Jays, Lions kick off district play in Durant

The cliche' is that there are three seasons in Oklahoma high school football: non-district, district, and play-off games. In that scenario, Friday is huge for the Guthrie BlueJays and the Durant Lions.

The Jays travel to Paul Laird Stadium, on the campus of Southeastern University, to begin district play and a game that could go a long ways come play-off positioning.

The winner of the game could help solidify a play-off spot, but guarantee's nothing. A loss does not knock them out of the play-offs, but will make it even more interesting as the season prolongs in "must" win games.

Guthrie and Durant both got into the win columns by scoring 34-points in wins over 4A Piedmont and 3A Hugo, respectively, after dropping the first two games of the season.

The Lions, who are trying to reach the play-offs for the fourth consecutive year, got an early Christmas gift in the off season when Daryn Alves moved to Durant.

Bo and Max White commanded the quarterback spot for the previous three years and questions were being asked as to who would take over, but that was answered quickly. Alves (5'8, 170) moved in from Boyd High, in McKinney TX, and put up some impressive numbers in the Lone Star state.

In his sophomore season he compiled over 2600 rushing yards and 1200 passing. The following season Boyd jumped up to the 5A ranks and Alves continued to produce with 1200 rushing to go along with 1000 passing yards. He also played wide receiver at times for Boyd.

Alves impressive play has come across the border with him for Lions head coach Byron Cordell, who is in his 4th season and has a record of 17-17.

After a lost to Ada in Week 2, Joe Weber, an Oklahoma Hall of Fame coach and now assistant coach for the Cougars, said Alves might be the best player he has ever seen.

Major compliment from the hall of famer, but Alves, who will also split out in the slot, made it easy to say that after he scored four touchdowns in four different ways against the Cougars. Alves rushed, passed, return a fumble, and returned a kick off for touchdowns in the 36-29 setback.

BlueJay head coach Rafe Watkins has made the comparison to Robert Meachem. Meachem, the 2002 Oklahoma high school player of the year for Booker T. Washington, attended Tennessee and was a first round draft pick in the NFL.

Alves has rushed for 100-yards in all three games this year, including 143-yards last week, a season high, in the win over Hugo on just 13-carries and did not play in the fourth quarter.

In the non-district, Alves has 533 all purpose yards and has rushed for four touchdowns while passing for two.

Alves is not the only move-in that has aided Durant.

Nic Alvarez, a foreign exchange student from Columbia, is the kicker and has done an adequate job and senior Kevin Williams, the back-up quarterback, moved in from Noble.

The Lions on offense also feature running back Josh Brown (5'7, 170) and wide-outs Brandon Brooks and Jon Garza.

Brown is averaging nearly 7-yards a carry with 16 rushes for 109-yards.

Garza, a sophomore, received valuable playing time as a freshmen and amassed 63-yards receiving to go with 21-yards rushing last week in the Homecoming win. Garza led Class 5A a season ago with 58 receptions totaling 461-yards and three touchdowns. Through three weeks Garza has 11-catches for 141-yards and one touchdown.

Brooks reeled in a 33-yard touchdown reception last week and a season ago piled up 419-yards on just 22-catches to go with three scores.

With the quarterback questions answered with Alves now in town, Cordell and company are now working on the offensive line. Durant returns one player that was a part time starter a season ago. After being shut-out in week one to highly ranked McAlester, the Lions are averaging 31-points in their last two games.

Defensively the Lions has had to replace their top three tacklers from a year ago. Sophomore Seth Wheeler led the team with 8 tackles last week, but the anchor may be senior defensive tackle Sean Williams (6'3, 290), who is a 3-year starter. Alves leads the team in solo tackles with 10.

Durant shares Paul Laird Field with the Southeastern Savage Storm, a Division II school. Paul Laird Field, which can hold 4,000 fans, recently went under a 2.8 million dollar renovation which included installation of artificial field turf, a home-side seating expansion, and the construction of new locker and training room facilities beyond the south end zone.

For a map of Durant please click here.

The game can be heard on Triple Play Sports Radio 105.1 FM, and streaming live on Guthrie Sports Page Radio with Chris Evans, Casey Porter, Craig Fleck, and Ronnie Phillips.

GSP is also making it available to all fans to listen to the game inside the stadium on their radio players by scanning the FM dial. The pre-game is set for 7:00. The radio broadcast will be played back on Sunday nights on GSP Radio.

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