ALWAYS AIMING TO IMPROVE
GILMAN 52, BRUCE 8
5-0 Pirates know tougher games are coming
For the fifth straight week to start the football season, the Gilman Pirates went basically unchallenged Friday night, scoring on their first six possessions to build a 45-0 halftime lead in a 52-8 blowout win at Bruce.
While the state’s top-ranked eightplayer team has outscored opponents by an average of 40 points per game, the Pirates are finding ways each week to challenge themselves ahead of what they view as their two toughest games of the regular season coming up in the final three weeks.
Mainly that involves trying to execute as close to perfect as possible.
Offensively, in an effort that included 291 rushing yards on just 30 attempts and 99 passing yards with two touchdowns, head coach Robin Rosemeyer said there were still things to clean up and fix as the stretch run approaches. Defensively, there are always different offensive schemes to see and in-game adjustments to work through with Friday being an example when Bruce did some things schematically the Pirates hadn’t seen much on film.
In Friday’s case, the Pirates held the Red Raiders to 87 total yards and one late touchdown against the reserves.
“We were pretty good overall,” Rosemeyer said of the offense. “The one down side was the penalties. We had two holding calls and one block in the back. That’s been a little bit of a stickler for us, the penalties. We ran the ball really well, but there were a couple of short runs where they held us to zero or one yard which created some third and longs. We were able to convert a lot of those, which was good. We just have to be careful with those negative plays.”
There weren’t many negatives in the first quarter when Gilman sprinted to a 22-0 lead.
The defense got a quick stop and a short punt gave the Pirates the ball at Bruce’s 40 for their first offensive series and it took just four plays to pay it off. A 24-yard run by quarterback Julian Krizan set up his 1-yard sneak and twopoint conversion run that made it 8-0 just 2:24 in.
Branden Ustianowski’s 33-yard punt return set up a short three-play 21-yard scoring drive that ended with a 1-yard scoring plunge by Grady Kroeplin. Bruce got a first down on its next drive, but a Krizan sack of Bruce quarterback Dom Tinker on fourth and seven ended the possession at the Red Raiders’ 41. After an incomplete pass on first down, Kroeplin put the Pirates in the end zone finding a wide open middle of the field on a fullback trap for a 41-yard touchdown with 3:26 still left in the quarter.
“We did a good job with the dive plays and had a couple of good traps that went the distance,” Rosemeyer said. “They kind of gave us some things right up the middle that we were able to take advantage of. They did some stunting with their d-tackle and d-ends and there was some luck that we had the right play called at the right time for what defense they were playing also.”
Bruce got its one chance to at least establish some field position when it downed a punt at Gilman’s 1-yard line early in the second quarter, but Krizan quickly foiled that, leaking out the left side for a 59-yard gain that was reduced by 10 yards due to a penalty downfield. Krizan hit Bryson Keepers for a big gain, then Kroeplin went back up the middle for an easy 13-yard touchdown run. Troy Duellman’s two-point run upped the lead to 30-0.
Krizan and Keepers connected on a 14-yard touchdown pass over the middle and again for 63 yards on the highlight play of the night. Krizan patiently waited for Keepers to cross the field and get open near the left sideline, then Keepers made an inside cut and outraced the back end of Bruce’s defense as he ran diagonally toward the right pylon.
“That play showed both of their abilities really,” Rosemeyer said. “Ju- lian showed good patience back there. Bryson’s speed kind of took over after he caught it, just reversing the field and taking it the distance.”
Gilman’s last score came on its first possession of the second half, which was shortened by another running clock. The Pirates got chunk runs from Kroeplin and Duellman before Wayne McAlpine capped the 59-yard drive with an 8-yard run. Ustianowski’s kick made it 52-0 with 6:16 left in the third quarter.
Krizan finished with 124 yards on just nine carries and he was three for six in passing for 99 yards with Keepers catching all three completions. Duellman had 81 yards on eight carries and Kroeplin had 73 yards on eight carries.
Bruce based its offensive game plan around trying to get Tinker and Chris Brockman the ball with room to run. For the most part, it didn’t happen as ends Zack Marion and Keepers held the edges and Krizan from his middle linebacker position and Person from his defensive tackle spot held things down inside.
“They started out on the first series with their double wing stuff, and after that they kind of went to a spread,” Rosemeyer said. “We weren’t expecting as much spread as we saw. It seemed like it was about the quarterback getting the ball and picking a hole to go to mostly off the tackle/tight end area. That was stuff they hadn’t showed yet in the tapes we’d seen.”
The Pirates held Brockman, a talented 6-foot, 170-pound senior to 45 yards in 21 rushing attempts and two pass receptions for 23 yards. The 5-10, 231-pound Tinker had minus-11 yards in 15 attempts.
Krizan was involved in 13 tackles, Keepers had 11 tackles, Person had eight, Duellman had seven and Marion was involved in five.
The Pirates are expecting the toughest test of the season thus far for their defense in Friday’s homecoming contest with the 4-1 Phillips Loggers. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. This game and the Oct. 15 finale at McDonell Central, who is currently 5-0, are games the Pirates need at this point in the fall and are certainly looking forward to.
“They’ve been scoring a lot of points, 78 and 54 points in the last two games,” Rosemeyer said of Phillips. “They have a couple of kids (Will Knaack and James Bruhn) that average 150 yards a game. They’re going to have the best combination of kids we’ve seen. We’ve seen some OK one running back teams, but nobody with two like this. They present a different problem. They’ve just been executing well.”
Gilman’s Julian Krizan runs away from Bruce’s Harold Garcia and scores the twopoint conversion to give the Pirates an 8-0 lead just 2:24 into Friday’s eventual 52-8 win over the host Red Raiders. Krizan also scored the touchdown on a 1-yard run.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
