Pirates put quick end to suspense in blowout victory

GILMAN 58, ALMA CENTER LINCOLN 14

Defense has not been Alma Center Lincoln’s strength this season on the football field and the Gilman Pirates took advantage of it Friday, scoring four firstquarter touchdowns on just 12 offensive snaps and cruising to a 58-14 win.

The Pirates’ first-team offense only played in the first quarter and for one snap in the third quarter. That play was Grady Kroeplin’s 77-yard touchdown run that put the Pirates up 51-6.

Conversely, Gilman’s defense didn’t allow a first down to the Hornets until the fourth quarter. Alma Center Lincoln got two big scores from senior Raul Escamilla on a second-quarter kickoff return and on a fourth-quarter screen pass against Gilman’s reserves.

The Hornets rely on spreading defenses out and throwing the ball with their offense, but Gilman shut that down by constantly pressuring quarterbacks Jace Paul and Luke Anderson. Paul left the game after the first quarter and was just one of seven for 2 yards.

“Even though we went with just a twoman line and blitzed just a little bit off the edge, those two guys (Braeden Person and Wayne McAlpine) did a great job with their control of him,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “Once he was forced out of the pocket he didn’t have a chance to do much. Plus, it was good that I think they only had 8 carries in the first half for 5 yards against our first-string players.”

Kroeplin almost got an interception from his middle linebacker spot on the first offensive play of the game, but the Pirates still got a quick stop, forced a punt and needed just five plays to drive 50 yards for the game’s first touchdown. That came on a 7-yard run by Troy Duellman.

Duellman’s 42-yard punt return put the ball on Lincoln’s 16-yard line for Gilman’s next possession. McAlpine ran for 13 and Kroeplin easily scored on the next play to push the lead to 16-0. Kroeplin avoided a sack on Gilman’s next drive and lofted a 37-yard pass to Branden Ustianowski who made a nice adjustment on the ball to catch it at the four. Kroeplin scored on the next play.

Gilman’s next drive lasted just one play as Sam Syryczuk got a huge hole from his blockers on the left side and sprinted to one of the easiest 75-yard touchdowns you’ll ever see to make it 31-0 with 3:13 still left in the first quarter.

Kroeplin made several tacklers miss on a 49-yard run on the second-to-last play of the first quarter. Four plays later, new quarterback Dawson Krizan scored from 4 yards out.

The Hornets got a stop on Gilman’s next drive, but ruined it with a roughing the punter penalty that allowed the Pirates to keep the ball and scored on another 4-yard run by Krizan. Krizan also completed his only pass of the night on that drive, hitting Lee Zagorski for a 20yard gain.

That touchdown made it 44-0 with 1:55 left in the half. The ensuing kickoff was the one Escamilla returned 77 yards to the house to get the home team on the board.

Lined up at fullback, Kroeplin’s 77yard scoring run to start the third came on a simple run up the middle where the line got another big push. Kroeplin’s interception set up Zagorski’s 7-yard 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.