Gilmer 59, Spring Hill 28
By Elwyn Henderson
The 5-3, 2-1 in District 7-4A DII Gilmer Buckeyes returned to Jeff Traylor Stadium in Gilmer for the final time in the 2024 season last Friday night as they hosted the 2-6, 1-2 Spring Hill Panthers. It was a big night since it was Senior Night and the seniors were recognized as they were participating in their final game at home.
The Buckeyes came into the contest in second place in district after their loss to Pleasant Grove in Texarkana on Oct. 25. This game was just what the team needed to get back on the winning track. The Panthers played spirited football but just couldn’t hang with the Buckeyes. When the game ended the scoreboard read Gilmer 59, Spring Hill 28. The Buckeyes will finish up Phase 2 with the final district game on the road, as they will travel to Paris to take on another group of Panthers at North Lamar. Spring Hill concludes with a home game against Pittsburg and will make the playoffs as the fourth place team with a win against the Pirates.
Gilmer won the coin toss and elected to receive as the game got underway. Brady Meyer kicked the ball onside to the Gilmer 46. Max Walker recovered for the Buckeyes and began their first possession at that point.
It took just 1 play for the Buckeyes to find the end zone as Trill Butler ran around left end and down the sideline into the end zone with 11:47 left in the first quarter. Brayden Pate’s PAT was wide left but Gilmer led 6-0.
The Pate kickoff after the score was returned to the Panther 12 where Travis Allen brought his offense out.
Allen led his team the 88 yards into the end zone in 13 plays, all on the ground, that took 5:51 off the clock. Meyer’s extra point try was wide right and the score was tied at 6-6.
Another onside kick was caught by Walker at the Gilmer 45 and Brady McCown brought the Gilmer offense on the field for the first time.
The offense moved the 55 yards into the end zone for a score in 1:53 and 5 plays. The score came on a beautiful McCown 39-yard TD pass to Cadon Tennison with 4:03 left in the opening frame. Pate’s extra point try was good and Gilmer led 13-6.
Pate’s next kickoff was returned to the Panther 13 where Allen led his charges back on the field again. The Black Flag defense forced a three-and-out and after a Hudson Bartell punt Gilmer was back in business at the Panther 45.
The offense moved the ball 51 yards down to the SH 4, but a fourth down McCown pass fell incomplete and the ball turned over on downs with 11:29 left in the first half.
The visitors moved the ball deep into Gilmer territory and looked as though they might well tie the game, but the Black Flag forced a fumble and Zade Taylor recovered at the Gilmer 14.
It took the offense just 2 plays to find the end zone again. McCown ran for 3 yards on first down and that was followed up by an 83-yard pass and run down the right sideline to Brendan Webb with 6:20 left in the half. Pate’s point after try was good and Gilmer extended the lead to 20-6. The drive was 2 plays, 86 yards and took just 49 seconds.
After a fair catch at the 5 the Panthers began their next possession at their 25. After gaining 2 yards on first down they were called for an illegal participation when a Panther player contacted a Buckeye player after he lost his helmet. The Panthers ended up having to punt at their 15 and the kick only traveled to the SH 30 and the Gilmer offense went on the attack again.
This time it took just 3 plays and 59 seconds to find the end zone again. The score came on a 24-yard jet sweep by Webb with 3:10 left in the half. Pate’s extra point was good and Gilmer was in full control, leading 27-10.
The ensuing kickoff was fair caught and the Panthers set up on the 25 once again. It took just 1 play for them to score their second TD of the night, as Trevor Allen ran 75 yards into the end zone with 2:57 left in the half. The visitors used a trick play on the extra point as quarterback Travis Allen, the holder, jumped up when the ball was snapped and threw to Levi Mackey in the end zone for a 2-point conversion, bringing the score to 27-14.
The score made the Buckeyes mad and they came roaring back after recovering an onside kick at their 49. It took just 3 pass plays to get into the end zone. The score came on a 16-yard TD pass to Webb from McCown with 2:11 left in the half. A try for a 2-point conversion out of the swinging gate by Alec Sims fell short but Gilmer advanced the lead to 33-14.
Pate booted a pooch kick that was returned to the SH 49 and quarterback Travis Allen brought his team out hoping to score again before the halftime break. It was not in the cards though, as the Black Flag forced another three-and-out. Bartell’s punt went from his 38 to the Gilmer 17 and was returned to the 26 by Webb.
McCown brought the offense out for their final possession of the half. The Bucks ran out the clock and ended up the half on the SH 42.
Pate kicked off to begin the second half. His kick traveled to the Spring Hill 18 where it rolled out of bounds. The Panthers chose to take the ball at their 30.
The Black Flag forced another three-and-out and the punt on 4th down traveled to the Gilmer 19 where the offense took the field for the first time in the half.
McCown led the offense on an 8-play, 81-yard drive that consumed 1:21 off the third quarter clock. The drive ended with a 1-yard TD run by Butler with 8:44 left in the third period. Pate’s PAT kick was no good, but Gilmer led 39-14.
The kickoff was fair caught and SH began at their 25. It was a quick three-and-out and after another punt that was fair caught by Webb Gilmer set up on their 42 with 7:16 left in the quarter. The offense went three-and-out, losing 5 yards in 2 plays followed by an incomplete pass, and Pate punted the ball from the Gilmer 48 down to the Panther 14 where it went out of bounds.
