 |
|||||||||||||||
|
By: Chris Evans
What more could you ask for if you are a fan of the Guthrie High School football team? Your team in “black” and blue are coming off a dominating, emotional win over Deer Creek, your team is undefeated on the season, and your second ranked team, in the State of Oklahoma, is outscoring their opponents by an average score of 54-3.
How about a good job, but none of that means a darn thing, as the real season begins this week. As dominating as the ‘Jays have been in the first three games of the season, it will not be a factor as Guthrie charters down I-35 to Harrah to open the district portion of the schedule this Friday night.
Guthrie, a year ago, defeated Harrah by a score of 53-6 in a game that Guthrie was up at halftime 40-6. Junior Clayton Smith had two rushing touchdowns as did senior Kye Staley. Staley added two more touchdowns in the air on that September evening inside Jelsma Stadium.
Harrah will start senior quarterback Justin Whisenhunt and tailback slash senior linebacker Levi Queen. Against the ‘Jays a year ago, Queen rushed for 93-yards. This season the Panther offensive line averages out 211 pounds and about six feet tall. Harrah will also introduce a freshman in the backfield with Trey Tuggle.
Queen endured a great junior season with 1300-yards rushing to lead the team to go along with 11 touchdowns. Queen also led the team on the defense with 109 tackles. Fellow senior linebacker Travis Quintero registered 60 tackles and two sacks last season.
Whisenhunt not only carries quarterback duties, but will play safety as well. Whisenhunt and the Panthers are not particularly a team that likes to pass the football, but likes to run the ball and control the clock.
On the season, Harrah comes into Friday’s contest with a 1-2 record, and are coming off a 17-14 victory over Tecumseh before dropping consecutive loses to McLoud and Western Heights to begin the season. The Panthers were 2-8 a year ago.
Harrah will try and be the first team to hold Guthrie to under 40 points. Guthrie has put up 42, 62, and 58 points on the season while averaging 360-yards of offense. Thus far on the season, the Panthers have given up a total of just 54 points and have scored 28 points in their three non-conference games.
The Panthers will play a 5-2 defense and will look to stack the box and contain the run. Guthrie enters the game averaging 272-yards on the ground which is fourth best in 5A. Smith, coming off his career best with 169-yards rushing, now averages over eight yards per carry.
Hot 93.7 FM KSPI will have the call of the game with the pre-game show starting at 7pm and kick-off at 7:30. In addition to the pre-game show, the crew will have a halftime and post game show.
Be sure to check out the Guthrie Sports Page Coach’s Corner with Rafe Watkins and hear what he has to say about last week’s game with Deer Creek and his thoughts on the Harrah Panthers.
Notes: