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In a battle of a starting quarterback
job, it was the defense who shined brightly for the Guthrie
BlueJays in the final scrimmage of the year against fellow 5A
member Ada Cougars inside Jelsma Stadium, Thursday evening.
The quarterback race had yet another tight
outing for all three. Senior Christian Lamb,
sophomore Hayden Seifert and freshman Bryan Dutton were battling
it out to see who would be under the gun come Friday night
against McGuinness, but it seemed neither of the three were able
to pull ahead.
To hear head coach Rafe Watkins interview
please go to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Coaches Corner on the
front page of Guthrie Sports Page.
Ada, meanwhile, is coming off a 5 and 6 2008
season after slipping in the first round of the playoff's by
eventual state champ Booker T. Washington.
The Ada junior varsity offense took the
field first and was swarmed by Brady Blanchard throughout the
first possession. Blanchard had a sack, and two tackles for
losses. Ben Schwarz was buzzing as the cougars
barely managed to get passed midfield with their first
possession.
Lamb was the first quarterback to hit the
field for the junior varsity offense. He was able to move
the ball well on the ground, completing a pass to senior Alex
McArdle for a 10-yard gain. After JP Bruner
made a nice gallop of 8-yards, Lamb kept it on the option for
about 12 additional yards.
Dutton replaced Lamb and immediately kept
the ball on the option for two gritty yards. The freshmen was
not able to generate anything on the next two plays, as he was
sacked after scrambling out of the pocket for 2-yards, and also
throwing an incomplete pass. On his last play with
the junior varsity, he was able to hit a Jays receiver in the
flat for 6-yards.
Seifert then entered and threw an
incomplete pass and ran for a couple of yards before hitting
junior Devonte’ McCully for a 12-yard touchdown strike.
During Ada’s second offensive junior varsity
possession, Guthrie recovered a fumble in Cougar territory that
helped set the scoring drive back. Guthrie allowed
Dionte Albert to break open a run of about 15-yards before being
brought down, but Schwarz stepped up, once again, and helped
shut down the Ada offense from that point.
After two offensive possessions Ada could
only manage to get past the Guthrie 40-yard line one time.
The Guthrie junior varsity offense was back
on the field and Bruner took the first play to the
house as he dashed 70-yards for the touchdown. Dutton
started out the possession by having to find a running lane
after all his receivers were covered. Dutton gained
6-yards on the next play off a quarterback read.
Seifert pushing just as hard as the other two
quarterbacks for playing time came in and threw an incompletion to Jake
Rosario and allowed Ben Schwarz to gain 15-yards on the ground.
Seifert ended his snaps by hitting Anthony Dobey for 14-yards .
Lamb came in to finish off the scrimmage
after running for 5-yards and hitting McArdle on a screen pass. Lamb finished by hitting a dump off pass into the flat
for a decent gain as the scrimmage came to an
end with the Jays finishing ahead 12-0.
Next up was the varsity, who stepped in and
turned up the tempo of the scrimmage. However,
Ada came out firing as Qumain Black rolled out and hit his
receiver for a 25-yard pass and was able to move the ball
downfield, but the drive would stall when senior defensive
linemen Martell Oates and sophomore John Clark stepped their
play up.
Kentrell Brothers was active on the defensive
end and was able to get pressure on Black forcing him to make
decisions too early in the play. Landry Chappell had
a midseason form tackle early on as the run defense was just
stifling.
Dustin Bohanan finished off the defensive
domination by breaking up a deep pass down field. Ada had barely crossed midfield when their series of
plays came to an end after starting on the 35-yard line.
Seifert led the first team offense onto the
field. His four snaps did not produce much
offense, as he was 1-1 for minus 2-yards off a screen pass to
Brothers. Ada was in the backfield, and
seemed to know each pass was going to Brothers.
Dutton came in and took over on the next four
snaps and hit tight end Jaden Chappell for a nice pick up, but
on the next play the Jays were pushed back on an option attempt
play. To end his snaps, Dutton rolled out for a
pass, but Dustin Bohanan was unable to reel it in.
Lamb came in for the final four snaps, of the
12-play series, and on an option play had a loss of 5-yards.
After a short run, he made a nice play with his legs off
a well covered pass play. Running back Alphonso Wilcox finished
the series by running for a few yards.
The Ada offense came back out and was met
immediately by Oates again. Oates continued to make plays and
was a definite presence in the backfield of the Cougars all
night. The Ada back up quarterback, Christian Johnson, seemed
overwhelmed at the speed and tenacity of the BlueJay defenders
as the Ada offense managed just 20-yards on 15 plays.
Ada, who opens their season with arch rival
Ardmore, was starting to mount momentum off a nice run from
Johnson and a pass interference penalty. That’s
when Rob Gray, a senior linebacker, stepped up.
Gray read Johnson and picked off the pass and
had it been a regular season game, he would have taken it to the
house, but the whistles were blown to stop play.
As the Guthrie offense came back on the field
for the final time, Lamb was under center and started the drive
out with a run. However, he followed it up by
throwing an interception.
Wilcox came back had an 11-yard run.
Lamb hit Brothers for a decent gain, fighting for extra
yards helped contributed to the drive.
Dutton led the troops with plays five thru
eight, and on his first play he fumbled the football on what
seemed perhaps a low snap and would have been able to make a
play, but again whistles were blown to stop play.
On the second play, Dutton was sacked as a
blitzing linemen took him down. Not to be out
done, he scrambled for a nice gain on the next play, setting up
the play of the evening. Dutton hit a BlueJay
receiver for a 37-yard pass pushing the BlueJays inside the red
zone.
Seifert came for the final four plays trying
to punch it in to win the scrimmage. A low pass,
however, was incomplete and then Derek Kelly took a big run down
to inside the 5-yard line. Setting the Bluejays up and knocking
on the door. But Seiftert was dropped for a loss keeping both
teams out of the end zone and off the score board.
Charles Chaney is a contributing writer
and alum of Guthrie High School.
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