With one minute, 55 seconds left in last Saturday’s Class 4A state quarterfinal game, Guyer defensive back Ravion Ingram peeled back over the middle of the field to make a clutch over-the-shoulder interception off Denton Ryan quarterback Scotty Young.

    It was Ingram’s second pick of the day and fifth for the Wildcats – who won 28-25 and will face Longview this Saturday for the right to move on and play for the state championship. For Ingram, it was a perfect way to prove his team’s haters wrong.

    “A lot of people said that our secondary wasn’t good enough to stop Scotty Young,” Ingram said. “We heard it all week and as a team we talked about finding a way to be clutch.”

    As good as this season has gone for Guyer, many football insiders looked back to their Nov. 5 game against Ryan as Young completed 21 of his 35 passes for 289 yards and five touchdowns in a 50-29 romp to end the regular season. Guyer – which was previously unbeaten – ended up sharing the District 5-4A title with Ryan and Lake Dallas because of that loss.

    Young came into Saturday’s state quarterfinal as the No. 1 passer in Class 4A with 4,162 yards and 60 touchdowns – which at that time was only eight shy of the record for most touchdowns in a season. Couple that with Ryan’s two state titles this decade and not many people were giving Guyer – which made its first ever playoff berth a year ago – a chance.   

    So much for that.

    Young still got his yards in the rematch (305 yards and four touchdowns), but was clearly off when it mattered most. So were his receivers, who didn’t help by dropping several on-target passes with plenty of room to run after the catch. After completing his first three passes of the game, Young misfired on eight of his next 11 attempts and ended the first quarter with an interception right at the goal line. On the play, Ingram stepped right in front of a Ryan receiver at the one-yard line.

    Young finished the game 24-for-50 with three of his interceptions coming in the end zone.

     “That’s just great schemes and great players making plays, bottom line,” Guyer head coach John Walsh said. “We made all the adjustments we needed to from Week 10.”

    With eight minutes left in the first half and Guyer clinging to a 7-0 lead, defensive back Josh Stewart intercepted Young at the Guyer 36-yard line and raced 72 yards for a touchdown. Stewart easily had one of the more well-rounded performances for Guyer on defense as he blocked an extra point with 6:58 left in the first half and also had a beautiful tackle later in the same quarter on an apparent screen play.

    Guyer had problems in the third quarter as Young narrowed the Guyer lead to 21-13 thanks to a huge pass interference penalty. It was one of two pass interference calls against Guyer in that quarter as Guyer finished with 115 yards in penalties.

    Still, Marquis Smith and Brendan Wright both intercepted Young in that third quarter – both in the end zone. Wright’s pick came with 35 seconds left before the fourth quarter.

    “The red zone is clutch time for us,” Ingram said. “The leaders stepped up and made plays.”
 

   And they fully expect to do it again this weekend against Longview.