VAN VANQUISHES GILMER | Buckeyes 1-1 in district, three games left, but PG next / Analysis by PHILLIP WILLIAMS
VAN – Rumor hath it this morning that the scoreboard operator in Friday night’s Gilmer-Van gridiron gunfight is undergoing treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome after having to alter the point totals innumerous times in an Ode to Offense.
The Van Vandals vanquished Gilmer, 48-38, in a District 7-4A Division II dustup in which each army toted up an offense that seemed virtually omnipotent during much of the match. In fact, Van tallied on the first eight of its 10 offensives, never punted nor disgorged a turnover all night, and Gilmer procured points on its first four possessions as each squad debilitated the other’s defense.
The offenses were both so prolific that neither transferred a turnover. As it turned out, however, the Vandals’ offense had slipped a few more bullets into their firearms than their visitors.
The main ammunition was workhorse runner Da’Quavion Williams, who whisked the pigskin to three touchdowns; quarterback Rawly Hinch, who hoofed for two TDs and heaved for a third; and kicker Alex Aceves, who successfully airlifted all eight of his point-making kicks–two field goals and six PATs.
This surmounted a command performance by Gilmer quarterback Zade Taylor (who missed a short portion of the game with an injury before returning), as he fired all five Gilmer TDs, four of them to Solomon Jackson.
Van, trailing 24-17 in the second quarter, rebounded to lead 27-24 at Twirling Time (notching a field goal at half’s end), but lengthened it to 41-24 after taking the second-half kickoff. That 24-point spurt proved beyond the visitors’ reach to overcome, though Gilmer scored first and last in this duel.
On the first possession in which they didn’t score, the Buckeyes had reached the Van 4 in the half’s closing minutes, only to see Taylor sacked for a 10-yard loss to the 14 and give the ball to the hosts on downs. This may well have been the fight’s turning point as, from there, Van launched a time-crunching drive that resulted in the half-ending field goal, followed by three Vandal TDs before Gilmer could score again.
It was Van Coach Jared Moffatt’s first time to view his Vandals triumph over Gilmer in his six games against the Buckeyes, and left the hosts at 5-2 overall, 2-1 in district disputations.
Gilmer, normally a contender for the state blue ribbon, faltered to a totally aberrant 2-5 overall, 1-1 in loop wargames, but still has a chance to reach Playoff Paradise. Next Friday, though, the Buckeyes host a volcanic foe in favored Pleasant Grove at 7 p.m.
Friday’s downfall cinched what will be only the Buckeyes’ second non-winning regular season in 26 years, a shock since there were moon-high expectations for the team in pre-season. Injuries and a highly vulnerable defense which has ceded anywhere from 25-66 points in every game have appeared to overpower a perennially powerful team.
Nonetheless, Gilmer took the opening kickoff Friday and nabbed a 3-0 lead on Miguel Castaneda’s 20-yard field goal with 9:13 left in the inaugural quarter. (He would also successfully pummel all five PATs).
Van then began the torrent of touchdowns by the two teams as Hinch flung a 17-yarder to Kace Lovett with 8:05 left in the first, creating the first of the several times the lead changed hands before intermission.
Gilmer returned fire rapidly, however, as, on the first play after the ensuing kickoff, Taylor unleashed a 66-yard TD throw to Jackson with 7:57 to go.
Williams then began his touchdown trips, whooshing 24 yards up the middle with 3:51 still left in the period before Gilmer closed out the first-quarter flurry with Taylor’s 34-yard long-distance hurl to Jackson with 1:33 left.
Trailing 17-14, Van tied it on Aceves’ 26-yard field goal with 9:20 left to Music Time before Gilmer re-gained the lead for the final time on yet another Taylor-Jackson act of aerial artistry, this one covering 12 yards on a fourth-down play with 8:23 to go to the break.
That, though, is when Van started its 24-point splurge that beaned the Buckeyes.
First, Williams bopped a yard for a TD with 5:07 left in the half before the accurate Aceven pounded a 35-yard field goal on the half’s final play to let his team lead 27-24 at Drill Team Time.
Van took the second-half kickoff–an unsuccessful onside try by Gilmer– and motored right downfield to tally on Hinch’s 2-yard hop up the middle with 7:39 left in the third.
Gilmer then had to punt–the game’s first–and Williams soon made another incursion of the end zone from 10 yards out with 4:17 left in the third.
Now down 41-24, to their credit, the Buckeyes still put up their dukes. The Devastating Duo of Taylor and Jackson produced another TD bomb of 28 yards, and the PAT closed the gap to 41-31 with 34 seconds left in the third.
But Gilmer’s tottering defense, which gave up points on Van’s first eight possessions, would do so the last time when Hinch rumbled 42 yards down the left side with 10:36 left.
The Buckeyes crawled back into it on Taylor’s 33-yard long airmail package to Gauge Trossbach with 8:20 left. But after another failed onside kick, Van managed to drain the clock to 2:23 left before finally yielding the pigskin on downs at the Gilmer 17.
The Buckeyes got to their 42 before dropping a fourth-down pass and Van then knelt twice to run out the clock, having scored on all but that possession and the one before it.
Gilmer, with the East Texas Yamboree carnival in full swing back home, had gamely tried to take the Vandals for a ride. But on this night, the Buckeyes got hit by a fast-moving Van.