It was the last dress rehearsal on Thursday evening as the Guthrie football team traveled to Piedmont for the final scrimmage. Now, the Jays will begin working on Duncan and week one of the season.
Head coach Rafe Watkins was pleased with no only his players and their effort, but Piedmont’s as well.
“We did what we needed to do tonight because both teams played hard.”
The Guthrie offense scored on several occasions with the highlights coming from wide-receiver Donovan Jordan, who scored twice after breaking would be tacklers. The first touchdown of 45-yards came on a roll-out pass from quarterback Reed Roberts.
The first score came on the fourth play of scrimmage and following that Guthrie went on a 9-play drive when Tre Smith scored from 3-yards out.
Jordan’s other touchdown again came from Roberts on a 40-yard pass and catch with Jordan doing majority of the work down field alluding tacklers and sprinting into the end zone.
Another impressive pass and catch touchdown came later in the scrimmage when Roberts located tight end Jeremy Wallis in the end zone for a 30-yard score.
Watkins was pleased with Roberts and the offensive line as well as the entire offense for not committing any turnovers.
Donovan Jordan comes to the line of scrimmage.
“Overall, knock on wood, but no turnovers and that is so big. I hope that’s not the kiss of death next week,” the coach said who enters his 13th season on the Guthrie sideline.
For Kelly Beeby’s defense it was business as usual as his squad kept the Wildcats offense out of the end zone and for majority of the time kept them at hold.
“We got in bad position a few times, but the quarterback pressure was good and we limited their running back on cut backs,” the defensive coordinator said.
Beeby ran his base defense throughout the night and was pleased to see the players make some of their own calls.
The Jays return plenty of experience in the secondary and two members of the speedy secondary came away interceptions, including two from Zonte Veasley and one from Jordan. Both played crucial roles in the 2011 state title year and both appear to be on schedule for the upcoming season.
“We got room to improve obviously like everyone else does, but we came away here healthy and I thought we improved this week from last week,” Beeby stated.
Guthrie travels to Duncan for a 7:30 kickoff on Friday evening. The game can be heard on Triple Play Sports 105.1 and Guthrie Sports Page.
“Now the fun begins and now we got to start worrying about Duncan,” Watkins said with a smile as everyone is ready to get the regular season started.
Jeremy Wallis is my grandson, someday he’s gonna be a star player!