GILMER HOLDS OFF KILGORE | Buckeyes’ perspective of battle, by PHILLIP WILLIAMS

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS

GILMER – Consternation-causing conclusions are becoming commonplace for the defending state champeen Gilmer Buckeyes’ wargames in This Here 2024 football season.

As had occurred the week before in their 33-29 pratfall to Chapel Hill, the winless Buckeyes experienced another weird windup at their homecoming Friday night in KO’ing the previously unvanquished Kilgore Bulldogs, 24-22.

Gilmer had taken that lead with only 1:26 remaining, only to see the visitors return the kickoff to the Buckeye 45 and, in two plays, reach the Gilmer 7 with six seconds left.

But for the second time in this possession, Kilgore suffered a 10-second runoff of the clock for having an injured player. And, with the clock showing six seconds, and the visitors lined up to try a potentially winning chip-shot field goal, officials declared the game over due to the second runoff.

This came soon after Gilmer Coach Alan Metzel stupefied some Buckeye backers by settling for a one-point PAT after his team’s last TD.

Going for one instead of a 2-point conversion left his team only two points ahead, and vulnerable to losing on a late field goal, as happened against Kilgore the prior year. (See Metzel’s explanation at the end of this article).

To top it all off, some Kilgore partisans were irate with the officiating as their team drew numerous penalties.

Gilmer, which had blown leads in its season-starting outings against Pine Tree and Chapel Hill, found itself causing a homecoming hurrah this time by deleting deficits of 10-0 and 22-17 to muzzle the ‘Dogs.

Kilgore hit a haymaker when quarterback Kayson Brooks unleashed a short pass to Jayden Sanders, who transformed it into a 68-yard bound to Beulah Land.

Eddie Jiminez airlifted the PAT with 5:52 left in the inaugural quadrant after the 85-yard, 3-play scoring offensive. And things would worsen for the hosts afore they improved.

After Gilmer ceded the pigskin on downs at the Kilgore 30 in the first period, the visitors tromped to the Buckeye 17 in eight plays before Jiminez banged a 34-yard field goal with 10:30 left to Twirling Time.

It looked as if Gilmer might be about to open the year with its third consecutive dud and a less-than-happy homecoming, but the Buckeyes scrambled to their feet and threw a right cross in this clash of two state-ranked squads.

Gilmer accepted the ensuing kickoff and plodded 65 yards in 13 plays, surmounting a 13-yard penalty to reach TD Territory when quarterback Cadon Tennison managed to get pushed into the end zone by a passel of teammates for an 8-yard tally. He was one of three quarterbacks utilized by the Buckeyes, another odd aspect of this game.

Kicker Brayden Pate launched the PAT with 4:10 left to Band Time. Then the kicking game would proceed to kick the Bulldogs right in their booties as Gilmer promptly recovered an onside kick at the Kilgore 33.

After seven plays (includng a fourth-down conversion), the Buckeyes found themselves facing another fourth down. Thus, Pate pummeled a 40-yard field goal with 1:23 remaining to the musical interlude to knot the score at 10-10.

Kilgore reached the Buckeye 31 in the half’s fading seconds, only to behold Buckeye Taz Manson purloin a pass in the end zone. The PA announcer said the interception was then fumbled, but recovered by Gilmer, which ran out the half with the score 10-all.

Buoyed by deep-sixing the 10-0 Kilgore lead, and Manson’s swiped sling, Gilmer bloodied the Bulldogs some more early in the third period. Kilgore took the second-half kickoff, only to have the hosts’ Trillyon Butler soon filch a Brooks aerial, returning it to the visitors’ 28.

The Buckeyes trooped seven plays, abetted by a 10-yard Bulldog penalty, to procure the lead on runner Alec Sims’ 3-yard hop with 8:15 left in the third verse. Pate clanged the PAT, making it 17-10.

But that quickly aroused Kilgore, which returned the kickoff all the way to the Gilmer 44. And on the second play afterward, Brooks heaved a 36-yard scoring shot to Lakeyleon Graves, only to have Jimenez’s kick fail with 7:58 left in the third.

Of many long passes thrown by both teams, this was one of few, if not the only one, which was completed as the “bombs away” approach repeatedly proved as futile as trying to teach physics to a porcupine.

With Gilmer up 17-16, the game then entered a long phase in which neither offense could escape quicksand. Then, in the final three minutes, the circus came to town.

Kilgore had returned a punt to its 21, and advanced 17 yards on a Gilmer dead-ball penalty. And Brooks threw to his right on a short screen pass to Rayshaun Williams, who whizzed downfield for a stupefying 62-yard TD  with 2:12 left.

But then came what may have been what was overlooked as the key play in the game’s outcome. Up 22-17, Brooks threw incomplete on a 2-point conversion try.

That would soon prove to be a huge factor in putting the ‘Dogs to sleep.

Gilmer returned the ensuing kickoff to its 33 and was soon greatly abetted by two penalties totaling 31 yards against its foe–16 yards for a face mask, and 15 for unsportsmanlike conduct, one of which was marked off immediately after the other.

On this possession, the Buckeyes finally reached TD Territory in six plays with starter Brady McCown at quarterback. Right after he completed a successful fourth-down 13-yard pass to Geremiah Noble to the 23, suddenly Butler thundered up the middle in an incredibly open space to claim the winning score with 1:26 left.

Then came all the kerfuffle over Gilmer going for one point instead of two. Kilgore would be able to, as it had the year before, hit the jackpot with a eleventh-hour field goal that had given them a 24-23 triumph.

Not this time, though.

Gilmer had to kick off twice, drawing a 5-yard penalty on the first try, and the ‘Dogs returned it all the way to the Buckeye 45.

Air mails of 22 and 16 yards propelled the Bulldogs to the 7-yard line, where they set up for the potentially winning field goal, only to have the game declared over as aforementioned.

A fracas ensued among the teams on the visitors’ side of the field, and the public address announcer told them to return to their sidelines.

Gilmer Coach Alan Metzel’s decision to go for a one-point conversion instead of two points after his team’s last touchdown upset several Buckeye fans since it left the team vulnerable to losing the game on a late field goal. But Metzel, who has coached Gilmer to three state championship games in four seasons,  explained his thinking to Elwyn Henderson of The Gilmer Mirror thusly, which Henderson shared with ETBlitz.com:

“Well, you know, we went for two (at first). We were dealing with being a little bit rattled, and so we called time out, we went with our play, we jumped off sides. In the midst of all that, we ended up throwing it to the other team, but it didn’t count (because of the false start). So they (officials) moved the ball back and I didn’t feel good about doing it (trying for two points) from the 8 (yard-line) because we looked so poor from the 3.

“Then on our attempt, so we kick it and they were off sides at that time and I understand if people disagree (with declining the penalty), they disagree.

“Yeah, they (Bulldogs) could have come down there and kicked a field goal and we’d have lost, and they (Gilmer fans) could have just been mad and so forth, but I went with my gut. I kept the (one) point (instead of accepting the penalty to go for two). I know some will say the two (point lead) didn’t help you, and in my mind, I was thinking I didn’t want them (the ‘Dogs) getting two.”

Explaining what he meant by that, Metzel said, “I didn’t want us messing up and putting us in a position where we could lose the ball (on a turnover), and they could return it for two points, and undo what we’d just done. So that’s what I went with, and people certainly have a right to disagree.”

One thing the Buckeye fans didn’t disagree with: the fact their 0-2 team won the game over Kilgore, who was 2-0.