CARROLLTON -- Sitting in the locker room prior to Guyer’s season opener, J.W. Walsh had some words of encouragement for one of his favorite receivers.

Quint Gardener appeared to have a depressed demeanor, and Walsh perked him up by telling him the duo would connect early and often in Saturday’s game against Waxahachie.

On the fourth offensive snap of the game, Walsh found Gardener for a 45-yard gain to the Waxahachie 21-yard line, and three plays later Guyer scored en route to an impressive 45-7 win to kick off the season.

“That made me feel a little confidence,” Gardener said. “It gave me confidence, and everyone started feeling good about themselves.”

Two offensive possessions later, Gardener got in the end zone on a 59-yard screen pass and the Wildcats were rolling. He finished the day with five grabs for 145 yards and two touchdowns.

Walsh was the model of efficiency for a quarterback, as three of his five incompletions were drops, and he finished the day completing 15 of 20 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns.

“Coming into it, we didn’t expect it to be like this at all,” the senior quarterback said. “We thought we’d get a good test, and that wasn’t the case. We came out and from the very beginning, and we were hitting on all cylinders.”

While the Wildcats (1-0) didn’t get much resistance offensively, the Guyer defense caused all kinds of problems for a youthful Waxahachie offense that used two quarterbacks alternating plays for the entire game.

The Wildcats had four sacks, held a run-heavy offense to 58 yards on 35 carries, and held one of the best athletes in the state, receiver LaDarius Brown, to four catches for 56 yards.

Brown was defended for much of the night by Guyer cornerback Josh Stewart, who entered the game knowing he’d have his work cut out for him.

“He’s a good athlete,” Stewart said of Brown. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s very good. But I came in more prepared than him. He made some plays, but I held him from that big, big play to the end zone. That was my goal, and I met my goal.”

Stewart also made his presence felt on offense, catching two balls for 67 yards, including a 38-yard catch-and-run midway through the third quarter to put the Wildcats up 35-0.

Guyer head coach John Walsh was confident in his senior cornerback, but also gave credit to the rest of the defense for helping to hold such a dynamic player as Brown in check.

“We feel great about Josh Stewart,” Walsh said. “I know the matchup was talked about a lot this week. I felt like we matched up good, and Josh did his job. It’s not just Josh, though. Their quarterback didn’t have a lot of time and was moving around a lot.”

Waxahachie (0-1) could not get anything going, no matter who the Indians put under center.

Don King III finished the night 3-for-7 for 55 yards and a touchdown, and Brooks Teeter completed 7 of 14 passes for 90 yards.

Blake Terry, Diontre Thomas, Aaron Wright and Zach Bush all got in on sacks and constantly had the Indians’ quarterbacks scrambling for time.

“We’ll be better than we have been in the past there [pass rush] because all four [linemen] are quick and very mobile,” John Walsh said. “In the past, we’ve had some really good pass rushers and some really good run stoppers.”

In all, Guyer outgained Waxahachie 566-203, as eight different receivers caught passes from Walsh while the game was still heavily contested by the starting units.

“That’s exactly what I envisioned,” J.W. Walsh said. “We threw to all of them. When you can complete balls to all those guys, it makes the defense throw fits because they can’t stick on one main guy.”

Walsh had plenty of time to go through all of his reads and hit all of those receivers thanks to an offensive line that has just two starters back from last year, something that John Walsh said is becoming an annual occurrence.

“The comical thing is, every year I get that question about our offensive line,” the head coach said. “We lift way too many weights. For linemen, you just have to find a good body, and if you go through our program, you’ll make it. We’re gonna find five good bodies that can block. Count on it.”

Next up for Guyer is Cedar Hill, its first test against a Class 5A team in its first year as a 5A program, and it’s one of the biggest 5A powerhouses in the state.

The teams will meet on Labor Day at 4:30 p.m. at Cowboys Stadium as part of the Kirk Herbstreit National Kickoff Classic.

“I expect it to be a ball game from the first play to the last play,” J.W. Walsh said. “I think it’s gonna be a tough ball game. We’ll definitely have to be prepared to play a full four quarters next week.”

Briefly…

Guyer’s first touchdown of the game was scored by junior backup quarterback/tight end Dominic Ramacher after starting running back Treavon Walton slid down at the Waxahachie 1-yard line for an 11-yard gain instead of scoring on the previous play. Walsh then sent in Ramacher to take the snap and plunge in from a yard out. Ramacher’s mother, Tracy, is battling cancer and started chemotherapy on Monday. The team saved the ball and presented Tracy with it after the game as the first touchdown scored by Guyer as a 5A program.

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.

Guyer 45, Waxahachie 7

Guyer   14        14        14        3          --         45

Waxahachie      0          0          7          0          --         7

Scoring summary

First Quarter

G – Dominic Ramacher 1 run (Josh King kick), 9:39

G – Quint Gardener 59 yard pass from J.W. Walsh (King kick), 4:34

Second Quarter

G – Conner Crane 39 pass from Walsh (King kick), 10:15

G – Treavon Walton 1 run (King kick), 1:03

Third Quarter

G – Josh Stewart 38 pass from Walsh (King kick), 6:26

W – Ray Tunson 30 pass from Don King III (Yovani Arvizu kick), 4:54

G – Gardener 10 pass from Walsh (King kick), 0:00

Fourth Quarter

G – King 39 field goal, 0:52

Team Statistics

            G         W

First downs      22        10

Rushing yards   28-226 35-58

Passing yards    340      145

Total yards                                               566   203

Passes  15-21-0           10-21-0

Fumbles-lost     2-1       0-0

Punts-avg         1-20.0  6-26.5

Penalties-yds    9-90     2-10

Individual Statistics

Rushing: G – J.W. Walsh 6-37, Sebastian Williams 3-46, Treavon Walton 8-54, Cameron Hunter 1-8, Dominic Ramacher 2-4, Leo Garcia 4-25, Quint Gardener 1-16, Alex Luft 3-36. W – Robert Lowe 4-17, Don King III 6-20, Brooks Teeter 8-(-23), Devin Chandler 3-19, D.Q. Robinson 2-3, Hayden Howell 1-2, Corey Culton 2-11, Quin Sargent 1-(-4), Terrance Hawkins 5-7, D.C. Collins 1-2, Alex Hicks 1-3, Christian Brewer 1-1. 

Passing: G – J.W. Walsh 15-20-0-340, Dominic Ramacher 0-1-0-0. W – Don King III 3-7-0-55, Brooks Teeter 7-14-0-90.

Receiving: G – Conner Crane 1-39, Quentin Gardener 5-145, Daniel Mercer 1-15, Cameron Hunter 1-30, Josh Stewart 2-67, Dominic Ramacher 1-9, Colton Berry 1-8, Vince Sanders 3-27. W – LaDarius Brown 4-56, D.C. Collins 4-53, Ray Tunson 1-30, Devin Walker 1-6.