ANOTHER TOUGH WEEK FOR BUCKEYES | Trip to Longview not a scenic one in loss to Brenham / By PHILLIP WILLIAMS

LONGVIEW — After a closely-contested first half, a Brenham blitzkrieg bereaved the bewildered Gilmer Buckeyes Friday night as the unvanquished Brenham Cubs toted up 35 unanswered points following Twirling Time to guillotine Gilmer, 49-7, at Lobo Stadium.

Cub Quarterback Xyran Upshaw was the main culprit in this massacre, hoofing for two touchdowns and heaving two more to receiver Chris Guidry.

Each team played inconsistently in the first half, when the Cubs led 14-7, before Brenham launched a stupefying 3-touchdown assault within a 2-minute, 58-second span in the third quarter, thus turning a real rumble into a route.

Class 5A Brenham thus ascended to 5-0 for the season while the Buckeyes, a perennial class 4A power for years, faltered to 1-4 and their longest losing skein in 33 years.

The four-game gruesome Gordian knot which ensued after Gilmer won its opener over Pine Tree has been attributed to everything from injuries to Gilmer’s schedule of playing behemoths like Chapel Hill, Kilgore, Lindale and Brenham.

At the neutral and relatively sparsely attended site for Friday’s clash, the Cubs procured a prolific payback for their 51-37 loss to Gilmer when the teams waged a wargame in Huntsville last year.

Even the fact that a Brenham team website page had incorrectly identified its opponent as the “Gilmer Bobcats” was insufficient to rile the Buckeyes into shedding their recent Death March, which Gilmer fans fervently hope ends after the team’s open date next week

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Gilmer then opens district dustups by hosting Pittsburg Oct. 10, offering the Buckeyes a chance to salvage what has been a season that has so far been about as enjoyable as watching your dog get run over by a garbage truck.

As for Friday eve, Gilmer was mired by disgorging three turnovers (Brenham conceded none), devastating penalties, inability to run up the middle, getting thrown back or stopped after getting close to the Cubs’ goal line, and a defense that continues to have great difficulty barricading the Buckeye end zone.

Brenham started the scoring on workhorse runner C.J. Glover’s lone TD, an 18-yard scream around the left side with 7:40 left in the first period. Kicker Bleu Cienega than airlifted the first of his five successful PATs (another try failed when it was partly blocked).

Glover finished a 5-play, 72-yard offensive after Gilmer reached the Cub 11, only to suffer three straight quarterback sacks (involving two different quarterbacks). Then backup QB Carter Johnston threw incomplete from the Brenham 28 on fourth down, opening the roadway for the Cub touchdown trek.

Gilmer rebounded momentariily in the second quarter, scoring on an odd play in which the team attempted a “tush push” of starting QB Zade Taylor to obtain a first down on 4th-and-1, only to see Taylor somehow burst up the middle 28 yards to Beulah Land.

That ended an 81-yard, 9-play possession. Miguel Castaneda slammed the tying PAT for Gilmer’s final point with 7:23 left in period one.

Brenham, however, repossessed the lead after the first Buckeye turnover squelched a Gilmer scoring threat. Tre’Lyn Kelly purloined a pass by Taylor in the Cub end zone after the Buckeyes had reached their foes’ 25.
This set the table for a marathon 80-yard scoring hike that was greatly abetted by two 15-yard Gilmer penalties.

Breaking a tackle, Upshaw bopped three yards to TD Town with 27.3 seconds left to intermission.

After this, the Buckeye Bus crashed into a ravine.
Brenham returned the second-half kickoff to Gilmer’s 45 and needed only five plays to reach TD territory again on Upshaw’s 7-yard zip to Guidry. Cienega’s kick was partly blocked, his only misfire all night, leaving it 20-7 with 10:27 remaining in the third.

And little did anyone know that this would begin the overwhelming quick flood which would engulf the Buckeyes.

On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, Gilmer turned a short pass from Taylor to Tayveon Horn into a 63-yard roll to the Brenham 12. But on the next play, a bad snap from center was recovered by Cub J’Rius Booker at his team’s 22.

And, abetted by a 16-yard Gilmer penalty, the Cubs roared downfield to score in just three plays, the last being Upshaw’s 28-yard thundering around right end. For an encore, Upshaw ran over a two-point conversion with 8:36 left in the third.

Nor was Gilmer’s misery yet ended. The Buckeyes went three-and-out, punted, and Upshaw immediately released a 62-yard long-distance six-point aerial to Guidry with 7:29 still left in the third.

Thus, the score had gone from 14-7 to 35-7 in under three minutes.

The Brenham bombardment of scoring continued as runner Cartelle Brown made an astounding 81-yard burst around left end on a pitchout, eluding tackles with 10:35 left in the fray.

Then yet another Buckeye blunder–Ledrick Walker Jr.’s filching a Zade Taylor pass at the Brenham 47–eventually led to the final score. In a 10-play motorcade featuring one penalty apiece against the teams, Tre Taylor bounced the last two yards with 3:38 left.

On this night, Upshaw had been the downfall of the Buckeyes. And a Gilmer team accustomed to being state champions, or contenders for that title, each season for more than 20 years was left hoping that next week’s open date will open the door to saving what has been a totally uncharacteristic flailing season thus far.