Ben Whitehead
The Duncan Banner
DUNCAN —
Friday night’s football schedule in Class 5A looks more like a semifinal playoff bracket than it does the opening night of high school football.
Defending state champion Carl Albert, ranked No. 1 in the AP Prep Poll, hosts No. 2 Booker T. Washington. Meanwhile, No. 5 Duncan travels to No. 3 Guthrie.
Surely there will be a few butterflies floating in the stomachs of many of the players. And needless to say, all of 5A football will be keeping a close eye on both games.
Game on.
Last season, Guthrie knocked the home-standing Demons out of the playoffs. There will be a few new faces on both sides of the ball for both teams, but Duncan head coach Jim Holloway said his Demons are ready to play.
“It seems like it’s been a really, really long time since we played Guthrie in the first round of the playoffs, but time has really gone by fast,” Holloway said. “I think our players are really excited and ready. I think our coaches are excited and ready. Just the leading up to game one sometimes can really produce a lot of tense moments, and I’m sure that there’ll be some intense moments right up until kickoff.”
The high rankings for each team are well-deserved and Holloway noted the similarities that the Demons and Bluejays share.
“We’ve got a lot of similarities. We’ve both got a large number of returning starters, quality returning starters,” he said. “They lost two defensive linemen that were really good players for them, and we lost two senior defensive linemen, so a lot of similarities.
“They’ve got three returning starters on the offensive line, we’ve got four. We both got our quarterback back, we both got out running backs back, we’ve both got receivers back. Both teams bring back a wealth of experience and it’s more than just the experience, it’s the quality of that experience. They’ve got a really fine football team. They’re well-coached as we found out last year, and I think it goes without question that we’ve got some good players ourselves.”
The expectations for Duncan are higher than they have been in the recent past. Picking up a win at Guthrie would certainly push those expectations through the roof.
“I think because of so many expectations and so many things that have been said and written, I think the players are just like anybody else. They want to believe that that’s true,” said Holloway. “A win in Week 1 would give us a tremendous amount of confidence.”
Holloway said playing teams like Guthrie and Carl Albert — Duncan’s opponent in Week 3 — help make the Demons better prepared for when district play rolls around.
“I sought out Guthrie, I wanted to play them,” he said. “I want to play some good people. No. 1, we want to be tested when we go into district play. We want to be the very best football team we can be and you do that by playing good people. It makes your players prepare harder, it makes your coaches prepare harder and it just elevates everybody’s game.”
Senior center Cody Pollock expects Guthrie to bring its “A” game.
“I think there’s going to be more intensity,” Pollock said. “They’ll come out fired up and fight just as hard as last year.
“We’re prepared, but we’ve got to go in it with our best on each play. I expect them to give their best and we have to give our best.”
— Ben Whitehead is the sports editor for The Duncan Banner. He can be reached at 255-5354, Ext. 165, or via e-mail at ben.whitehead@duncanbanner.com.
