Ginther throws six touchdown passes as Jenks beats Muskogee 50-35
BY Duane Dapron
Friday, October 05, 2007
High School Sports Extra: For the latest scores, stories, photos and stats, as well as sites dedicated to the Tulsa Metro teams.
MUSKOGEE - Hunter-Dwelley Field might be the home of Jenks football, but the Indian Bowl could well be the Trojans' home on the road.
Mark Ginther tossed a ca reer-high six touchdown pass es and No. 2 Jenks registered its 13th straight win in Musko gee's historic stadium as the Trojans held off the third- ranked Roughers, 50-35, in a showdown of District 6A-4 heavyweights Friday night.
The victory, Jenks' 17th straight in the series, gives the Trojans the upper hand in the district race. The Trojans are now 5-1 overall and 3-0 in dis trict play while Muskogee falls to 4-2 and 2-1 in the district.
Ginther connected on 16 of 24 passes for 268 yards for the defending Class 6A state champs. He now has 16 TD passes on the season.
Despite Ginther's perfor mance, the Trojans' win wasn't assured until tailback Chris Ad kins, who rushed for 145 yards, scored on a 4-yard run with 2:52 to play.
The rushing TD was the only one on the ground in the game, which fea tured a combined 11 touchdown pass es. Rougher quarterback Trae Cook had five to go with Ginther's six. The teams combined for 565 passing yards.
"Mark is the guy we want to have back there," Jenks head coach Allan Trimble said about his senior quarter back. "He made some great throws to night. But that's Mark. He's done that throughout his career."
Following Adkins' late touchdown, Jenks sealed the win when freshman defensive back Tate Beer intercepted a Cook pass with 1:30 remaining.
Beer's interception was the second big Trojan defensive play in the fourth quarter.
Adkins' touchdown was set up by Joe Raranje's interception with 6:54 to play.
"Muskogee has great talent," Trim ble said. "We knew they were going to make plays. So we needed to keep playing hard and hopefully we would make more plays. That's the way the game boiled down. I am proud of our team's resiliency."
Jenks executed its offense to near perfection in the first half, scoring on all five of its possessions. Despite that flurry, the Trojans led just 35-21 at the break.
Ginther had first-half TD passes of 44 yards to Dallas Beeler, 5 yards to Eric Lyle, and 32 yards to Grant Good win. He also fired scoring passes of 22 and 34 yards to Alonzo Adams.
In the first half, he was 8-of-10 through the air for 169 yards and his five scores.
"I try to do anything I can to help our team win," Ginther said. "We had a good week of practice. Every thing was clicking. We were confident and ready to play coming here."
Ginther added his sixth TD pass on a 30-yard strike to Tramaine Thompson in the third quarter. He followed that with a two-point conversion pass to Thompson for a 43-29 Jenks lead.
Muskogee closed within 43-35 on Cook's fifth TD of the night, a 1-yard toss with 10:44 to play.
Jenks had to punt only one time in the game. But Ginther, the team's punter, lofted a 35-yard boot that was downed at the Rougher 4-yard line with 7:02 remaining in the game.° On the next play, Cook's pass was intercepted by senior safety Rar anje at the Muskogee 36, setting up Adkins' clinching touchdown.
