Guthrie’s Foster praises Shawnee’s Davis
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Guthrie wide receiver Donte Foster had kind words for Shawnee star Brett Davis on Tuesday.
Both teams’ defenses will have to find a way to slow down the opposing offense. Both offense are very high-powered and star-studded.
“We’ve got to contain Brett Davis and Brayle Brown when we’re on defense,” Foster said. “We know that Davis can take over a game at any time. In my opinion, he’s the number one player in the state right now.”
That’s a pretty big compliment for Davis from Foster, who has put up unbelievable numbers this year. Through seven games, Foster has 575 yards and eight touchdowns receiving to go with an average of over 16 yards per catch.
Shawnee at Guthrie — series history
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Shawnee and Guthrie will square off Friday at Guthrie’s Jelsma Stadium in a key District 5A-2 battle. Throughout this week, I will have posts on the game.
For today, I will look at the series history between these two teams.
1971: Shawnee, 35-18
1986: Shawnee, 9-6 (OT)
1987: Shawnee, 36-20
1988: Shawnee, 7-6
1989: Guthrie, 34-14
1990: Guthrie, 40-13
1991: Shawnee, 25-6
1992: Shawnee, 24-12
1993: Guthrie, 14-7
1994: Shawnee, 34-12
1995: Shawnee, 6-5
1996: Guthrie, 22-6
1997: Shawnee, 21-12
1998: Shawnee, 14-12
1999: Shawnee, 23-7
2000: Guthrie, 21-15
2001: Shawnee, 10-7
2002: Shawnee, 25-14
2003: Shawnee, 28-22
2004: Guthrie, 21-7
2005: Shawnee, 35-7
2006: Guthrie, 19-7
2007: Guthrie, 42-10
2007: Guthrie, 61-34 (playoffs)
Overall series: Shawnee leads, 15-9
Longest Shawnee win streak: 4 (1971, 1986-88)
Longest Guthrie win streak: 3 (2006-present)
Current streak: Guthrie, 3
Playoff games: 1 in 2007 (Guthrie won, 61-34)
Overtime games: 1 in 1986 (Shawnee won, 9-6)
Week 7 Player of the Week candidates
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
To nominate someone for The Oklahoman‘s high school football player of the week, leave a comment on this post. Here are some early candidates:
Shane Leiter, RB, Bridge Creek: Leiter had 26 carries for 300 yards, and also caught three passes for 44 yards and a touchdown in Bridge Creek’s 34-20 win over Hobart.
Randy Ponder, RB, Edmond Santa Fe: Ponder had 125 yards rushing on 24 carries and three touchdowns in Edmond Santa Fe’s 42-14 win over Putnam City North.
Travis Bish, WR, Hobart: Bish had six catches for 275 yards and three touchdowns in Hobart’s 34-20 loss to Bridge Creek.
Ronnell Lewis, RB, Dewar: Lewis, an OU commit, touched the ball five times, and scored five touchdowns. Three were rushing, one was an interception return and one was a punt return.
Darren Madden, QB, Washington: Madden was 15-of-19 for 228 yards and a touchdown in Washington’s 42-7 win over Crooked Oak.
Michael Coats, WR, Bethany: Coats, a senior, caught four passes for 121 yards and four touchdowns in Bethany’s 41-14 win over Dickson.
Chris Potter, QB, Community Christian: Potter completed 28 of 39 passes for 506 yards and seven touchdowns in a 72-66 loss to Destiny Christian.
Arthur Mahoney, RB, Destiny Christian: Mahoney rushed 34 times for 352 yards and five touchdowns in a 72-66 win over Community Christian. Mahoney set a school season rushing record in the effort.
Matt Mitchell, RB, Sallisaw: Mitchell, a senior, ran 27 times for 256 yards and four touchdowns in Sallisaw’s 31-7 win over Poteau.
Tyler Pelzer, RB, Cement: Pelzer had 34 carries for 224 yards and three touchdowns in Cement’s 52-22 loss to Victory Life. He also had 10 tackles.
Arena style game breaks out at CCS
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Destiny Christian coach Rusty Stone used to be an assistant for the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, so he knows an arena game when he sees one. He just wasn’t expecting one Thursday night.
