Pirates have absolutely no trouble with Chiefs in rainy win
GILMAN 61, CORNELL 0
The Gilman Pirates will start Central Wisconsin East Conference play riding a three-game winning streak after they dominated another opponent from the West side in a 61-0 thumping of Cornell Friday in soggy Gilman.
There was little suspense in this crossover game as Cornell didn’t pick up a first down until its last possession, ran one play in Gilman territory and the Pirates scored seven first-half touchdowns during a game hit by a steady, soaking rain early on.
Points also rained down on the overmatched Chiefs, who fell to 0-3 in their Central Wisconsin Conference crossovers.
A short punt set up Gilman for its first scoring drive on Cornell’s 18, which the Pirates turned into a 13-yard scoring run for Troy Duellman. Grady Kroeplin stripped the ball from Cornell ball carrier Daniel Person on the Chiefs’ next possession and Caleb Marion recovered the fumble for Gilman at the 34. A 31-yard pass from Kroeplin to a wide-open Marion set up Duellman’s 3-yard run and his two-point conversion that quickly made it 16-0 with 7:42 left in the first quarter.
The Chiefs then fumbled the kickoff and Kroeplin recovered at the 24. After a first-down incompletion, Wayne McAlpine took a quick hitter up the middle to the house to push the lead to 22-0. Kroeplin dropped Person for a 9-yard sack on fourth down to quickly stop Cornell’s next drive. Gilman needed just one play to score again as Kroeplin scrambled long enough to find Branden Ustianowski behind Cornell’s defense. He caught the ball at the 15 and broke two tackles to score a 35-yard touchdown to make it 28-0 with 4:25 still left in the first quarter.
Gilman’s lone offensive mistake of the quarter was a lost fumble after Duellman’s 32-yard punt return had set the Pirates up on Cornell’s 25-yard line, but a quick stop gave Gilman the ball back at the 25 and, after the Chiefs dropped Sam Syryczuk for a 5-yard loss on the first play of the second quarter, Kroeplin took off for an easy 31-yard scoring run.
Another short punt and good return by Duellman put the Pirates at the nine and Syryczuk got a big hole from his blockers to score on the next play. Kroeplin’s kick made it 41-0. Cornell finally cracked Gilman territory on a 12-yard scramble by Person, but on that snap from the 48, Casey Grunseth intercepted a tipped ball and returned it 26 yards to Cornell’s 29. The Pirates ultimately missed a 28-yard field goal attempt after the number-two offense got the ball to the 11. Ustianowski’s good punt return gave the reserves another chance and they converted on a short 9-yard drive with Lee Zagorski scoring on a 1-yard run with 17 seconds left to make it 47-0. Kroeplin capped a two-play, 54-yard drive with a 39-yard touchdown run to start the second half. Duellman’s 52-yard punt return set up Brady McAlpine’s 8-yard touchdown run with 6:58 left in the third quarter that mercifully ended the scoring.
Gilman held Cornell to 25 total yards, 16 in passing and nine in rushing. With all of the short fields, Gilman had just 244 yards of offense. Kroeplin was two for three through the air for 66 yards and ran three times for 57 yards and two scores. Zagorski had 33 yards on seven attempts. Eight Pirates carried the football during the win.
The Pirates wrap up their three-game homestand with Friday’s conference opener and homecoming game against the Greenwood Indians, who went 1-2 in their crossovers. They faced possibly the top two teams in the Central Wisconsin West in 62-8 and 74-0 losses to McDonell Central and Prairie Farm, but they were dominant in a 48-8 win over mistakeprone New Auburn in a game that was stopped due to lightning with 10 minutes to go on Sept. 2.
