Pine Tree 22, Gilmer 15

By Elwyn Henderson

  The Gilmer Buckeyes began the defense of their 2023 Class 4A DII State Championship at Jeff Traylor Stadium in Gilmer last Friday night, taking on the Class 4A DI Pine Tree Pirates. When the clock reached zeros in the fourth quarter the Bucks got shocked, dropping the game 22-15.
Gilmer received to get the game underway. Alex Mireles kicked the ball away to Brendan Webb who took the ball at the goalline and returned it out to the Gilmer 27 to start the game.
Brady McCown began the game at quarterback. Pine Tree’s defense forced a three-and-out. Brayden Pate hit a 43-yard punt down to the Pine Tree 22.
The Black Flag defense returned the favor and Gilmer began their second drive at their 46 in great field possession. Unfortunately, a 4th down pass from McCown to Webb fell incomplete and the Pirates began their second drive at their 39.
The Black Flag forced another three-and-out and after a 45-yard punt Gilmer went back on offense at their 13. The Pine Tree defense forced another three-and-out and on the snap before the punt the ball sailed way over Pate’s head. Fortunately, he managed to grab the ball near the back of the end zone and get a kick away. The punt went to the Gilmer 30 and the Pirates set up in great position.
The Black Flag forced a 4th down and 11 at the 31 on the possession and a pass into the end zone fell incomplete and the Bucks took over with 2:48 left in the opening quarter. It took just 3 plays for Gilmer to find the end zone with 1:55 left in the quarter, putting the home team up 6-0. Thanks to a bad snap on the extra point, Pate tried to run around left end but couldn’t get into the end zone. The drive included a 22-yard pass from McCown to Geramiah Noble, a 33-yard pass to Webb, and a 14-yard TD run by Trillyon Butler.
The ensuing kickoff by Webb was taken by Brandon Smith at the goal line and he returned the ball to the Gilmer 46. The Black Flag gave up one first down and then forced a punt on the next series that was downed at the Gilmer 6 with 10:49 left in the first half.
McCown led the team on a 7-play, 94-yard TD drive that took 2:16 off the clock. The PAT attempt by Pate was blocked, making the score 12-0 in favor of the Buckeyes. The score came on a 28-yard pass from McCown to Webb with 8:33 left in the half.
Pate’s next kick went to the PT 26 and was returned to the Gilmer 38 and the Pirates set up in great shape for their next possession. On the second play of the possession, La’Marion Hunter ran 31 yards to the Buckeye 2 and after a personal foul for a face mask the ball was moved to the 1. The defense held for 2 plays and on a third down Hunter ran into the end zone from the 1. Mireles kicked the PAT and the visitors cut the gap to 12-7 with 8:33 left in the half. The drive was 5 plays, 38 yards and took 2:48 off the clock.
Following the next kickoff the Buckeyes began at their 30. Gilmer ran 10 plays and took 3:47 off the clock, but a 4th down pass in the end zone for Webb was just out of his reach, turning the ball over at the Pirate 26.
The Black Flag forced another three-and-out and after a 31-yard punt the Buckeyes started their final drive of the half at midfield with exactly 1 minute left. McCown tossed a 19-yard pass to Noble on the first play of the possession, but on the next series Pine Tree’s defense stiffened, forcing a Pate 41-yard field goal as time expired. The kick was good and Gilmer led 15-7 at the half. The Pirates were called for leaping on the kick, resulting in a 15-yard personal foul that was set to be assessed on the second half kickoff.
Pate kicked away to begin the third stanza from the Pirate 45 onside to the PT 30. Three Buckeyes were close to recovering the ball but it went out of bounds and the Pirates set up at their 35 after a 5-yard illegal kick.
Matt Cates led his unit on the field to start the final two quarters. The Black Flag forced a three-and-out. A punt was returned to the Gilmer 20 with 9:22 left in the third quarter. The Bux managed one first down and then had to punt from their 44 on the next series. Pate’s kick traveled down to the Pirate 9 for 47 yards and Cates brought his offense on the field again with 7:06 left in the third quarter.
The visitors picked up two first downs and then the defense shut the door and forced a punt from the PT 34 to the Gilmer 28 where the offense hit the field again for the Buckeyes with 3:39 left in the quarter.
The Bucks went three-and-out and Pate’s punt was returned 67 yards down to the Gilmer 4 with 1:06 left in the quarter. The first play resulted in a 3-yard loss and the second and third down plays were incomplete passes, but on 4th down Cates ran into the end zone for a 7-yard TD pass, bringing the score to 15-13 with 28 seconds left in the quarter. The Pirates went for a 2-point conversion. Cates ran around left end and into the end zone, tying the score at 15-15.
The ensuing kickoff was taken by Atavian Ector at the 1 and he returned the ball up to the 18 and McCown brought the offense back to the field. The offense picked up 1 first down and then Pate nailed a 57-yard punt down the Pirate 4.
On the first play of the possession there was a fumble to the 1 but the Pirates recovered and on the next play Cates tossed a 26-yard pass, avoiding a rush to do so. The drive was eight plays, 99 yards and took 5:00 off the clock and ended with a 48-yard TD pass from Cates to Jordan Taylor. Julian Ibarra nailed the extra point and the Pirates led 22-15.
