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By: Chris Evans
A new season begins with the same results from the old season. It is often said that the play-offs are the beginning of a new season with all 16 teams having the same 0-0 record, but Guthrie quickly put their mark at 1-0.
The Guthrie Bluejays were very special on Friday night, or perhaps it was the special teams that was special. Top-ranked and unbeaten, Guthrie Bluejays took it to the Ardmore Tigers 61-0 in front of a packed Jelsma Stadium.
Ardmore ends their season with a 6-5 record while Guthrie improves to 11-0 and will play Shawnee Saturday night, in Jelsma Stadium, after defeating Coweta 21-14.
The Bluejays scored 21 points in the first quarter. Ardmore receive the opening kick-off and looked somewhat impressive moving the ball against the ‘Jays defense, but would be forced to punt and would prove to be the ending for Ardmore and the beginning for Guthrie.
Despite many teams kicking and punting the ball away from the BlueJay return men, Ardmore elected to kick deep to junior Josh King and he would show the Tigers why no one kicks to him.
King would take the punt from his own 29-yard line and would break three tackles before darting off toward Squires Field for a 71-yard touchdown. King returned the second half kick-off 98-yards last week against Woodward.
Guthrie found themselves back on the score board minutes later as the Kye Staley drive took over, but not before King made yet another appearance.
This time King would block a field goal attempt by Ardmore’s Frank Guadarrama and would be scooped up by senior Jack Dumas.
Staley and the offense begin the drive from their own 42-yard line where Staley would go on a 42-yard run to help setup his 1-yard touchdown run to up the score 14-0.
The Tigers were forced to punt the ball away and, again, kicked to King who returned it for 22-yards to set the table for Staley's second touchdown.
The third play of the drive, Staley, on a zone read play, took off to the left side for a 23-yard TD score, and in the process was leaping over Tigers and shrugging off would be tacklers before speeding into the end zone to give Guthrie a 21-0 first quarter lead.
The Ardmore offense, meanwhile, was having issues of moving the ball against perhaps the state’s best defense. Running back Dominik Williams broke off a 42-yard run, but the Tigers would manage only 50 more yards of offense in the first half and 17-yards in the second half.
Guthrie started a 9 play, 57-yard drive that took 3:06 to score when Clayton Smith would score his first of four touchdowns from 1-yard out. The score board would quickly read 28-0 with 7:59 to play before the half.
The Bluejay defense would force the Tigers to punt the ball after a strategy time-out to stop the clock and allow the ‘Jays more time to work with. However, Guthrie would need just one play to find the end zone before the half.
On a first and ten play from the Guthrie 46-yard line it appeared Guthrie would stretch the field with the aerial assault quarterback, Keaton Callins, in the game, but a clever play call by offensive coordinator Scott Mick would catch the Tigers off guard.
Mick would call a screen pass for Smith and with a few blocks down field Smith found the end zone just before the half from 54-yards and Guthrie would go into the locker room on top 35-0.
The Bluejays show a very balance offensive attack in the near perfect first half. The Bluejays had 224 yards of offense with 117 yards coming in the air and 107 yards rushing. One of few negatives for Guthrie in the half was seven penalties for 45-yards.
The start of the second half began like it did a week ago in Woodward only this time it was Smith’s turn to return a 98-yard kick-off return. The Tigers continued to kick the ball to the ‘Jays and Smith, once again, made them pay just as King did last week. Smith’s score quickly had the Tigers scratching their head trailing 41-0.
Guthrie defense would force an Ardmore punt and again they allowed a punt return. This time it was senior Ashton Morgan’s turn to get on the special teams score-a-thon. Morgan would take the punt to the Rock on a 52-yard return to make it a 48-0 game.
Smith would get his third of four touchdowns on the next drive, in which, happened thanks to D.J. Hughes first interception of the season. Hughes would return the pick to the 18-yard line, but Ardmore was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty and the ‘Jays had it first and goal from the 3-yard line where Smith would run from to push the scoreboard up to 55-0.
The ‘Jays would get their final score from Morgan. This time Morgan took a hand off and sprinted in for a 31-yard score for his second on the evening. Morgan’s score was the fourth of the third quarter alone all four were in a span of 9:07.
Guthrie finished the night with 152 yards rushing. Guthrie did not attempt a pass play in the second half. In fact, Guthrie only called two offensive plays in the third quarter alone.
Ardmore could only compile 17-yards of offense in the second half and finished with 107 yards of offense. Throughout the season the Bluejays defense allowed 90 yards of offense. Guthrie now allows 3.4 points down from 3.8.
Special teams coach Ric Meshew saw his group have two punt return touchdowns, a kick-off return, and a block field goal. Please visit our podcast page to hear Meshew’s thoughts on his special teams.
Guthrie will play their final game inside Jelsma Stadium next week against Shawnee. The ‘Jays open the season by defeating Shawnee 42-10, in Shawnee. Guthrie has beaten the Wolves in the last two meetings without the services of stand-out quarterback Tucker Brown.