“We showed up for a high school game and an arena game broke out,” Stone said.
Destiny Christian beat Community Christian, 72-66 Thursday.
This game was a big benchmark for the Wildcats, Stone said because Community Christian is a school that has had the kind of consistent athletic success that Destiny wants to have.
But the biggest indicator of how good Destiny really is comes on Oct. 31 when it hosts Corn Bible, who is a Class C power.
Mark that one down as a game to watch.
Tuttle at Newcastle — final thoughts
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Well, the Tuttle-Newcastle game wound up not being as good as we had thought, but it did show us just how good Tuttle is.
The Tigers, who beat Newcastle 33-2 Thursday, knocked off another top-five team, and did so again without star running back Bryce “Paco” Moore.
Thursday night, senior QB/DB Sterling Koons was the star. He ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns in the win, and intercepted a pass on defense.
The season isn’t at all lost for Newcastle. Even though the district title seems unlikely now — Tuttle has now beaten both of its toughest district opponents — the Racers still have a lot to play for.
Namely, a home playoff game. If Newcastle can beat Clinton in Week 10, it will probably finish in second place and host a postseason contest.
And even if Clinton tops Newcastle, the Racers will still finish in third place, which is better than they have finished in the last two years.
Furthermore, the Racers always seem to play better in the playoffs. Two years ago, Newcastle had a few questionable calls go against it in a close loss at top-seeded Purcell. And last year, the Racers were very close to knocking off Justin Blackmon and Plainview, a team that was undefeated in the regular season, in the first round.
How stacked is Tuttle? Save for an early safety, the Tigers were in control of this game from start to finish and are clearly the best team in Class 3A at this point. They beat two top-five teams in a row by 21 and 31 points, respectively, without Moore, so what does that mean for opponents when he comes back?
For more information on last night’s game, check out Ray Martin’s game story.
Tuttle at Newcastle — past players reflect on rivalry
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
I talked with great players from both Newcastle and Tuttle’s past to ask them the same question I asked the current players earlier this week — what does this rivalry mean to them?
Jason White, Tuttle class of 1999
“Growing up, even throughout Little League, it was a huge rivalry. Those are the guys you always wanted to beat. You learned the rivalry in Little League by watching the guys in high school play.
“The towns are so close together that you see them all the time.
“It’s a lot like, on a different scale, OU-Texas. Both Tuttle and Newcastle are really good teams, so there’s a lot at stake. There’s also the bragging rights factor; if you lose to Newcastle, you have to listen to it for a whole year before you get a chance to redeem yourself.
“There’s a lot on the line, especially this year. It’s more magnified because of the position both teams are in.”
Trey Sharp, Tuttle class of 1997
“The schools are 12 miles apart. I can remember them coming over on a Friday at lunch talking trash.
“Of all the games, that was probably the greatest game. For a little 3A school, it was packed with 10 deep on the fence.
“It’s a great rivalry. There’s a lot of bad blood, but at the same time a lot of respect.
“Anytime you can play a rivalry that’s that close, even though it’s high school, the schools get excited, the students get excited. And it always carries over into other sports.”
Steven Myers, Newcastle class of 2007
“Playing for Newcastle, what you always have in mind is to win the state championship. But the next best thing you can do in your season is beat Tuttle.
“It seems like players and team are more focused and practice is more intense the week of Tuttle game. Before the game, normally it might take a little bit to get your blood going, to get you in the mood for playing, but nothing has to be said to get you motivated to play Tuttle.”
Sean Iago, Newcastle class of 2006
“It’s a game that you look forward to every year because it’s been such a big rivalry throughout the years.
“When I played, it was a non-district game and it was just for pride and bragging rights.”
(On his brother, Adam, who is Newcastle’s quarterback now)
“I usually try to talk to him throughout the week and tell him different things just to get a few words of encouragement. Being a previous quarterback and free safety, it’s easier for me to tell him because I’ve been there before. I try to help with different schemes because I still have a little bit of knowledge left.”
Lyndel Gibson, Newcastle class of 1983
“When I played, and I would think it’s the same now, it was like we had two state championship titles. One was playing Tuttle, and the other one was actually playing in the finals.”
