Throw the records out – its Guthrie and Carl Albert

Guthrie and Carl Albert enter Friday nights game with different records and different schedules. None the less, the two power house programs have each others attention.

The top-ranked Jays (5-0) and Titans (1-4) will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. inside Jelsma Stadium on the night Guthrie officials will honor the 2002 state championship team at halftime. The team title was their first in school history.

Since 2002, Guthrie has won two more titles and have looked across the sideline to their biggest rival and tried to do duplicate the way the Titans have done business for the past 15 seasons. You see, Carl Albert set the table and now the BlueJay program finds themselves sitting at the same table as one of the elite in Class 5A.

The Titans and BlueJays have combined to win 10 of the last 15 Class 5A state championships with seven of those titles hanging in the stadium in Midwest City.

Each year that is the goal for the two camps. State title.

This season, Carl Albert is off to an awful 1-4 start and an 0-2 district record. Be quick to note that the four losses have come to highly ranked teams in Southmoore, Coweta, Deer Creek and McGuinness. Those four teams are a combined 17-3. Carl Albert’s lone win came against Duncan. The same team Guthrie defeated in week one.

Meanwhile, Guthrie’s five opponents are a measly combined 5-20 with only one team with a winning record (Duncan 3-2).

Carl Albert will present the BlueJays biggest challenge yet despite their woeful start.

The Titans are led by quarterback Steven Thompson, a 5’11 junior, who has found the end zone 10 times and averages over six yards a carry.

The offense is averaging 22 points a game and 320 yards of offense and will be challenged by the Guthrie defense, who has shown once again to be good. However, the Titans will look to use three running backs and try to have the same success as Enid did against the defense in week three.

Enid was able to run the ball in the first half thanks to Seth Handley’s game high 214 yards.

The Titans will look to utilize a trio of senior running backs in Caleb Toney, Bryan Williams and Garrett Asher to go with Thompson at quarterback. Combined the Carl Albert offense averages 223 yards per game and ranks them in the top five rankings.

Despite the onslaught of yards by Enid, the Guthrie defense ranks No. 1 in the class against the run (75 yards), second in the pass (55 yards) and allow the fewest amount of yards (130 yards). Not to mention the fewest amount of points (6.6).

Carl Albert has been known to pull out a few wrinkles in the offense for the marquee game and may need to depend on their running game for success. The passing game of the Titans has been ineffective in the first five games with just 486 yards total.

On the flip side, the Titan defense is allowing nearly 400 yards of offense by allowing more passing yards then rushing yards. Granted, Southmoore, Deer Creek and McGuinness like to throw the ball with highly respectable quarterbacks and will see that again in Bryan Dutton.

Dutton enters his fourth game against the Titans with 13 passing scores to one interception to go along with seven more scores on the ground and averaging over 8-yards a carry.

The signal caller has been depending on his two top receivers in Donovan Jordan and Cody Reihs. The two combined have brought in 23 catches for 440 yards and eight touchdowns.

The game will be televised by Cox on channels 3 and 703. The game can be heard on Triple Play Sports Radio 105.1 FM and at Guthrie Sports Page.