Just when it appeared their hopes were dashed, the Gilmer High Bobcats came back.
GHS hosted the East Jackson Eagles last Friday in a football game that saw eight lead changes and four touchdowns scored in the final quarter. A late Eagle score was answered by the Bobcat offense, and when they absolutely needed a defensive stop, they got one to preserve a 41-34 victory.
GHS head coach Paul Standard was proud of his team’s resilience following the win.
“Could’ve quit a hundred times over, and that’s the one thing I take from this game, is that our kids did not quit,” he said. “They did not point fingers, which they easily could have done, and (that’s) partly because it’s the kind of kids they are and partly because our coaches wouldn’t let them.
“I’m proud of them. We had some kids who really played their hearts out.”
Both teams depended on the run and Gilmer rushed for 298 yards. Kobe Stonecipher led the way with 196 and three touchdowns and added another score with a kick return.
East Jackson totaled 256 rushing yards. The centerpiece of the Eagles’ attack was quarterback Tyler Crow, who did much more running than passing. Crow was in the shotgun all night and gashed the Bobcats’ defense for 170 yards on the ground, and 124 came in the second half.
GHS emerged from the halftime locker room with a 19-14 lead. The Cats looked to seize control of the game to start the third quarter but fumbled on the sixth play of the drive.
The Eagles pulled ahead on the 10th play of their 52-yard drive when Crow rolled to his left and threw the ball back across the field to Talan Jackson for a 36-yard touchdown. The score moved the Eagles ahead 21-19 with 3:48 left in the third, but their lead did not last long.
On the ensuing kickoff, Stonecipher gathered the ball at his 11 and raced 89 yards untouched to the end zone. Quarterback Seth Darling passed to Dominic Tarantino for the two-point conversion and 27-21 Bobcat lead.
The purple and white faithful were back on their feet on the first play of the Eagles’ next drive when Gilmer’s Blake Reece was there to take the ball away. Reece swatted a pass down from his defensive end position, caught it and returned it 19 yards to the Eagles’ 14.
GHS eventually faced fourth down and one from the 5, and the ball fell to the ground after Stonecipher could not haul in a pitch. However, he was able to run back, gather the ball at the 10 and loop around to the corner to pick up two yards for a first down.
Darling took the ball in the end zone from a yard away three plays later. The conversion failed, but GHS extended its lead to 33-21 with 11:05 left in the game.
The Eagles were not ready to go quietly, and Crow did much of the work on the Eagles’ next two drives. The first possession started at the Cats’ 16 and needed nine plays to reach pay dirt. Crow accounted for 72 rushing yards on five carries, and his last covered 5 yards for a touchdown.
The point after cut the Cats’ lead to 33-25 with 6:48 to play. GHS was unable to gain a first down on its next possession and punted for the first time.
The Eagles went to work from their 45. On the third play, running back Quay Hill ran for 28 yards down to the Bobcats’ 18. A GHS personal foul advanced the ball to the nine, and Crow rushed consecutively, and his final carry was a 3-yard touchdown run to cap the five-play possession.
Tarantino was there to apply pressure on the two-point conversion and forced an incompletion as EJHS slipped ahead 34-33 with only 2:59 left in the game.
Undeterred, GHS took over at its 25 and hit a trick play on first down. On the play, Darling and Stonecipher made their way to the right, while Tarantino crossed their paths in the backfield. Tarantino took Darling’s pitch for a reverse around the left corner for a 30-yard gain.
Gilmer then suffered an 8-yard setback when Darling was sacked on the next play. However, GHS made up ground immediately when Stonecipher took a sweep to the left for a 33-yard pickup behind blocks from Mason Smith and Blane Banks.
Following a 3-yard run by Brock Titus, Stonecipher took a pitch to the right and into the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown. The successful two-point conversion pass to Tarantino gave GHS a 41-34 lead with 1:27 on the clock.
“That’s the thing about this offense; you don’t have to throw it. We ran the triple and pitched it and ran the reverse. The plays that scored were from our base offense,” Standard said of the Bobcats’ game-winning drive.
Gilmer’s ensuing short kickoff shot out of bounds, and East Jackson received prime field position at its 47. After two short gains and an incompletion, Gilmer’s defense rose to the occasion on fourth down and seven and held Crow just shy of a first down.
“I was pleased with our defense early, but then we struggled. We held them when we had to hold them and that’s when it counted,” Standard said.
“Offensively at times we could have scored more if we don’t fumble it and make some mental mistakes. Our quarterback continues to grow up in this offense. And the people in the stands won’t know, but he made some clutch plays when it was crunch time, and I’m so proud of him for it.”
Before the second half dramatics, EHJS scored first on the game’s opening drive with a 59-yard touchdown pass to cap a four-play, 65-yard possession. GHS responded with a 72-yard drive that needed four plays and also culminated with a 59-yard touchdown run by Stonecipher around the left side.
Gilmer’s third drive lasted five plays and spanned 70 yards. It was Stonecipher once again, and this time he struck from 24-yards out through the right side of the line. A missed extra point put GHS up 13-7 10 seconds into the second quarter.
EJHS answered with a touchdown. The 14-play drive was 85 yards long and moved the Eagles ahead by one point with 3:47 left in the half.
GHS put one more score on the board, and the eight-play, 73-yard drive was highlighted by a 20-yard third down completion and conversion to Tarantino. Darling handled the final 5-yard run for a touchdown ahead of a blocked extra point for a 19-14 GHS lead at the break.
Gilmer is 2-1 overall and will have Friday off. The Cats will return to action Sept. 24 for their region opener at home versus Cherokee Bluff.
Standard addressed the week ahead, saying, “I’m proud for this team and this school. We haven’t had that much excitement in a long time.
“In the off week, we’re going to fix our mistakes, and we’ve got a couple kids banged up and need to get them healed up and concentrate on our JV a little bit. We’re going to give the varsity a couple days off this week because I want them fresh when we start region play.”
JV opens season
The junior varsity Bobcats started their season last Thursday at home against the Lumpkin County Indians. GHS fell behind early and were unable to come back in the end for a 30-20 loss.
Bobcat quarterback Isaac Rellinger scored a touchdown for GHS in the opening quarter, but the Indians tallied four scores for a 23-8 lead at the half.
Bobcat Grant Ballew added a rushing touchdown in the third quarter, and teammate Wyatt Stokes scored in the fourth, though LCHS was able to hold on for a 10-point win.
Defensively for GHS, Charles Norman recovered a fumble forced by Kendall Sanders.
The JV Cats will take the field Thursday at home versus Fannin County at 5:30 p.m.