Tuttle at Newcastle — Newcastle offense vs. Tuttle defense
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Today’s post on the District 3A-1 clash between Tuttle and Newcastle will be the opposite of yesterday’s. I will look at the match-ups within the match-up of Newcastle’s offense vs. Tuttle’s defense.
Newcastle’s rushing offense vs. Tuttle’s run defense
Newcastle’s offensive strength is in its running game, and running back Riley Gibson has been outstanding this year. He has rushed for 790 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season, averaging over five yards per carry.
Tuttle’s run defense is tough. It gives up just over 87 yards per game on the ground, and is anchored by preseason All-State linebacker Reno Marical, a senior who has 60 tackles so far this year. Senior Nathan Harp has 52 stops for the season.
Although Gibson has had a great year so far, he is the only running threat Newcastle has shown so far this year. Newcastle’s next highest rusher after Gibson is quarterback Adam Iago, who has 46 yards on 33 carries.
Advantage: Tuttle
Newcastle’s passing offense vs. Tuttle’s pass defense
Iago has completed over 50 percent of his passes this year and has 627 yards. Not bad for a team that is run-first.
Tuttle gives up an average of just over 61 yards per game through the air. Bryce Ebert has four interceptions on the year.
Iago has thrown four touchdowns this year, but has also thrown five interceptions. But Tuttle’s numbers in interceptions and sacks don’t just jump off the page either. I don’t think this match-up will be much of a factor in this game.
Advantage: Wash
To see all of my blog posts this week about the Newcastle-Tuttle game, click here.
Tuttle’s Moore questionable against Newcastle
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Tuttle senior running back Bryce “Paco” Moore is questionable for Thursday’s game against rival Newcastle, Tuttle coach Phil Koons said Tuesday.
Moore has rushed for over 850 yards and 13 touchdowns this season so far.
Moore suffered a stinger early in last Friday’s win over Clinton and still doesn’t have full range of motion in his arm, Koons said. He hasn’t participated in any contact drills this week at practice.
Koons said a decision on whether Moore will play or not will come Thursday morning.
“It’s not like this is the Super Bowl or the state championship game,” Koons said. “We don’t want to risk him hurting it worse.”
I couldn’t agree more. Of course, it will hurt to not have someone like Moore in your line-up. But, at the same time, it’s not like Tuttle’s run game will be completely stagnant without Moore. Just look at last week’s game against Clinton, when back-up Ethan Biddy came in and carried the ball 45 times for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
I’m sure Moore wants to play. It would make sense for a kid to want to play every single game he can, and this isn’t just any other game, it’s a rivalry game.
Edmond Santa Fe at PC North — Series history
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Let’s take a quick look at the series history between Putnam City North and Edmond Santa Fe. The two teams play Thursday at Putnam City Stadium in a District 6A-1 match-up that will have playoff implications for both teams.
This is an interesting series. The two teams have played every year since 1996, and it has been a series of streaks. Putnam City North won the first six match-ups, then Edmond Santa Fe won the next five. Putnam North won last year, so was that the beginning of another streak? We’ll find out Thursday.
1996: Putnam North, 27-19
1997: Putnam North, 23-0
1998: Putnam North, 3-0
1999: Putnam North, 22-7
2000: Putnam North, 28-0
2001: Putnam North, 37-27
2002: Edmond Santa Fe, 13-7
2003: Edmond Santa Fe, 21-6
2004: Edmond Santa Fe, 20-6
2005: Edmond Santa Fe, 28-24
2006: Edmond Santa Fe, 16-13 (OT)
2007: Putnam North, 14-7
All-time series: Putnam North leads, 7-5
Overtime games: 1 in 2006, ESF won, 16-13
Current win streak: Putnam North, 1
Longest PCN win streak: 6 (1996-2001)
Longest ESF win streak: 5 (2002-2006)
Bad weather BETTER for practice?
By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com
Just got off the phone with Putnam City North quarterback Hunter Franz, and he made an interesting observation.
You would think rainy, bad weather would be bad for a football team’s practice, but Franz said it might actually help his team prepare for Edmond Santa Fe.
“Since we run the ball a lot anyway, I think it’s helped us,” Franz said of the weather. I think that because of the weather, the guys are getting a little more focused to make plays.”
I’d never really thought of it that way, but it does make sense.
