By BRETT GOODING
Special to The Football Beat
PARIS – After the Weather Prophets prognosticated that stormy skies were likely to petrify Paris on Friday night, the Gilmer Buckeyes-North Lamar Panthers wargame was re-scheduled for Thursday evening.
The Panthers got totaled by a tornado anyway.
Quarterback Brady McCown flung four touchdown passes before repairing to the sideline at Twirling Time as defending state monarch Gilmer neutralized the North Lamar Panthers, 56-0, in the teams’ District 7-4A Division II regular season farewell.
The fifth-ranked Buckeyes, now 7-3 (4-1 in district dustups), prance into Playoff Paradise next week, but the identity of their next opponent was to be determined partly by the outcome of the Pleasant Grove-Van tilt Friday eve.
A Van victory would leave the Buckeyes in a 3-way deadlock with the other two schools for the district Loving Cup, leaving a tiebreaking system to help determine who plays who in post-season. Gilmer vanquished Van, but was poleaxed by Pleasant Grove.
Meantime, the Buckeyes bounded to a 49-0 lead at intermission Thursday and officials ran the clock the second half, apparently never stopping it for any reason.
Backup QB Zade Taylor led the team to one more TD as Gilmer scored on every single one of its possessions except the final one, when Taylor mercifully took a knee thrice after Gilmer reached North Lamar’s 7-yard-line. The Buckeyes also returned an interception for a TD.
While the hapless hosts, who finished the year 1-9 overall and 0-5 in district disputations, actually mustered several first downs and some dandy defensive plays, North Lamar never came anywhere close to within sniffing distance of the Gilmer goal line.
Too, the Panthers incurred the officials’ wrath at a stupefying state in the first quarter alone, sustaining 59 yards on seven penalties. They rarely caused flags to fly the rest of the game, but the first-quarter follies had already helped bolster the Buckeyes to a 21-0 lead at that period’s finis.
McCown fired several errant passes, which an observer in one press box blamed on a fairly stiff wind, but his quartet of TD Tosses more than made up for the incompletions.
The contest was played on an old-fashioned natural grass field at R.L. Maddox Stadium, the first time this year Gilmer didn’t play on artificial turf. The visitors displayed, though, that they could overwhelm an opponent on real grass just as easily as the phony stuff.
Gilmer took the opening kickoff and, abetted by two penalties totaling 20 yards, moseyed 75 yards to first reach Beulah Land on McCown’s 8-yard, fourth-down toss to Cadon Tennison, who was starting quarterback on last year’s state champion squad.
Riley Pate airlifted the first of seven consecutive good PATs (backup booter Celson James whammed the last one) with 8:39 left in the initial quarter.
Another McCown Missile soon leveled the Panthers, a 5-yarder to Brendan Webb with 4:49 still left in the first. Before quarter’s end, McCown found a third receiver for a scoring sling, Geramiah Noble, with 1:17 remaining.
It would get far worse for the Panthers before the two schools’ outstanding bands performed. The team would truly face the music.
First, Gilmer defender Trillyon Butler purloined a pass from Panther QB Kai Furtch and zoomed 61 yards to tally with 8:34 left to Trumpet Time.
Next, Taylor made a highlight-reel 31-yard TD trip with 5:49 remaining before McCown zipped his final six-point sling, an 8-yarder to Noble with 4:04 to go.
The TD pass came soon after the Panthers snapped the ball well over their punter’s head, causing him to recover it at his own 3-yard-line for a bewildering 22-yard loss. Gilmer drew a 5-yard penalty before scoring.
Runner Alec Sims then procured points on a 1-yard hop with 1:12 still left in the second quadrant.
The Panthers’ band lined up on either side of their team, playing a rousing tune as North Lamar charged onto the field for the second half, but even that couldn’t jump-start the hosts’ offense.
Gilmer was galvanized one more time as Daydrion Jimmerson hit Glory Land on a 3-yard bop with 1:46 left in the third. James’ PAT sailed through with 1:05 left as the clock kept ticking.
It was that sage, the late Yogi Berra, who was quoted as once saying “it ain’t over till it’s over.” But the Gilmer Buckeyes, and likely the North Lamar Panthers, would attest that Thursday night’s rumble was an exception to that rule.
