JAY — So much for seeds. Some germinate, others dry up.

One choked on some thorns here Friday night.

District 4A-3 champion Jay was no match for 4A-4 fourth-place Wagoner, which used a dominating first-half effort to take command en route to a 35-0 victory between two sets of Bulldogs in the first round of the 4A playoffs.

“We didn’t feel like a four-seed caliber team,” Wagoner coach Dale Condict said. “When we’re good, we’re really good but we’ve struggled to find that consistency, and even as coaches we’ve struggled to figure out why. You hope by playoff time you pull it all together, and we did that tonight, and I want to say in part for Hilldale and coach (Don) Hendrix. They’re just as deserving of being here as we are.”

Condict was referring to last week’s last-minute 14-13 win over Hilldale in the regular-season finale that kept the Bulldogs’ season going and eliminated the Hornets.

Whatever Wagoner (8-3) tried, worked, and it was just the opposite for Jay (7-4) which arose from a three-way tiebreaker to claim the top seed.

The visiting Bulldogs drove 60 yards on its opening possession and ended it with Chris Ramey, inserted as a running back in the wildcat formation, punching it in from a yard out. He repeated that effort in the second quarter, capping an 85-yard drive with 3:43 to play.

Two key throws on that drive were pass completions from quarterback Prince McJunkins to Jordan Robinson and Malcolm Love covering 24 and 22 yards, respectively. Love came up with the recovery of an onside kick that ensued following the score, setting up McJunkins’ only TD pass of the evening, a 34-yard strike to a wide open Drew Curley with 2:57 to go in the half, making it 21-0.

From there, it was all but left to the Wagoner defense, led by the pressure up front by Justin Wilson and Chance Shankle, which forced Jay quarterback Brandon Edge into three interceptions. Robinson had two of those and through three quarters, Wagoner held Jay to five first downs and 91 yards and to 32 yards rushing on 29 attempts.

“We were mentally ready after last week,” Robinson said. “We came in with a good game plan and focused.”

Wagoner had 228 yards at the half, then struck for more in the third quarter as Jeremy Applegate took a pitch from McJunkins on a fourth-and-4 from the Jay 39 and zipped between defenders into the open field and went in untouched for a 28-0 lead with 6:04 in the period.

Needing something to get back in the game, Jay managed just 19 yards in the third, most of that coming on a 28-yard pass by Edge to Kyle Shambaugh late in the quarter. That drive ended in the fourth quarter when Edge was picked in the end zone by Josh Hewitt.

That led to an 80-yard touchdown drive and the game’s final score. On his third carry of the possession, Bobby Reynolds took a pitch around right end for 13 yards and a 35-0 contest with 7:37 remaining. Reynolds finished as the game’s leading rusher with 91 yards on 13 carries.

Wagoner will host a second-round game next Friday against Douglas, which beat Glenpool.