PINE TREE STUNS GILMER | Defending champ Buckeyes slip in season opener; match against Chapel Hill is next

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the very first story on ETBlitz.com by longtime and legendary Gilmer High School football writer Phillip W. Williams, who has covered the Buckeyes for 52 of the last 53 seasons! We at ETBlitz.com are so happy to have Williams as a part of our coverage of the Buckeyes, and hope you enjoy his look at football.

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS

GILMER – ‘Twas a night when the Football Prophets boxed up their tarot cards and returned them to the manufacturer, with a searing epistle demanding a refund on the grounds that the product was obviously defective.

The No. 2-ranked, and defending Class 4A Division II state champeen Gilmer Buckeyes, saw their own luxury-liner looted by the Pine Tree Pirates, 22-15, in one upset Friday, while the only outfit ranked above the Buckeyes, Carthage, went kaput before Kilgore in the Battle of the Bulldogs, 20-15, in stupefying season openers.

Before members of the Buckeye constituency don sackcloth and ashes, however, be it remembered that the 2023 Gilmer delegation lost not only its season opener, but its first two games afore sallying forth to win the state blue ribbon.

Basic problem for the Buckeyes at home Friday night – aside from the fact that Pine Tree quarterback Matt Cates heaved one touchdown, hoofed for another, and ran for a 2-point conversion on what was largely an unsettling night for him otherwise – was three-fold

First, Gilmer’s normally nuclear-powered offense simply was checkmated and clearly missed last year’s flabbergasstingly-fast runner Will Henderson, who graduated.

Second, the kicking game booted the Buckeyes in the behind.

And third, Gilmer ditched a 12-0 lead.

All this negated the fact that its defense, which suffered free-bleeding much of last year, showed vast improvement.

With new starting quarterback Brady McCown playing all but one series, the hosts hopped to leads of 12-0 in the second quarter and 15-7 at Twirling Time, ironically ending the half on a successful field goal despite earlier woes in the kicking game.

After the bands bleated, though, the Pirates ruled the high seas, procuring the points that saved the day with but 4:33 left in the wargame.

While the game had almost no turnovers, both team’s offenses spent much of the night somewhat in a quagmire, with one pressbox observer eventually opining that Gilmer couldn’t run and Pine Tree couldn’t pass.

Gilmer, however, finally awoke the scoreboard operator when fleet running back Trillyon Butler screamed 14 yards around right end with 1:55 left in the inaugural quarter.

An errant snap on the PAT kick try, however, forced the holder to be cut down while trying to run for two points.

Paradoxically, another earlier hitch in the Buckeye kicking game may have helped lead to this score. A bad snap on a punt sent the ball into the Gilmer end zone, where the punter scurried for the ball and managed to get off a kick that netted all of 13 yards to the Gilmer 30.

Presented a grand opportunity, the Pirate offense promptly stalled on downs and returned the pigskin to Gilmer at the hosts’ 31. McCown immediately heaved passes of 22 and 33 yards before Butler roared into Beulah Land.

The Buckeyes secured another six-pack of points when McCown heaved a 28-yard scoring sling to Brendan Webb with 8:33 left to Music Time. But the kicking game bugaboo surfaced again when Brayden Pate’s PAT kick was blocked after yet another bad snap.

Ironically, the offensive that led to Gilmer’s second TD came after Pine Tree curiously chose to punt from the Buckeye 32 yard-line and saw the snap on that sail over its punter’s head.

He retrieved the ball and got off a kick to the Gilmer 6, only to see the Buckeyes motor 94 yards in seven plays to TD territory, 72 of those yards coming on four McCown missiles.

Pine Tree, though, sniffed the smelling salts and responded with a kickoff return to the Giilmer 38–another woe in the Buckeye kicking game. On the fifth play afterward, abetted by a 1-yard Gilmer penalty, L’Marion Hunter zipped one yard to tally.

Julian Ibarra airlifted the first of his two successful PATs with 5:55 left to Majorette Time.

After Hunter had zipped 31 yards on this possession to the Gilmer 2, and then ensued the one-yard penalty, the Buckeye defense forced the Pirates to take three running plays to gain the final yard.

Later, after a Pine Tree punt to midfield, the Buckeyes cranked out their last scoring surge, reaching the Pirate 24 in four plays before Pate ended the half with a magnificent 41-yard field goal.

After that, though, to quote an old East Texas saying, the defending state titlelists’ sweet milk turned to clabber.

The kicking game once again haunted the hosts as, with the time clock about to run out and cause a delay of game penalty, they hurriedly got off a punt from their own 34. In what was likely the game-turning play, Pirate Kalli Deckard returned it a bewildering 74 yards to the 5-yard-line even though Gilmer was found to have 12 men on the field! (That penalty was, unsurprisingly, declined.)

The Buckeye defense again hardened, forcing the Pirates back to the 7 in three plays. But on fourth down, Cates whipped those 7 yards on a quarterback draw, then ran to his left for the tying 2-point conversion with 28 seconds left in the third quarter.

The visitors’ game-winning convoy was a 96-yard, eight-play trip that ended with a show-stopper.

Actually, as one pressbox observer noted, it was 99 yards for, after a 57-yard Gilmer punt to the PT 4, the visitors promptly lost three yards on a fumble.

But a 27-yard pass immediately ensued, and five rushing plays took the Pirates to their 48, where Cates suddenly heaved a long-distance 52-yard TD to Jordan Taylor for the knockout punch.

Gilmer, now having to go for it on fourth down from its own 33, beheld McCown fumble away to the visitors at the 20–the game’s lone turnover.

The Buckeyes did manage to block Ibarra’s 41-yard field goal try with less than 1:50 left, and frantically got to the Pirate 48, only to behold McCown fumble away again to Seth Mcfarland at the PT 44 with 54 seconds left, letting Pine Tree run out the clock.

And thus did the visitors plant the Jolly Roger flag in the middle of Jeff Traylor Stadium, thus despoiling the defending state champions’ 2024 debut before Gilmer visits Chapel Hill next Friday.