No. 3 Guthrie rambles past Eisenhower, 51-6

You never get much of an indication how a football game might play out by watching the first play, however, as it turned out for Eisenhower things never got much better after that first play as No. 3-ranked Guthrie rolled to a 51-6 victory over the Eagles at Cameron Stadium.

Ike received the opening kickoff and on the first play from its own 34 quarterback Charlie Trachte fired a deep pass that Serri Sheridan hauled in and appeared to have a big gainer inside the Guthrie 40. But the big play was called back by a holding call and after that the Eagles were unable to get much going against the Bluejays’ defense that had allowed just 24 points entering Thursday’s game.

While Ike did pick up nine first downs, the Eagles hit on just 10-of-25 passes for 96 yards. However, one of those was a 17-yard TD pass from Trachte to Sheridan with 8:44 left in the game. Sheridan, a small junior, went up and battled the Guthrie cornerback for the ball and he was able to control it just before going out of the back of the end zone.

Those two had connected one play earlier for 34 yards and on that play Sheridan and the defender both had their hands on the ball but the tie went to the offensive player and set Ike up at the seven.

A sack and delay-of-game penalty moved the ball back to the 17 where the two juniors connected for the TD, one of the rare ones the Bluejays have given up this year.

While the Bluejays aren’t fancy on offense, they stick with the ground game 90 percent of the time using the running of senior Jaylen Harper who gashed the Ike defense for 181 yards on 21 carries. He also scored three TDs.

While that offense performed well Thursday, the defense is what has boosted the Bluejays to near the top of the 5A standings. They came in angry, blowing a late lead and losing 24-21 to No. 1 Carl Albert last week.

Ike collected just two first downs in the opening half and they got into Bluejays’ territory once in that half.

The Eagles actually stopped the first Guthrie offensive drive on four plays and Sheridan returned the punt to the Ike 40-yard line. Ike was able to get one first down but then the drive stopped.

After a good Ike punt the Bluejays moved 85 yards in seven plays with Harper going the final three yards for an early 7-0 lead.

On their next possession Harper scored on a 32-yard TD run, then on their next drive quarterback Hayden Calvert scored from 11 yards out for a 21-0 lead.

After that the Eagles used a 56-yard run by Sheridan to set Ike up with a first down at the Guthrie 5-yard-line. But a holding penalty threw Ike back and it never got into the end zone.

Things really fell apart for Ike late in the second quarter. After getting a stop on defense, Ike was back to return the punt but somehow the signals got mixed up and Sheridan let the punt hit the turf instead of fielding it. The ball was downed on the 1-yard-line and on the second play Trachte was tackled in the end zone for a sack and a safety.

On the kickoff several Eagles missed tackles, allowing the Bluejays to get to the 15-yard-line. Calvert then hit Eli Plagg for the score and a 30-0 lead at halftime

With the loss the Eagles are out of playoff consideration and will hit the road next week to play Southeast in Oklahoma City.