Quick strikes late in half break it open for the Pirates

Good offensive balance and a threetouchdown spurt in the last three minutes of the first half vaulted the Gilman Pirates to a 53-15 first-round win over Clayton Friday in the opening round of the WIAA eight-player football tournament.

The top-seeded Pirates got a huge night from senior quarterback Julian Krizan and his top two receivers, Bryson Keepers (three catches for 116 yards) and Branden Ustianowski (three catches for 93 yards). Keepers caught two touchdown passes, while Ustianowski snagged one.

“Offensively it was nice to have balance,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “We know we have some good tight ends and we have to get our tight ends involved in certain situations. They made some big plays for us. Branden and Bryson each had three catches for a total of 209 yards, so that’s good production out of those guys. Julian did well. Our first two passes were incomplete, and then he completed the next six in a row in the first half. He had a good night throwing the ball. He had a good night running the ball too with 10 carries for 118 yards.”

The win advanced the top-seeded and 9-0 Pirates to a Level 2 game this Friday against second-seeded and 8-1 Prairie Farm. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Gilman.

The Bears, who were without their top offensive weapon in the injured Colton Zacharias, went three and out on their first possession. It didn’t take long for Krizan to make his first big play on offense. On third and six from his own 34, Krizan rolled right and burst through a big hole opened up with a down block by Ustianowski and kickouts from guard Bryce Chovan and Braeden Person to go 66 yards for the game’s first touchdown.

The Pirates stopped Clayton’s second possession on downs at their 41 and needed just six plays to go 59 yards and open up a 14-0 lead. Krizan’s 5-yard gain on fourth and three got the ball to Clayton’s 29. On the next play, he found Keepers on a fade pattern to the right corner for a 29yard touchdown.

Clayton responded with a 67-yard scoring drive that nearly wasn’t. Gilman was initially ruled to have recovered a fumble by Clayton quarterback Tannar Lewis, but the call was eventually reversed. The Bears used a trick play on fourth and 13 to beat the Pirate defense as wide receiver Josh Young threw a 33yard scoring strike to Landon King to pull the Bears within 14-7 with 33 seconds left in the first quarter.

“It’s not a play you practice against a lot, but it’s one we talk about where in a situation like that you have to know the down and distance,” Rosemeyer said. “As a cornerback or safety you can’t let anything get behind you. Let the guys in front of you do their thing. Stay on your guy and do your thing. We lost a bit of focus on that one play and they were able to take advantage of it.”

The Bears didn’t stay that close for long. The Pirates went 69 yards in eight plays to regain their two-score advantage. Krizan completed a 25-yard pass to Ustianowski and ran for 21 yards two plays later, helping set up his own 1-yard touchdown run. His two-point pass to Keepers made it 22-7 with 9:38 left in the half.

Clayton’s next drive had scoring potential, but Lewis lost 7 yards on a fumble and then was sacked for a 9-yard loss by Person on third and long. The Bears’ punt pinned Gilman on its 14, but a completion to Ustianowski and then a 71-yard bomb from Krizan to Keepers covered those 86 yards in a hurry. Krizan hit Keepers in stride nearly 40 yards downfield, dropping the ball just over the outstretched arm of a defender.

Krizan recovered an Avery Starzecki fumble on Clayton’s next offensive play and Grady Kroeplin rumbled 29 yards to the end zone on Gilman’s first snap. His two-point run widened the lead to 38-7. Gilman quickly forced Clayton to punt again and the Pirates went on another quick two-play scoring drive with Krizan hitting Ustianowski along the left sideline for a 53-yard scoring strike with 1:44 left. Ustianowski also got wide open over the middle on the two-point pass to make it 46-7.

“The fade to Bryson and the out and up to Branden were both long throws,” Rosemeyer said. “They were pretty much right in stride and just out of reach for the defender. That was a nice way to end the second quarter. We scored three touchdowns in the last three minutes or so. That was a nice little spurt we had there. It was 22-7, so it’s not like it was uncomfortable, but to score three quick ones in a row like that put us in a good situation at halftime obviously.”

The Pirates’ first-team offense got one more possession to start the second half and went on a 70-yard drive that ended in a 5-yard touchdown run for Kroeplin. Clayton scored on an 11-yard touchdown run by Starzecki with 7:06 left in the game after the Pirates fumbled away a snap at their own 17.

While Kroeplin had two touchdown runs, he did not have the room to run that he did when he gained 250 yards the previous week at McDonell Central. He did manage to get 69 yards on nine carries. Troy Duellman added 65 yards on six carries.

“They defended us pretty well,” Rosemeyer said. “They read our guards well. Kind of like Phillips did, they flowed with our guards. They did stop the run fairly well at times, but we were able to get some big plays to help us out. They would not let us go between the tackles very eas- ily. We knew going in that was kind of their style. They were going to play laterally and not penetrate and get upfield very far, which made it difficult to trap. But that just kind of opened things up a little more on the outside.”

Gilman’s defense held Clayton to 231 total yards, including just 88 rushing. The Bears got 143 through the air despite not having Zacharias, their normal quarterback.

“We kind of took their run game away, but they did get some pass plays on us,” Rosemeyer said. “Some of that was missed execution on our part and part of that was they found where we were a little bit weak in some spots in the first half. In the second half, we were pretty solid.”

Starzecki had 49 yards on 14 carries. Lewis completed seven of 12 passing attempts for 110 yards and had one picked off by Ustianowski in the second half. Duellman had 11 total tackles for Gilman, while Krizan and Person had eight each.