GILMAN 38, McDONELL 12 - STATEMENT MADE

McDonell Central hit quickly to set an early tone in Friday’s eight-player football showdown between the state’s top two ranked teams. Gilman struck back late in the first quarter and never stopped while earning a impressive and convincing 38-12 win in the contest that may have decided the North Central East Conference title.

Appearing to play a bit tight in the opening moments and down 12-0 just over seven minutes in, the Pirates dug in and put together an 80-yard touchdown drive to answer the Macks’ early scores. That and a defensive stop swung the momentum big-time, and from there the confident Pirates played with a physicality and quiet swagger that, at least in this outing, the second-ranked Macks could not match.

“We played as a team,” senior running back/linebacker Tony Syryczuk said. “Everybody has a responsibility and everybody did it.”

“It was definitely hard seeing that 12-0 up on the board, but we knew we could do it,” said senior Cooper Krug, whose 28-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter broke the game open. “We just dug deeper.”

The Pirates knew coming in that senior running back Dawson Moulton would be central to McDonell’s offensive game plan and he did some damage early. After the Macks forced a Gilman punt to start the game, which was delayed 25 minutes due to pre-game lightning, Moulton got through a hole and accelerated for a 64-yard touchdown on McDonell’s first offensive play. Gilman got one first down before punting again. The Macks got a 30-yard return from Eli Stepp to start their second drive on Gilman’s 34-yard line. Seven plays later, Moulton scored from 9 yards out to make it 12-0 with 4:44 to go in the first quarter.

“They showed us some new formations that we weren’t familiar with,” Krug said. “Once we got those formations down, we adapted and we just made plays when we had to make plays. They came out swinging strong.”

At that point, Moulton already had 95 yards rushing. He only gained 57 more.

“They kinda shocked us a little bit,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “They play fast, but it was more so that we just didn’t have our responsibilities right with some things, so we didn’t have very good gap control early. They did throw a different formation at us that just kind of threw things off. Offensively we had some three and outs. We just couldn’t get that first down. Once we got first downs on that third possession, we got into a little better rhythm of what we wanted to do.”

That all-important third possesssion started with a 16-yard run by Syryczuk. Quarterback Logan Halida swung a short pass to a wide-open Kolby Keepers in the right flat for a 28-yard pickup. Then on third and seven, Halida scrambled to his right, avoided a tackle downfield and scored from 22 yards out. Syryczuk ran in the two-point conversion to cut McDonell’s lead to 12-8 with 1:26 left in the quarter.

McDonell gambled and lost at the end of its next possession, throwing an incomplete pass on a fake punt. Krug broke it up right in front of Gilman’s sideline. The Pirates needed to go just 26 yards, finding the end zone on Halida’s 2yard push up the middle to take the lead at 14-12.

A 15-yard facemask penalty on Sawyer Winger’s punt return gave Gilman good field position again at McDonell’s 38 midway through the second quarter. Syryczuk had a 15-yard run, Halida scrambled for 10 with a McDonell penalty tacked on and Keepers capped the drive with a 1-yard score that opened up a 20-12 lead with 2:41 left in the half.

Though his yardage numbers were modest, Halida had one of his best quarterback outings for the Pirates, rushing for 43 yards and four scores and completing four of seven passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.

“Our pass protection broke down at times,” Rosemeyer said. “It’s good to win a game like that where we still have things to work on, and number-one, our pass protection has to get shored up a little bit. Logan threw some good passes. A couple that stick out are the touchdown to Cooper and a crossing route he threw to Sawyer on a third-and-nine. He was able to use his legs when the pass protection broke down, especially on that first touchdown.”

A key sequence early in the third quarter played a large role in sealing McDonell’s fate.

The Macks got the kickoff and quickly faced a fourth and four. As they had done throughout the first half, they snapped the ball back to Cael Holm, who rolled to his right rugby style with the option to fake it or punt it. What he didn’t account for on this particular play was the closing speed of Gilman’s defensive end Kolby Keepers, who was on top of Holm so quickly, he had no time to react and was dropped for a 10-yard loss at the Macks’ 25.

“I just sent it and I got him,” Keepers said. “I didn’t even expect it. It just happened.”

McDonell had a chance to minimize that mistake when Stepp sacked Halida for a 10-yard loss to put the Pirates in a fourth-and-13 spot. Krug, lining up as a tight end on the right side, ran diagonally toward the left pylon, Halida stepped up in the pocket with pressure around him and threw a dart for a 28-yard touchdown that made it 26-12 with 8:10 to go in the third quarter.

“We knew they were going to be manning up on our tight ends,” Krug said. “We knew they were going to have to be switching off and their eyes were changing. I just ran to where the open space was.”

The defense slammed the door from there, recovering two Mack fumbles and forcing a punt. After the punt, Gilman drove 58 yards and scored on Halida’s 1yard sneak early in the fourth quarter. Alex Copenhaver recovered the second fumble at the 11-yard line and that short drive ended with another 1-yard sneak by Halida with 6:28 left.

Gilman finished 201 rushing yards and 270 total yards. Keepers had 75 yards on 17 carries and Syryczuk had 12 carries for 64 yards.

Keepers was credited with 15 tackles and two forced fumbles, while Henry Syryczuk and Tony Syryczuk had 10 tackles each.

“With their size, their tight ends, both guards are good size, I thought our guys did a good job just using their toughness and some speed,” Rosemeyer said. “Just being tough kids basically. Part of that is their work in the weight room is paying off and part of it is just being a tough kid. It’s a good combination. I thought Tom Tallier schemed them well defensively and when we executed that scheme well we were in good shape to make plays. We limited their passing game for the most part. They got two or three but nothing that really hurt us.”

With this highly-anticipated game now done, the Pirates will be heavily favored in their last three conference games, but they say this is no time to let off the gas.

“We need to stay hungry,” Keepers said. “We have to go and get some more food.”