The Gilmer High Bobcats nearly pulled an improbable upset in the first round of the football state playoffs.
GHS was seeded No. 28 in the playoff field of 32 teams and traveled to No. 5 North Hall last Friday. The heavily favored region champion Trojans quickly discovered they had their work cut out, and there was no easy path to victory.
Gilmer battled back to tie the score in the fourth quarter, and a missed field goal at the end of regulation forced overtime. North Hall breached the goal line for the third time, and its defense made the game-winning stop on fourth down to end the Bobcats’ season, 21-14.
Head coach Paul Standard had plenty of praise to heap on the Bobcats for their efforts on the night.
“Our guys were not only prepared by our coaches, but more importantly, they went on the road to play a good team and played their tails off,” he said. “That hasn’t always happened, and I’m just so proud. That has got to carry over (to next season). They did everything but win the game, and I can’t ask for anything more out of a kid than what we got. It was awesome other than we didn’t win.”
The teams matched each other yard for yard. The only difference was all 343 yards of Gilmer’s offense came on the ground, and the Bobcats did not attempt a pass. Each team forced a turnover, and there was no shortage of flags as 31 total penalties were called.
“We were able to open up our offense much more,” Standard said. “We ran the true triple option offense from the first whistle to the last whistle. (Quarterback) Bo (Cronic) did a really fine job of executing against a defense that has played well. They had won eight games, and I think they were doggone lucky to win their ninth game.
“Our defense has really grown up, and it showed up. North Hall has scored points on everybody, and I’m talking about running through them. I think they were a little surprised, and our guys played tremendously aggressively on defense and ran to the ball. We had a lot of great-effort tackles.”
NHHS found success with short, quick passes. The Trojans had much less success when they attempted to pass down field from their spread attack. Their first drive of the night ended on downs before the Bobcats forced a pair of NHHS punts.
Meanwhile, the Bobcats went right down the field on 10 plays on their opening possession. Starting from their 30, Cronic, fullback Wyatt Stokes and wingbacks Hunter Britain, Douglas Callihan and Kyle Cowart carved up the Trojans’ defense with consecutive runs. GHS picked up five first downs, and Callihan’s 2-yard touchdown run put GHS on the board.
Carter Gearhart’s first of two successful extra points gave Gilmer a 7-0 lead with 4:02 left in the first quarter.
Like the Trojans, Gilmer punted on its second and third drives. North Hall’s fourth series of the half covered 63 yards and started with 2:49 left on the second quarter clock. NHHS had completions of 13, 12 and 16 yards and earned three first downs. On the ninth play, an 11-yard touchdown pass evened the score ahead of the half.
GHS stalled on downs at the Trojans’ 33 to start the third quarter.
An ensuing Trojan pass appeared to be intercepted by Cowart, but referees deemed it was dual possession, and gave the reception to NHHS. The Cats forced North Hall’s third punt of the night. On the kick, it appeared a Trojan was touching the ball with half of his body in the end zone, but referees spotted the ball at Gilmer’s 1-yard line.
Four plays later, wingback Grant Ballew fumbled and NHHS took over at the Cats’ 25. The four-play drive was capped with a 9-yard touchdown pass for a 14-7 lead with 30 seconds left in the third quarter.
GHS answered right back. Britain took a hand-off across the right side and got blocks from linemen Logan Hightower and Blane Banks to spring a 72-yard touchdown run.
With the score tied 14-14 with 9:23 left in regulation, NHHS benefited from a pair of 15-yard GHS penalties. However, its 33-yard field goal was wide left.
NHS forced a Gilmer punt and regained possession with 1:58 to play. On the drive’s fifth play, Cowart intercepted a pass at the 7 and returned to the 35 where he was hit and the ball was jarred loose. It rolled all the way to the 50 where it was recovered by Callihan.
A NHHS penalty on the play advanced the ball to the Trojans’ 35. GHS set up a 42-yard field goal with a second on the clock, and Gearhart’s kick was just wide left. However, he was roughed on the play and injured. GHS was spotted 15 more yards, but Gearhart had to come out of the game because he was checked by trainers.
Sophomore kicker Miguel Reynoso entered the game, and his 29-yard try smacked the left upright.
In overtime, each team received a possession at the defense’s 15-yard line. NHHS scored on an 8-yard pass and made the extra point.
On Gilmer’s possession, the Cats faced fourth down and 1 from the 6 and Callihan was stopped short as NHHS celebrated its victory.
The loss dropped Gilmer’s record to 5-6. Stokes finished with 105 yards to give him 1,015 for the season. In addition to Banks and Hightower, Jake Hice, Sam Jones, Jack Puckett and Austin Green made up the offensive line. Tight ends Charles Norman and Robert Pim blocked almost exclusively all season, and Standard referred to the group as “one of the best offensive lines I’ve ever had at any school I’ve coached at (in 40 years).”
“I looked up at the stands late in the game, and what a great crowd,” Standard said. “Sure we would have liked to have had a better record and be playing another week. I felt like we certainly deserve to be. We had a good year to close out the careers of some great seniors. This is only the fifth time in the school’s 69 years that they’ve had three straight seasons of at least five wins. These seniors are part of that history, and we return a good nucleus of kids.
“I’m proud of our kids and proud of our community. I’m excited to get started on 2025.”
Season assessment
“The season started out crazy,” said Standard. “It was delayed and we had to play one of our biggest rivals on a Saturday morning. We learned a lot about ourselves this season. We had our first four-year group of seniors. I’m just going to tell you, if you play for us for four years, you’ve accomplished something because it wasn’t easy. We work our kids, and they did a great job of leading us.
“I think we had more than our fair share of adversity this year. We overcame turnover issues that we really haven’t had. We also had to deal with injuries to some key guys, and our kids continued to fight. They played hard every single Friday night. The week we had off before we found out we made the playoffs, we practiced, and our kids stayed tuned in knowing we might not get in. The beauty of it was our guys wanted to keep playing football.”
Standard files complaint
For the first time in 24 seasons as a head coach, Standard has filed an “unsatisfactory officiating report” with the Georgia High School Association.
He believed there were egregiously incorrect calls that had a direct impact on the game’s outcome. He further stated that actions by players following the whistle were not properly addressed, which prolonged said actions throughout the game.
“There were some huge calls ... (what they called) the dual possession, not even close,” Standard said. “Kyle Cowart should be credited with two interceptions. I’ll never blame a loss on the officials, but I thought that play was huge to the outcome of the game. I thought there was misconduct play that was not addressed that allowed the game to get out of hand.
“I’m disappointed with the application of the rules and disappointed they didn’t address some of the dirty play that continuously went on. They told players not to do it instead of flagging them. Then in the third quarter they told me ‘If you don’t get a hold of some of our players, we’re going to start flagging them.’ I told them, ‘You should have been doing that in the first quarter.’”