After offer three-and-out a punt was returned from the Gilmer 43 to the SH 48 and the visitors were penalized 15 yards for a face mask and the offense went back to work from there.
It took just 3 plays and 56 seconds to find the end zone yet again. The score came on a 20-yard run by Solomon Jackson with 2:26 left in the quarter. Pate’s extra point kick split the uprights and the blowout was on with Gilmer up 46-14.
After a fair catch on the kickoff the Panthers set up once again on their 25. On the first play of the possession Trevor Allen ran around right end and down the sideline 75 yards in 14 seconds for a Spring Hill score with 2:12 left in the third stanza. The point after kick was good and the Buckeye lead was now 46-21.
This kickoff was deep and went out of bounds and Gilmer took the ball on their 30. The team got into the end zone again on a 23-yard pass from McCown to Trace Haynes. The 70-yard drive was 6 plays and 1:35. Pate’s extra point was good and Gilmer led 53-21.
The kickoff after the score was fair caught once again and the Panthers set up on their 25. They held onto the ball for 8 plays but a 4th down run fell 1 yard short and the ball turned over on downs at the Gilmer 30.
It took just 1 play and 15 seconds for the Bucks to get into the end zone again. Solomon Jackson ran 70 yards around the left side and into the end zone, holding off three would-be tacklers. Pate’s extra point try was wide right, but Gilmer led 59-21 with 8:18 left in the game.
Once again, a fair catch set the Panthers up on their 25 for their next possession. The visitors continued to play yard, moving the 75 yards in 5:38 and 11 plays. The drive was aided by a 54-yard run. The score came on a 3-yard TD run by Ventura with 2:40 left in the game. Meyer’s extra point was good, bringing the score to 59-28.
Gilmer’s final drive of the game began at their 30 after the kickoff went out of bounds. They ran 5 plays and the clock ran out, moving the Bucks to 3-1 in district play.
We visited with a very happy Coach Alan Metzel after the big win and began by asking if he would agree that Brady McCown had his best game of the year.
“Oh, no doubt, yeah; he played well. He was on point and multiple times he went to his second, third and even fourth read at times. He’s really getting his feet on the ground and knows where everybody is and that internal clock is there now where he knows when to move and go to the next guy. He did a great job of putting the ball on people in the game.”
We mentioned that the offense performed almost to perfection and the line did a great job, allowing the team to get the bad taste out of their mouths from last week, and the coach agreed.
“Exactly, exactly; you know, it’s a testimony to the guys in that field house to just go to work, to just come back on Monday and go ‘okay, here we go and we’ll get this thing rolling again’ and they did. That’s leadership, that’s captains, that’s seniors, that’s guys who’ve been through wars before and they did it. You know, you come out on your first play and you go score. We felt good, we felt good about that play and you’re making a statement to yourself of ‘this is what we’re going to do tonight.’ (We had) many big plays tonight and that’s what we wanted to see.”
We also brought up the fact that Spring Hill does have some talent and they never gave up and fought the whole game, and Coach Metzel said, “They did, they battled to the end and you want that in every program. He’s teaching his kids, we’re working our kids, kids are getting better and the game of football is the best place to be taught. His quarterback does a great job of reading the triple-option. When you have somebody who can read that it puts a lot of pressure on you and he did a good job tonight.”
We also talked about the fact that due to the success on offense a lot of players got in the game and got experience and the same thing happened on the defensive side as well.
“We played a lot of people tonight and we’re purposeful in that. As we move forward we’re going to need that. Of course, we’ve had a lot of guys who’ve had to step up this year due to injuries. It was good tonight, last home game and there were some seniors that got quality time out there on the field and they won’t ever forget that. It’s special memories.”
We told the coach that when we visited with Coach Joslin on Monday he said he had some things he thought his team could do that would be successful and we asked if the Panthers did anything new he wasn’t expecting or if they just executed well at times.
“Well, they did have good execution. They did do a few things at times where they were outnumbering us on the side and we had to make some adjustments. Typically when you’re talking about the triple-option it’s just everybody doing their assignment, and so one guy messes up, they hit the crease and off you go. That happened several times tonight, but like I said and you already brought it up, we’re playing a lot of people and so that’s important. Guys are having to grow and have their feet put to the fire and that’s all part of the growing process.”
We finished up by asking if he was glad to be finishing up Phase 2 next week at North Lamar when the regular season comes to a close.
“Yes, and we want to finish strong. We want to come back and get to work just as focused Monday morning as we were this past Monday morning. We understand that we’ve got things that we’ve got to do. We have a standard that we want to play to and so that’s going to be our focus all week long and we’ll go up and give a great effort on Friday.”
There is no doubt that North Lamar is much weaker than Spring Hill so the Buckeyes should get a lot of quality time for many of the backups next week as they close out the regular season and get ready to begin the playoffs on Nov. 15.
e finishing up Phase 2 next week at North Lamar when the regular season comes to a close.
“Yes, and we want to finish strong. We want to come back and get to work just as focused Monday morning as we were this past Monday morning. We understand that we’ve got things that we’ve got to do. We have a standard that we want to play to and so that’s going to be our focus all week long and we’ll go up and give a great effort on Friday.”
There is no doubt that North Lamar is much weaker than Spring Hill so the Buckeyes should get a lot of quality time for many of the backups next week as they close out the regular season and get ready to begin the playoffs on Nov. 15.