The Mirales kick was taken at the Buckeye 2 and returned up to the 30. The offense struggled and on 4th down they had to go for the first down. There was a loss of 5 on a run and then the ball was fumbled away and the Pirates recovered and took over at the Gilmer 20.
The defense came up big and forced a 41-yard field goal. The kick was blocked with 1:49 left and Gilmer got one last chance to tie the game at their 23.
Thanks to a 5-yard penalty on PT, Gilmer managed to get a first down and keep hope alive. The Bucks managed one more first down and then a fumble was recovered at the PT 45. The Pirates ran 2 plays and ran out the clock, garnering the 22-15 victory and shocking the home crowd.
We visited with a disappointed Coach Alan Metzel after the game and asked him his thoughts on what happened.
“Well honestly, first of all, Pine Tree did a great job. Congratulations to them. Coach Bachman did a great job and great job for his program. Having said that, what we did not do, and this is on me, I take complete responsibility. We were way too sloppy on our special teams. You know, we lost two points early (missed extra points due to holding issues). Obviously, we were able to flip the point thing on the field goal, but you would have liked to have been up more than just gaining back what you missed. We didn’t cover well on our kickoffs. We had a couple of injuries and we didn’t handle that well getting in the next guy, putting us in a bad spot on several of our coverage units. All of that, that’s on me. I accept it. I don’t like it and that will have to get fixed next week. It’s not an ‘oh, in four weeks.’ That is a now; it’s a now.
“There’s some things on our offense where I feel like we left some plays out there that if we’d have just executed a little better here or there, we’d have put some more points on the board. I knew we were going to take a little while, but the sloppiness on the special teams to me is what cost us the game tonight, and it’s just unacceptable.”
We asked Coach Metzel if the Pirates changed up anything in the third quarter as quarterback Cates was completing a lot of long passes, and he said, “We didn’t get to him as well, you know, in the second half and when you run a play-action pass and you send a guy as deep as he was, you’ve got to get pressure. That really stretches your DBs. We’ve got to get to him and a couple of times we gave him way too much time. He was able to get the ball out; he was very accurate, made some really nice long throws, which put us in a bind. Again, on us; we’ve got to be able to put pressure on him and not give the quarterback that much time.”
We asked even though he hated to lose the game that he would have the team’s full attention when watching the film and in a way if that could end up being good for the team.
“We’ll spin it that way. We worked it out last year where we had adversity and you saw how you can come out of that, but you have to come out of that. It’s not going to just fix itself. It takes taking your energy, selflessness; all those things you’ve got to move up to a higher level. Until that happens, it’s not a good thing. If those things, if tonight spurs that, then in the long run it’ll be a positive.”
We pointed out that McCown was making good progress and threw some good passes in the game and the coach replied, “He’s making very good progress. He’s making good strides, you know. You know, Cadon (Tennison) has been out with a hamstring and has not been able to get much practice in for the last several weeks and so Brady had to come on and do it, and for a guy who’s just learning our offense, I think he’s doing a tremendous job. Obviously, there’s plays—we had a chance there right before half to get a fade ball to Brendan Webb and just didn’t quite hit it. I’m really proud of the effort he gave and his willingness to just stick in there. You know, we had a shot, he just couldn’t execute it.”
One player who did a tremendous job all night was Geramiah Noble who was all over the field. We asked Coach Metzel his thoughts on Noble’s performance in the game.
“Geramiah is someone you can just write a feature story on every week. He’s an amazing young man. His grit, his toughness; he is selfless. He never complains if the ball doesn’t come his way and when it does he makes the play. He’s just a fantastic young man.”
We pointed out that even though the Buckeyes lost the game, it was a MAJOR improvement over the opening game last year, and the coach agreed.
“I mentioned at the Booster Club on Wednesday, I knew that our defense was much further along than they were last year, and they are. Obviously, we’ve got things to work on. I told everybody there I feel like our offense, we’ve got some growing to do with consistency and putting points on the board. I did not expect us to have the troubles we had in the kicking game, and like I said, that has got to change, and it will.”
We concluded by asking the coach what he wanted to say to the Army of Buckeyes after the loss.
“I know they’re disappointed in coming away with not winning and so is our team. It hurts us. We hurt together when we don’t obtain the goal that we’re trying to achieve. I appreciate the way they rally around guys even during adversity and it’s going to be important that they keep encouraging our guys and going ‘hey, man, we’ve seen you do it before, let’s do it again.’ Now we’ve got to go to work.”
The Mirror would like to remind everyone we were 3-3 after the district opener last season and ran off 10 wins in a row and won State! Don’t be negative around our players and support them. We have an excellent coaching staff that will get the ship righted sooner rather than later and all will be good. And there is a bit of satisfaction in knowing that #1 Carthage fell to Kilgore in Carthage 20-15, and if you didn’t hear, Bellville lost 49-30 to Celina, so #1, #2 and #3 all lost in 4A DII tonight. The Buckeyes are in good shape and will bounce back just like they did last season. Keep the FAITH! #LeGacy
The Bucks hit the road next Friday night when they travel to Tyler to take on the Chapel Hill Bulldogs in a 7:30 p.m. contest. Please make the effort and make the trip to support our Buckeyes!