GILMER GETS OUT OF PIRATE-LAND | Buckeyes ease away with 41-25 victory – Special to ETBlitz from PHILLIP WILLIAMS

LONGVIEW – As the Pine Tree Pirates’ ship, bedecked with the Jolly Roger flag, roamed the seas in its 2025 season launch Friday night, it capsized and plummeted to Davy Jones’ Locker after lurching into an iceberg consisting of  two touchdowns tallied by the state-ranked Gilmer Buckeyes’ defense.

The Big Bangs — stupefying long-distance returns of a failed field goal, and a fumble which a Buckeye somehow snatched from a pile of players — plundered the Pirates as Gilmer poleaxed Pine Tree, 41-25, in a wild what’ll-happen-next encounter at Pirate Stadium.

Gilmer (1-0) hosts Chapel Hill next Friday, Sept. 5. Pine Tree (0-1) visits Van the same night.

Both Gilmer and the Pirates staged breathtaking blows for touchdowns, and woes befell both squads’ kicking games, but much of the difference in the outcome was that Gilmer’s defensive unit turned out to be an offensive weapon.

The game also followed the old Hollywood showbiz rule of having a heck of an opening, a heck of a closing, and coasting in between. Gilmer outscored the Pirates 12-10 in the first quarter and 22-8 in the fourth, while the teams tallied only seven points apiece in the other two periods combined.

The visitors, who led 19-10 at Twirling Time, trailed only when Pine Tree took a short-lived 7-6 lead in the inaugural quarter. The hosts pared Gilmer’s advantage to 19-17 in the third quarter before 15 straight Buckeye points somewhat ensured the Pirates would suffer the same funereal fate as the Titanic.

While Gilmer’s defense was toting up its pair of TDs, the Buckeye offense did its part, too. Runner Tayveon Horne hied for two fourth-quarter touchdowns, and quarterback Zade Taylor heaved for one score and hoofed for another in this whiz-bang bout, played under dry conditions after a day of heavy rain in East Texas.

Gilmer took the opening kickoff and promptly bulldozed the Pirate defense with a 75-yard, nine-play scoring offensive in which the Buckeyes surmounted a pair of 5-yard penalties, a near-interception, and a flurry of high snaps from center.

Taylor screamed 10 yards up the middle to Beulah Land with 9:38 left in the initial period. Buckeye kicker Miguel Castaneda, however, missed the first of two straight failed PAT attempts.

Pine Tree went three-and-out, but put a cannonball in the Buckeyes’ seacraft when a Pirate punt bounced off a Gilmer player, and the hosts recovered it at their own 47.

On the second play afterward, quarterback Colton Croft catapulted a long 49-yard scoring sling to Rashaad Wofford, and Julian Ibarra boomed the first of his two successful PATs with 7:08 left in the first quarter, giving the hosts their only lead of the evening.

Those on the PT boat had little time to rejoice, though. The Pirates were penalized on the ensuing kickoff and had to re-kick, resulting in Gilmer returning the pigskin to its own 38 and taking only three plays to procure points.

Taylor flung a 36-yard TD to Trace Haynes in the end zone with 5:45 still left in the lengthy (about 40 minutes) and eventful first period. The failed PAT left the count at 12-7.

Pine Tree, which repeatedly staged comebacks during the night, then scored on Ibarra’s 33-yard field goal with 2:34 yet to go in the seemingly endless first verse.

The scoring quieted down in the second period, but the only TD was A Wow.

Ibarra attempted a 45-yard field goal, unusually long for a high school kicker, and the boot either fell well short of the uprights on its own, bounced off a player, or was partially blocked. (It wasn’t clear which).

In any event, Buckeye Korey (Trey) Lee picked up the pigskin and left the Pirates thunderstruck by roaring 84 yards for a touchdown with 2:32 left to Band Time. This time, Castaneda successfully airlifted the PAT.

Down 19-10 at intermission, Pine Tree rebounded by taking the second-half kickoff and, abetted by two Gilmer penalties, soon posted points.

The Buckeyes were penalized 5 yards for kicking off out of bounds. Then, aided by a 15-yard Gilmer penalty, the Pirates trooped 62 yards in six plays to reach Gloryland by detonating a land mine in the form of Dalan Montgomery, who whizzed 32 yards up the middle.

The PAT made it 19-17. The clock mysteriously kept running after the touchdown; several seconds ticked off it before it finally stopped at 7:53 to go in the third quarter, and game officials didn’t change what appeared to be erroneously-deducted time.

Its lead sliced to a pair of points for the rest of the period, Gilmer suddenly pulled off another dumbfounding defensive dandy early in the furious fourth quarter.

The Pirates were brandishing their swords as, after a Gilmer punt, the hosts promptly gained 50 yards on Roger Attaway’s run. That was immediately followed by a 10-yard Buckeye penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, and all this had advanced Pine Tree from its own 10to the Gilmer 30.

Then it happened: the play that likely turned the game.

Pine Tree ran the ball, and the next thing sportswriters in the press box knew, Buckeye defender Atavian Ector had possession of it and was rumbling down the left side of the field about 75 yards for a touchdown.

After the game, a Gilmer assistant coach said Ector had ripped the ball out of a pile. Whatever occurred, the Buckeyes went for two on the conversion after the fumble return, and Taylor ran successfully with 10:24 left, making it 27-17.

That left PT in somewhat dire straits, now needing two scores to tie or go ahead instead of trailing by a mere two points. And on the ensuing kickoff, a cataclysm struck the hosts

Another spectacular play occurred as Gilmer remarkably recovered the ball at the Pirate 29.

On the fourth play afterward, Horne hiked yards for the TD and Castaneda nailed the first of two straight PATs with 8:52 left.

Down 34-17, Pine Tree went three-and-out, making no yardage and drawing a 5-yard penalty in the process before punting from its 38 despite the fact it trailed by 17 points with less than nine minutes left.

Gilmer gave up the ball on downs at the Pirate 33 and on the second play afterward, Pine Tree got one last hurrah as Attaway abruptly wheeled 62 yards up the middle for a TD with 3:21 left.

The Pirates lined up to kick a PAT and holder Boston Johnson fumbled the snap, but ran the ball and reached it over the goal line for two points.

Gilmer revived, though, with a wild kickoff return to the PT 16. On the third play afterward, Horne bopped two yards for the TD with 1:55 left.

And the Pirates were buried at sea.