Paez’s kick was good and Guthrie went into the locker room up 34-7.
The second half saw to scores with one coming from the Guthrie offense and the other from the defense.
Senior wide-out Clint Simek scored his first touchdown as a BlueJay when Dutton spotted him for a 4-yard pass with less than a minute to play in the third quarter.
The final score came when Jordan ran Wilson down from behind to score the safety. Jordan was named the F&M Bank Player of the Game for his play on both sides of the ball.
There was one huge negative for the Jays and something the program has not seen in a long time if ever. Penalties.
Guthrie was flagged 16 times for 134 yards. Ponca was a little bit better with eight flags for 70 yards.
Guthrie will play host to Enid for the first game inside Jelsma Stadium in the 2o11 season. Enid will be looking for their first win of the season after losses to Bishop Kelley and Midwest City.
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