Mirror Photo / Mary Laschinger Kirby
DISAPPEARING IN a sea of black, Richwood’s Greg Hudson goes down surrounded by, from left, Zach Jones, Josh Thompson, Paul Chesnut, David Snow, Justin Johnson, Brennan Thompson and Ross Stevens. The Buckeyes shut out the visiting Rams. 39-0. to win their season opener here.
By JOE DODD
The Gilmer Buckeyes used an oppressive defense and an impressive rushing attack to win the season opener 39-0 over the Richwood (La.) Rams Friday night at Buckeye Stadium. It was an emotional victory for the Buckeyes after losing former teammate Josh Nelson to cancer the day before.
“They’re emotionally tired, but they focused and they made Josh proud,” said Gilmer head coach Jeff Traylor, whose record in season openers improved to 7-1. “There wasn’t a ‘win one for the Gipper’ speech; there was no ‘win one for Josh’. We just wanted to play the way Josh played, and that’s what we did.”
With nine new starters, Gilmer’s Black Flag Defense forced two Ram turnovers and limited last year’s Louisiana quarterfinalists to only 198 total yards, in the unit’s first shutout since the 2005 season.
“That gave our defense a really great boost,” exclaimed senior linebacker Justin Johnson. “We’ve got some young kids on defense that the coaches were worried about and the community was worried about, and I think we made a statement tonight with a shutout of a great, athletic team. So, I hope that our defense can just build off of that.”
Johnson also helped the offense make their own statement, rushing for 129 yards and a touchdown on only 10 carries, as the Buckeyes rolled up 304 yards on the ground. Johnson also contributed another 30 yards and a touchdown on two catches for a total of 159 yards and two scores, almost all in the first half.
The Oklahoma recruit was quick to defer all praise to his teammates. “I give all the credit to them. If it wasn’t for them blocking, and [quarterback Darian Godfrey] with the fakes, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”
It was Godfrey and Johnson who got things going for the Buckeyes on their first possession, as Godfrey took the first snap 12 yards, before handing the ball off to Johnson for a 29-yard gain. On the next play, Godfrey threw a screen pass to Johnson, who followed three blockers untouched into the end zone from 25 yards out. Johnson would follow that with a 2-point conversion run, giving Gilmer a 8-0 lead only 58 seconds into the game.
“I was very pleased with [Godfrey],” Johnson said. “He’s just a sophomore, and he played a great game.” Godfrey returned the praise. “It’s good to have [Justin Johnson] back there running for you; it takes a lot of pressure off of me; and it’s nice to have David [Snow] and them up front blocking for you,” said Godfrey, who got his first varsity start at quarterback.
The two teams would trade punts on the next four possessions, with Richwood’s Richard Wilson returning a Jake Ashley punt to the Buckeyes’ 28-yard line with 1:52 left in the first quarter.
Four plays later, the Black Flag Defense set the tone for the night, stopping the Rams on a 4th-and-5 play at their own 24-yard line. “That was huge. We were still in a war right there,” stated Traylor. “If they had got one in right there; who knows what would have happened?”
Buoyed by the defensive stop, the Gilmer offense scored four plays later when Johnson took a handoff and busted through a tackle in the backfield, then broke to the right sideline and ran through two more tacklers, before stopping 61 yards later with his second touchdown of the game. Another 2-point conversion on a pass from Braylon Webb to Ross Stevens gave the Buckeyes a 16-0 lead with 11:05 to play in the half.
The Rams’ next possession ended with an interception by Buckeyes’ sophomore Paul Chesnut, who returned the pick to the Gilmer 24-yard line. The Buckeyes’ offense then proceeded on an 11-play drive that took 5:15 off the clock before scoring on a 28-yard field goal by Dustin Jones to give Gilmer a 19-0 lead at halftime.
Traylor said that Buckeyes’ fans should expect to see more time-consuming drives this season. “It’s just going to take us longer. It’s going to be more of a methodical march,” said Traylor, after his team ended the game with more time-of-possession than the Rams. “It helps the defensive stats; it keeps them on the bench a little longer, and makes everybody think we’re playing better defense.”
Richwood received the second half kickoff, but the Buckeyes’ defense forced the Rams to punt just six plays later. Gilmer took over at their own 24-yard line, and went on a 10-play drive capped off by a beautiful 22-yard pass from Godfrey to Devane Clark for a touchdown. Jones’ extra-point kick was good, giving the Buckeyes a 26-0 lead with 5:51 remaining in the third quarter.
The Rams’ managed to get down to Gilmer’s 35-yard line on their next drive before the Buckeyes’ Zach Jones picked off a Corey Treadway pass, giving it to the Buckeyes’ offense at their own 22-yard line.
With Johnson resting on the bench, and backup running back Josh Thompson in the training room nursing an injury from the previous series, Traylor was forced to call on two sophomore running backs to carry the load the rest of the way.
“We didn’t really plan on Jeremy and Kedon playing a lot these first two games,” admitted Traylor. “We were hoping to bring them along after these two, but when Josh got hurt Kedon and Jeremy had to play, and they did a great job.”
Franklin turned a short screen pass into a 31-yard gain, and followed that up with an 18-yard run to set up Jackson’s 6-yard touchdown run with 9:34 to play in the game. The extra-point attempt by Jones was missed, so the Buckeyes led 32-0.
After a Rams’ three and out possession, the Buckeyes started their final drive on their own 45-yard line, before two straight penalties pushed them back to the 35-yard line. Jackson got most of the yardage needed with three straight runs for a total of 18 yards. On 4th and 2, sophomore back-up quarterback Braylon Webb busted through for a 39-yard gain down to the Rams’ 8-yard line. Following an offensive penalty, Jackson finished the drive with a 14-yard touchdown run with 3:15 remaining in the game. Adan Olivaris kicked the extra point, making the final score 39-0.
“It was a solid performance. I wouldn’t call it great,” accessed Traylor. “We ran the ball well. Passing, there are some areas we need to work on. But for a first game, we were okay.” Traylor was especially happy with his veteran offensive line. “I was very pleased with our offensive line, and how we ran the ball.”
Defensively, Traylor heaped praise on his young players singling out David Smith, Ross Stevens, Lamar Harris, Devane Clark, Zach Jones and Paul Chesnut. We just played hard; we just kept competing. Every single person that played defense had a tackle except for one kid. We didn’t have anybody with a lot of tackles, but we had a lot of people that had some tackles.”
Traylor finished his analysis by saying, “You can tell we are not what we have been. We are not unbelievable. You can just tell we are good; and good teams have got to do smart things. So we’ve got to be very smart this year, and we could have a very good team.”
Scoring Summary
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Gilmer 8 11 7 13 39
Richwood 0 0 0 0 0
Game Statistics
Gilmer Richwood
Passing-Comp/Att/TD/Int
13-22-2-0 8-23-0-2
Passing-Yards
153 81
Rushes-Yards
33-304 29-117
Total Yards
457 198
First Downs
20 10
Time of Possession
24:54 23:06
Fumbles Lost
0 0
Penalties-Yards
8-55 12-95
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