GILMER DOES IT AGAIN | Buckeyes find a way when it looks like there’s not one, escape Lindale with a one-point win

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS

LINDALE – As it appeared the Gilmer Buckeyes were about to succumb to a Hart Attack, a Buckeye defender purloined a pass attempt for what would have been a lethal two-point conversion as Gilmer liquidated the Lindale Eagles, 37-36, in a toe-tingling ode to overtime here Friday night.

When the Eagles inserted runner Caleb Hart at quarterback fairly late in regulation, he began stockpiling yardage and touchdowns like a junkie hoarding methamphetamine. In the end, though, a 30-30 tie sent the contest into overtime, where Gilmer’s Khai Canady tethered the triumph by swiping a Lindale loft by starting QB David Lindig, which would have overcome the Buckeyes’ 37-36 lead and plunged the defending state champeens to a 1-3 mark thus far this season.

Gilmer, which got the pigskin first in OT, had ascended to a 37-30 advantage on Zade Taylor’s 13-yard TD trip and Brayden Pate’s critical PAT kick, only to have Lindig soon uncork a 31-yard scoring sling down the middle to Jackson Parker.

Then came the fatal filch by Canady. Game over and state-ranked Gilmer, which faces Brenham next Friday in Huntsville, is now 2-2 while Lindale’s record is identical.

The clubs had plunged into overtime tied 30-30 as Hart, who replaced Lindig at quarterback much of the second half, had scored four TDs on the night. Gilmer’s defense, however, lugged Lindale’s Lindig through a briar patch, returning an interception for a TD, tallying a safety against him via penalty, and swiping what would have been his game-winning pass at game’s end.

This atoned for Gilmer’s own offensive shortcomings. As the radio game announcers noted at one point, the Buckeyes ceded three fumbles themselves.

‘Twas a strange game–oddball outings seem to occur every week for the Buckeyes–inasmuch as the offenses did nothing but exchange punts until more than halfway through the second quarter, when they were suddenly routed from slumber into a furious feast of points.

The teams ignited for all 24 first-half points (seven of them resulting from a defensive TD) in the final 5:04 until Music Time.

Kilgore was galvanized first when Hart, hit by numerous defenders, suddenly spurted 37 yards up the middle to Beulah Land, writing finis to a brief 80-play offensive that took only three plays. Ace kicker Seth Baggett airlifted the PAT after his team was penalized five yards on it.

Gilmer’s offense, however, managed to finally itself heave a haymaker when QB Brady McCown unleashed a 13-yard TD toss to his left to Brendan Webb with 2:53 left to Twirling Time.

That concluded a 6-play, 74-yard travelogue and the prized Pate pummeled the first of five PATs.

Very soon after that point, Gilmer sorta reversed the old adage that the best defense is a good offense by showing that a defense can be a good offense.

Buckeye Devin McDonald filched a Lindig throw and thundered 47 yards to Glory Land with 2:14 remaining to intermission. Down 14-7, the hosts took the kickoff, hopped from their 39 to the Gilmer 17, and tallied on Baggett’s 34-yard field goal with 18 seconds left to Drill Team Time.

As the bands bleated, Gilmer led 14-10.

The offenses then reverted to their scoreless status in the third quarter as the only tally came on a Gilmer safety, which was called when Lindig was cited for intentional grounding out of his end zone with 6:19 left.

Now down 16-10, Lindale’s offense righted itself in the fourth quarter as Hart hoofed one yard to TD territory before came what, in retrospect, was a key play in the outcome on the conversion.

A bad snap prevented Baggett from kicking, and his pass for two points failed with 11:46 to go, leaving a 16-16 standoff. The scoring surge had consumed 61 yards in six plays and a 1-yard Gilmer penalty as Hart began running roughshod over the Buckeyes at quarterback.

And a Gilmer gaffe soon led to a Lindale lead. Buckeye runner Trillyon Butler dispensed what one of the radio game announcers would later note was among the Buckeyes’ three lost fumbles on the night at the Buckeye 16.

On just the second play afterward, the hurricane Hart hustled 11 yards to upload Linden into the lead, and Baggett banged the PAT with 10:52 remaining in the fourth to bring the tally to 23-16.

Now reeling from 13 quick points that had consigned them to trailing, Gilmer struck back with a wow.

The Buckeyes took over at their 30 as Lindale was penalized five yards for kicking off out of bounds. On the fifth play afterward, Gilmer runner Zade Taylor whistled 49 yards to TD turf and Pate’s PAT tied it 23-all with 9:09 left in regulation.

And thus it would continue–the offenses suddenly turning manic after having gone sleepwalking for elongated periods.

Although Gilmer subsequently snuffed a Lindale incursion into Buckeye territory on downs, on the third play afterward, Butler disgorged another fumble to the hosts at the Gilmer 35.

After Hart gobbled up yardage, the Eagles faced fourth-down at the Gilmer 13, and ended up penalized five yards on a field-goal try to the 18. Then Baggett misfired, but his team kept the ball on a roughing-the-kicker infraction to the Buckeye 9, from where the redoubtable Hart charged for another TD with 2:42 left.

Down 30-23, Gilmer continued to counter-attack, taking the kickoff and roaring 75 yards in only five plays to implant six more points upon Yonder Scoreboard on Butler’s 4-yard zip up the middle. The PAT tied it at 30-30 with 2:21 left in regulation.

Then the offenses mysteriously returned to napping, each punting before Lindale decided to run out regulation by having Lindig kneel at his 20 yard-line.

Gilmer prized the pigskin first in overtime, getting it at the hosts’ 25-yard line in accordance with overtime rules. On just the third play afterward, Taylor steamed to Tally Territory, and the reliable Pate provided what eventually proved the decisive point.

And thus, on a night when the Eagles often soared at their Eagle Stadium, they were left sore at their flight’s end.