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Buckeyes cruise to win over Daingerfield

By JOE DODD

The Gilmer Buckeyes sprinted to a 21-0 first quarter lead, then set the cruise-control for the final three quarters in a 35-12 victory over the Daingerfield Tigers Friday night at Buckeye Stadium. The win was the 22nd in a row at home for the Buckeyes and improved their season record to 3-0.

Despite racking up an impressive 570 yards in total offense, and holding the Tigers to only two fourth quarter touchdowns, Gilmer Head Coach Jeff Traylor was unhappy with the play of his team. “It wasn’t near the performance I was hoping it would be,” admitted Traylor, who improved his record against the Tigers to 6-3. “I’ve been in this business long enough to understand that you better enjoy your wins. Whenever you beat Daingerfield by 23 points you got to be happy; I just think we can play better.” Favored by more than five touchdowns, the 4th ranked Buckeyes needed only 1:44 to get on the scoreboard with a 19-yard touchdown run by Justin Johnson that capped an impressive 5-play, 74-yard drive. Adan Olivaris kicked the first of his four extra-points, giving Gilmer a 7-0 lead.

Daingerfield responded with a time-consuming drive that took 4:25 off the clock, but produced no points when the drive stalled at the Buckeyes’ 34-yard line. The Buckeyes’ quick-strike offense needed only four plays and 1:19 off the clock to go up 14-0 when Darian “Stump” Godfrey lofted a 36-yard pass to Houston Tuminello.

The Tigers’ woes only got worse on their second possession, when back-to-back illegal formation penalties wasted a Johnie Hurndon run into Buckeyes’ territory, forcing the Tigers to punt to Gilmer from their own 36-yard line.

The Buckeyes took advantage of Tuminello’s 15-yard punt return, taking over at their own 44-yard line with 2:28 to play in the first quarter. After starting with a 10-yard penalty, Gilmer’s offense rode their elusive quarterback to a third touchdown when Godfrey took it in from three yards out, giving the sophomore quarterback 50 yards rushing on only four carries for the drive.

“Stump really played well; he played great,” said Traylor. “That was a bright spot. I think that was the best I’ve seen Stump play.”

Godfrey’s touchdown gave the Buckeyes 211 yards of total offense for the quarter to go with the 21-point lead. That seemed to satisfy the Buckeyes, who managed to barely outscore the Tigers 14-12 the remaining 36 minutes. “We just struggled,” stated Traylor. “Our effort wasn’t good. Our execution was terrible. We weren’t focused. We were distracted by parents’ night. [We had] a lot of mental mistakes and penalties.”

While Traylor focused on his team’s miscues, he also credited the Tigers. “Daingerfield did some good things too. They’ve got some really good athletes. They do a really good job. They got after us. You’ve got to give Daingerfield a lot of credit.”

The Tigers kept the Buckeyes out of the end zone the second quarter; marking the only quarter this season that Gilmer has failed to score at least one touchdown. Daingerfield achieved that by controlling the ball for 8:24 of the quarter and stopping the Buckeyes on two fourth-down plays. “That’s what we were hoping for,” said Daingerfield Head Coach Randall Hugg. “Our kids showed up to play and tried to give you guys a good game.”

The Tigers fell to 1-2 with the loss, despite holding the Buckeyes to their lowest point total in 20 games. The last time Gilmer failed to score at least 35 points in a game was 2005 when the Tigers handed the Buckeyes their only loss in the last five regular seasons with a 26-17 win at Daingerfield.

“It was not one of our best nights; but it was enough to get the job done,” explained Gilmer’s Tuminello.

The Buckeyes struck first in the second half when Johnson got his second touchdown of the night on a 22-yard run with 8:38 remaining in the third quarter. Johnson finished with 166 yards on only 13 carries.

The Tigers finally got on the scoreboard with 8:52 left in the game when quarterback Jared Hill found the end zone from 19-yards out. The two-point conversion attempt failed, making the score 28-6 in favor of Gilmer.

The Buckeyes responded with a 10-play, 65-yard drive on their next possession, which ended with a 5-yard scoring strike from Godfrey to Lamar Harris with 5:45 remaining in the game. Godfrey finished with 255 passing yards, completing 18 of 30 passes in the game.

Daingerfield finished the scoring when Hill ran the ball in from 3 yards out with only 3:12 left on the clock. Hill finished with 131 rushing yards on 13 carries, leading the Tigers offense to 310 total yards.

“Whenever you’ve got a great quarterback, a great running back, and a great receiver; you’ve got a lot of offense. So when you hold a team like that to 12 points, you’ve done a lot,” Traylor replied.

Buckeyes’ senior linebacker Brennan Thompson wasn’t happy with limiting the Tigers to their lowest point total of the season. “We came out flat,” stated Thompson. “We really didn’t have the fire that we had last week, so we weren’t really pleased.”

Traylor agreed with Thompson. “We just did not do what we were coached to do, and I’m the coach so it’s my responsibility and I guarantee you that it will be fixed.” The Buckeyes’ open week couldn’t have come at a better time for Traylor. “We need to get back to fundamentals and conditioning. We’re going to get in shape and get fundamentally sound again,” explained Traylor, who was disappointed by his team’s drop-off from last week’s game.

“We graded about 40 players, and maybe three had a better grade than they did against Tatum,” said Traylor, who is focused on a first round playoff showdown with Liberty-Eylau. “We’ve got 63 days to get ready. We have an overinflated opinion of how good of a football team we are right now.”

Following the Buckeyes’ open week, Gilmer will travel to Center on Friday, Sept. 28, to face the Roughriders.

STATISTICS
Daingerfield Gilmer
11 First downs 19
10-21-0-0 Passing (c-a-td-int)18-31-2-0
82 Passing yds 255
37-228 Rushes-yds 33-315
310 Total yds 570
28:06 Time of possession 19:54
9-46 Penalties-yds. 6-45
1 Fumbles lost 1
SCORE BY QUARTERS
1 2 3 4 T
D’field 0 0 0 12 12
Gilmer 21 0 7 7 35


Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
LAMAR HARRIS picks up a first down for the Buckeyes as he prepares to stiff-arm an advancing Daingerfield Tiger in second quarter action here last Friday night. Gilmer went on to win, 35-12, to improve to 3-0 on the season. The fourth-ranked Buckeyes are open this week and will resume play at Center on Friday night, Sept. 28.

Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
JEREMY JACKSON bursts into the clear as he takes advantage of the Buckeye blocking. From left are Kyle Bowden, Daniel Jenkins, David Snow, Chip Elms, Ross Stevens and Cody Lee. Gilmer (3-0) travels to Center for its next pre-district game on Sept. 28.

Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
HOUSTON TUMINELLO makes a catch over the middle as aTiger closes in. Tuminello scored one of Gilmer’s three first quarter touchdowns. Gilmer went on to win 35-12 over Daingerfield.

Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
HEADED FOR the goal line, Gilmer’s Justin Johnson charges ahead of a Tiger tackler while Darian Godfrey (10) and Garrett Adkins (73) follow the action. Johnson opened the Buckeye scoring with this run, and Gilmer went on to a 35-12 win over the Tigers.

Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
GILMER’S BLACK FLAG defenders smother the Tiger runner as Brennan Thompson, Vance Green, Ross Stevens and Jacob Ramsey on the ground shut down the Daingerfield attack.

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