GILMAN 54, ALMA CENTER LINCOLN 8 - Pirates get plenty of big plays in first half and bury Hornets

GILMAN 54, ALMA CENTER LINCOLN 8

Dawson Krizan ran for 124 yards and four touchdowns and Chad Konsella scored on three big plays Friday as the Gilman Pirates had little trouble with host Alma Center Lincoln in a 54-8 blowout win.

Gilman scored all seven of its touchdowns in the first half while building a 51-8 lead in the North Central East Conference matchup. The win puts Gilman at 4-1 in league play and 5-1 overall with two regular-season games left.

The Pirates and McDonell Central sit a game behind 5-0 Owen-Withee in the league standings. The top-ranked Blackhawks host Clayton, the West leader, in a North Central Conference crossover Friday before Gilman visits them next Friday in a potential championship battle.

The only thing that stopped Gilman’s offense in Friday’s first half was a fumbled handoff on the Pirates’ second possession. Otherwise, the Pirates piled up 388 yards of total offense before halftime and had 13 plays that gained 10 yards or more.

Three of those 10-yard plays set up the first score, which was a 5-yard run by Krizan that capped a 49-yard, five-play scoring drive that put the game’s first points on the board.

After losing the fumble, Gilman’s defense got the ball right back as pressure from Joey Syryczuk caused a pass from Lincoln sophomore Adam Massman to flutter into the middle of the field, where it was deflected by Sawyer Winger and intercepted by Logan Halida at the Pirates’ 37. Three plays later, Krizan bootlegged left and then cut back to the right for a 49yard touchdown that made it 14-0 with 5:58 left in the first quarter.

“We were sending four against their three-man line a lot just to put pressure on him and it did work,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “We were able to get some sacks early and just create some disruption.”

After a quick three and out by Lincoln, the Pirates struck on the first play of their next possession as Konsella took a jet sweep to the left sideline and simply won with speed and a good block from Max Ustianowski on a 71-yard touchdown sprint.

Rosemeyer said the Hornets seemed to be making an effort to jam things up in the middle, so the Pirates were able to counter at times by trying to get to the edges.

“It’s a play that we’ve been working on all year but really haven’t run it much,” he said of the Konsella touchdown. “It does open up other things. If we’re able to get him in that little motion and get him wide, it opens up more in our playbook that we can counter off of that. Once he gets the edge, he’s going to give people a lot of trouble. We’ve been waiting for that play to happen, whether it’s him running it or Brady McAlpine.”

The Hornets countered with their best offensive drive of the day. Their top senior, Luke Anderson, took over at quarterback and engineered a 14-play, 71yard drive that culminated with his 4-yard touchdown pass to Ben Ross 42 seconds into the second quarter.

Anderson had 62 yards on 19 rushing attempts. He was nine for 14 in passing for 74 yards, while Massman was nine of 16 for 60 yards. Ross caught six passes for 56 yards.

“We were able to slow them down early on, played especially well defensively,” Rosemeyer said. “We just had the one bad series where we didn’t tackle very well that allowed them to go all the way down the field. They converted on fourth down to score. Other than that we controlled their best receiver, Ross, for the most part. Anderson running the ball kinda hurt us. We bounced off of him a little bit. We went too high. He’s got enough shake to him that he can be hard to tackle.”

Gilman’s Tony Syryczuk fielded a ground ball kickoff by the Hornets at his 42 and caught a 29-yard pass from Krizan three plays later to help set up Krizan’s 1yard score. Krizan’s two-point pass to Ustianowski made it 30-8 with 8:40 left in the half.

The scoring onslaught in the quarter was far from done.

Another long drive by the Hornets stalled on Gilman’s 12 and the Pirates quickly went 88 yards in seven plays, getting a 27-yard touchdown run by Krizan with 2:56 left.

Gilman quickly forced a punt and Konsella returned it 55 yards for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the score was nullified by a holding penalty, but the Pirates went right back to their senior playmaker on the next snap. He got behind the Hornets’ defense and Krizan found him on a 61-yard bomb that made it 44-8 with 2:03 left.

Konsella was in the right spot at the right time on an Anderson pass over the middle that was behind his intended receiver and finished the half with an easy 42-yard pick-six with just two seconds left.

Gilman’s reserves took all of the playing time in the second half, kept Alma Center Lincoln out of the end zone and got four first downs on a scoring drive that ended with Brayden Olynick’s 23-yard field goal with 9:45 left in the game.

The Pirates finished with 462 yards of total offense. Krizan’s 124 yards came on just eight carries, while Konsella had 117 yards on seven rushing attempts. Krizan completed four of five passes for 111 yards. Konsella had two catches for 70 yards.

Lincoln finished with 196 total yards. “We were effective with the pass,” Rosemeyer said. “We didn’t throw many, but we were four for five for 111 yards. It was enough to make some things happen. We have to keep finding ways and different looks for Dawson to keep him running the ball.”

Gilman is back at home at 7 p.m. this Friday, hosting a Lake Holcombe team that has given up 60 or more points in four of six games this season.