AND PG GOES DOWN | Now THIS is more like it, Buckeyes | BUCKEYE BEAT by PHILLIP WILLILAMS

GILMER – ‘Twas a night Taylor-made for the Gilmer Buckeyes to poleax the Pleasant Grove Hawks’ hallmark as an unvanquished union.

Gilmer quarterback Zade Taylor hoofed for two touchdowns, heaved two more, and made two critical long runs in the clash’s final minutes as Gilmer plundered Pleasant Grove, 33-27, on Friday in the two District 8-4A Division II teams’ opening dramatic District Dustup at Jeff Traylor Stadium.

The whiz-bang battle between Gilmer, which advanced to 5-1 with the mild upset triumph over the No. 2-ranked visitors (who withered to the same record), was decided, though, by the only tally Taylor didn’t procure. 

Runner Tayveon Horne sounded beatific notes on the decisive 2-yard TD trip with 8:23 left in the affray, the night’s final score. That concluded a 67-yard, 14-play advance which featured two penalties against the hosts and one against PG.

Pleasant Grove repeatedly rallied from deficits of 13-0, 20-7 (at Twirling Time), and 27-14 to knot the affray 27-27 at third quarter’s end. But when the Hawks had to cede the pigskin on downs at the Gilmer 26 due to an incompletion with 5:07 remaining, their defense faltered as Gilmer hogged the pigskin till the finish, thanks largely to the aforementioned two stupefying rushes by Taylor.

And although Hawk QB Colt Yancey dispatched two TDs in the airwaves, Pleasant Grove’s overall problems with its passing game during the evening hampered the Hawks from retaining their undefeated status. So did Gilmer’s playing ball control with lengthy possessions, and PG’s repeated failures to attain a first down on fourth-down plays.

Gilmer, meantime, had to overcome more than one stupefying snap from center that sailed so far over Taylor’s head, and past him, that it appeared the ball might end up in Mexico. Luckily for the Buckeyes, they recovered their own misfires, even turning one of them into a show-stopping TD throw for the wargame’s opening score.

The confrontation got wild early as Gilmer took the opening kickoff and, on its fifth offensive play, snapped the ball over Taylor, who retrieved it and rifled a dumbfounding 48-yard TD throw to Kaden Canady.

Alan Sanchez’s PAT kick failed with 9:49 left in the opening quadrant.

Gilmer, which had beaten another unbeaten outfit, Sunnyvale, two weeks earlier largely by recovering onside kicks, proceeded to then recover one against the Hawks at the PG 42, only to have defender Jaivion Butler promptly purloin a bomb by Taylor at the Pleasant Grove 1.

Only three plays afterward, Yancey disgorged a fumble to Gilmer’s Tahj Bush at the Hawk 9, but the hosts ended up losing the ball on downs when Horne was stuffed at the 3 on the fourth play afterward.

On their next possession, the Hawks inexplicably decided to go for it on 4th-and-6 from their own 31, only to see Yancey corralled at the 33 and Gilmer take over. But the Bucks soon lost 16 yards to the PG 44 due to another errant snap and ended up punting from the 43 to the 19.

From there, the Hawks pieced together a long offensive, which featured one penalty against each team inside Gilmer’s 10-yard-line. In fact, a 4-yarder against PG voided a 1-yard TD and the visitors ended up again ceding the ball on downs when they passed incomplete from the 6.

Gilmer then plodded 94 yards in 15 plays, surmounting a 5-yard penalty, to finally reach Beulah Land again when Taylor faked a handoff and tripped two yards. Earlier, his stultifying 33-yard run on fourth down to the PG 8 had salvaged the advance to the goal on a possession in which the Buckeyes devoured 7:42 on the clock.

Sanchez (who’d eventually miss his PAT try after Gilmer’s final score) airlifted the first of three straight successful ones with 2:24 left to intermission, but that’s when PG deployed its Rapid Response team.

Gilmer’s onside kick failed, giving the Hawks the ball at the 50. And on only the third play afterward, runner Palmer Gibbs ingested 36 yards on a tackle-breaking touchdown trip.

T.J. Boyer, who made all four of his PAT kicks except the one after his mates’ third TD, made it 13-7 with 1:50 left to Band Time.

But the Hawks soon ascertained that Gilmer had its own Rapid Response outfit.

