scoring run with 6:20 left ….

scoring run with 6:20 left in the third.

The Pirates ran for 377 yards and 12.2 yards per carry. They finished with 434 total yards. Kroeplin ran for 152 yards on just five attempts to average 30.4 yards per carry. Syryczuk had 78 yards in just two carries and Brady McAlpine got a lot of work off the bench with 47 yards on six carries. The Hornets (1 2, 2-4) had 114 total yards, 54 of which came on Escamilla’s late touchdown. They had 36 yards on the drive before that, which stalled at Gilman’s 30.

“We haven’t run trap a lot lately, but the traps for Wayne and Grady worked well,” Rosemeyer said. “We ran Grady at fullback for that one play. We wanted to experiment with that a little bit. Otherwise, the counters and our regular offguard isolation was kind of left open for us and we took advantage of that. The reserves executed basically those same plays for the most part and they were able to do some things well also.”

Now 2-1 in the Central Wisconsin East and 5-1 overall, things will get much tougher for Gilman this Friday. The ninth-ranked Pirates head down Hwy 73 to fifth-ranked Thorp to face the 6-0 Cardinals with hopes of trying to stay in the hunt for a piece of the conference title. It won’t be easy against a Thorp team that has shut out four straight opponents and averages 51 points per game.

“They’re very athletic with size, athletic ability, speed,” Rosemeyer said. “They really have everything you kind of want. There’s no doubt about it, they are a very capable team.”

Gilman needs to win this week, beat Athens next and hope Thorp beats Owen-Withee next week to create a three-way tie for the conference championship.