HAWKS FLY BY GILMER AGAIN | That set the tone for a title run last year… Could it spark the Buckeyes again?

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS

Exclusively for ETBlitz.com

TEXARKANA – If history doth repeat itself, as an ancient adage insists it does, the Gilmer Buckeyes could be grateful, albeit paradoxically, for the poleaxing trauma they took at the talons of the Pleasant Grove Hawks here Friday night.

For last season, after PG inflicted a horrific 63-28 garroting of Gilmer, the Buckeyes improbably vanquished their next 10 foes to win the UIL Class 4A Division II state blue ribbon. PG won the teams’ district, only to suffer a pratfall in Playoff Paradise.

Now ’twill be seen whether that scenario repeateth itself in this Year of Our Lord 2024 after Pleasant Grove gored Gilmer, 27-10, in a stupefying surprise for the Buckeyes, who were the state’s No. 3-ranked team despite having a 5-2 record identical to the Hawks’.

Despite the teams entering the arena with the same mark, the District 7-4A Division II dustup’s outcome, not to mention the comfortable margin of victory, were likely stunning to more than one sports scribe who expected a Gilmer triumph as vengeance for last year’s horror show.

Instead, the Hawks, who displayed the words “FULL TILT” in white letters on the backs of their black jerseys, made the defending state kingfish feel as if they’d been confined on a carnival’s Tilt-A-Whirl ride for a millennium without a respite.

Pleasant Grove not only bewildered the Buckeyes with its speed on offense, but its defense stilled Gilmer so much that the visitors were held to their lowest single-game point total this season. Gilmer toted up a touchdown only fairly late in the game after staggering into a 21-3 ravine.

The victors assumed sole possession of first place in district with a 3-0 loop mark while Gilmer drooped to 2-1. The Buckeyes can still plop into the playoffs, of course, but are unlikely to do so as district champs inasmuch as the Hawks will be widely expected to win their final two games and accept that mantle.

Remember, however, that thingie about history repeating itself, because that’s just the method operandi with which Gilmer surged into post-season play last year after absorbing a hacksawing by the Hawks which ironically kept the eventual state champion from being its own district’s titleist.

As for Friday’s tilt, ’twas in the home team’s hands from the onset as PG took the opening kickoff and, overcoming a pair of 5-yard penalties, whipped 71 yards in seven plays to the opening scoring salvo.

And it was a wow.

Feigning a handoff, quarterback Jarret Halter flung a 47-yard TD to Kamdyn Harris with 7:58 left in the first quarter. Silas Yowell airlifted the first of three successful PATs (his fourth was blocked).

Gilmer went three-and-out and punted, and the Hawks promptly rumbled to the Buckeye 13 before two consecutive plays appeared to possibly be changing the game’s flow. First, the center snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head for a 12-yard loss. Then Buckeye Brendan Webb purloined a Halter pass, returning it to the Gilmer 20, only to see his team unable to take advantage of it.

Gilmer went 3-and-out again, punted, and the Hawks swiftly traveled to TD Town again, mowing down 55 yards in just two plays in a possession marked by a 5-yard penalty against the hosts, but a 15-yard infraction against the visitors.

Runner Nick Bells rang the Buckeyes’ bells with a speedy 25-yard TD trip around left end with 1:22 still left in the first.

Down 14-0, Gilmer managed to forestall any more bloodshed before Twirling Time, but could dredge up only a field goal scoring-wise.

A Hawk miscue set that up when the hosts disgorged a fumble to the Buckeyes at the PG 39 in the second quarter. Gilmer reached the 17, but stalled before Brayden Pate rammed the 34-yard field goal with 8:20 left to intermission.

Neither offense could do anything noteworthy before the musical interlude, but the Hawks, leading 14-3 at third quarter’s start, soon trooped to a TD again.

Before that, though, it again falsely looked as if Gilmer was reversing the tide.

On the second half’s first offensive play, quarterback Brady McCown zipped a 47-yard pass to Webb to the PG 36 yard-line. However, the visitors would end up ceding the ball on downs at the 28 after four plays, and that may well have proved the pivotal point.

The Hawks promptly ignited with a 19-yard pass, kicking off a 72-yard, 6-play travelogue which ended in Halter keeping up the middle three yards with 8:39 left in the third.

By the time Gilmer’s offense would finally trek to a TD in the fourth quarter, the Buckeyes would have to ingest 99 yards and take up an inordinate amount of time after a perfect PG punt.  (The punter was well-rested, not having had to do that kind of kicking until less than four minutes remained in the third chapter. It was a subsequent punt that stuck the Bucks near their own goal line.)

At first, it appeared the kick to the 1 was going to flummox Gilmer as the Buckeyes drew a half-yard penalty, gained only two on a run, and lost a yard on anther rushing play. But a 9-yard pass procured a first down and then Gilmer, trailing by 18, required much too long to get to TD Territory.

The nearly field-long offensive took up a remarkable total of 18 plays as McCown sent a 10-yard scoring sling to his left to Webb with 4:14 left in the fray. Pate’s PAT after a 5-yard Buckeye penalty made it 21-10, and Gilmer was still surviving, albeit on life support, before an onside kick failed.

What may have been the knockout punch would occur on this PG possession, which opened at the Gilmer 48. After three plays, the hosts faced fourth-and-3 from the 41 and punted, only to have a 5-yard Gilmer penalty allow the hosts to retain the pigskin at the Buckeye 36.

Roland Richie rapidly rolled 30 yards to the Gilmer 6, Halter kept for three, and then Jamarion Richardson, on one of his few, if not his only, carry all night, hoofed the last three yards to finish the invasion with 1:02 left.

So now the Buckeyes at 5-3 must try to repeat recent history, starting by hosting Spring Hill at 7 p.m. Friday.

And undoubtedly, they will be watched… like a Hawk.