The hosts returned the kickoff to their 39 and proceeded to invade Glory Land with only five seconds left in the period when Taylor pitched a 1-yard scoring sling to Canady.

On the prior play, at least three members of the media in the press box got confused and thought receiver Kipton Neighbors had scored the TD when he snagged a 35-yard offering from Taylor. But he was ruled to have gone out of bounds at the 1.

Down 20-7 halfway through the hostilities, PG rebounded by taking the second-half kickoff and rumbling 47 yards to TD territory in seven plays, converting on fourth down at one point and abetted by a 15-yard Gilmer penalty. 

On another tackle-breaking TD run by his team, runner Marcus Floyd produced the points on a 19-yard jaunt with 9:37 left in the third.

But Gilmer, its lead now sawed to 20-14, soon offset that on an utterly riveting play by Taylor.

The Buckeyes inched 63 yards after taking the kickoff in eight plays, greatly aided by a 15-yard penalty right off the bat. And then Taylor yanked the bunny from the fedora.

He ran across the field way to the left, then cut back and ran across most of the field to the right before swooping into the end zone from 16 yards out with 6:36 left in the third on a highlight-reel wow. The kick restored Gilmer’s lead to 13 points, 27-14.

However, it then appeared PG might make a commendable comeback.

On only the second play after returning the kickoff to their 42, the Hawks hit TD turf when Yancey zipped a 35-yarder to Rykiem Richie. Despite missing the PAT, PG had slit the hosts’ lead to seven with 6:07 remaining in the third.

Then Gilmer blundered, leading to PG tying the match.

On the first play after taking the kickoff, the usually adept Horne dispensed a fumble, which Hawk Jaidon Brown returned all the way to the Buckeye 25. On the sixth play afterward, after overcoming a 5-yard penalty at one point, PG rolled into TD town on Yancey’s 7-yard fling to Adam Orr.

Boyer’s boot made it 27-27 with 4:15 left in the third.

But Coach Alan Metzel’s Buckeyes, having seen their 13-point lead obliterated, heroically saved the night.

Gilmer took the kickoff and quilted together another long-winded 67-yard trek for the winning TD, taking 14 plays and overcoming two penalties totaling 15 yards, while PG drew a 15-yard one for targeting.

All but one of the plays–an incompletion–were landlubbing as Horne and Taylor hot-footed virtually all the yardage before Horne’s aforementioned decisive TD.

Gilmer had gulped down 7:52 of the clock on this possession, which ended with the missed PAT. But PG was only six points down and had plenty of time.

It wouldn’t matter, although PG got superb field position when yet another Gilmer onside kick failed at the Buckeye 48.

The Hawks got five yards in two rushing plays, then a colossal break when Gilmer was penalized 15 to the 28. Gibbs then whipped five yards to the 23.

The home team appeared in danger of giving up the tying touchdown and a go-ahead PAT. But the worm turned.

Yancey was sacked for a 7-yard loss to the 30. Gibbs got four of it back on the next play, but on fourth down, Yancey threw what proved a lethal incompletion for his squad as it would never reclaim possession.

And Terrific Taylor was much of the reason it wouldn’t.

Three plays gave Gilmer a first down at its 38 before Taylor shot 23 yards to the PG 39. He would then have to save the day from a Buckeye blunder–another snap over his head that Horne recovered for a stunning 14-yard loss to the Buckeye 47.

Horne got one on the next play, leaving Gilmer facing a daunting 3rd-and-23. But Taylor somehow eluded the Hawks for a bedazzling 25-yard run for a first down at the 27.

Then Horne showed football smarts on the next play. He got loose and clearly could have scored, but purposely went down at the 15 so his teammates could run out the clock and prevent PG regaining possession.

However, the Buckeyes weren’t through scaring the night lights out of their fans as they remained in shotgun formation and, on the next play, suffered yet another snap over Taylor’s head, which the Buckeyes managed to recover at the Hawk 28. 

Had they not, the visitors might well have converted that into six points which could, at the least, have sent the contest into overtime. Or had the PAT been good, Pleasant Grove might have remained undefeated.

But Gilmer managed to run out the clock by taking a knee twice without another sailed snap.

And thus did Pleasant Grove’s lengthy trip from Texarkana turn into an unpleasant night for the previously unconquered Hawks.