HAPPY HOMECOMING
GILMAN 65, GREENWOOD 0
Pirates pitch 4th straight shutout in 65-0 win
For the first time in four games, the Gilman Pirates got some early resistance Friday in their Central Wisconsin East Conference opener against the Greenwood Indians.
But ultimately, that resistance got the Pirates refocused in their homecoming contest and they rolled past the now 1-3 Indians in the last three quarters to earn a 65-0 victory.
“Honestly, they were tough, a lot tougher than we thought,” junior Troy Duellman said after his biggest night in the first half of the season, which included 153 rushing yards and four total touchdowns. “I think we came into the game a little too relaxed. They put us in our place and made us play ball.”
The Pirates earned their fourth straight shutout win. Gilman shut out three straight foes to start their first eight-player season in 2020 and also did it in 2019.
Greenwood made things interesting early by picking up two first downs on each of their first two possessions and crossing midfield both times. But, both possessions ended in interceptions which seemingly took away some of the early energy the Indians were playing with.
Casey Grunseth got the first interception of a Ryver Glynn pass, picking it off in stride for what appeared to be a 50-yard touchdown return. However, a penalty on the return nullified the score for exactly seven seconds. On the next play –– Gilman’s first of the game –– quarterback Grady Kroeplin hit Branden Ustianowski in stride down the right sideline for a 43-yard touchdown pass. Ustianowski snuck out unguarded from the left side of Gilman’s formation and easily got behind the safeties for the score. Duellman ran in the twopoint conversion for an 8-0 lead at the 8:06 mark in the first quarter.
“Casey just kind of read it,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “We were in Cover-3 at the time and he read their guy coming that way and beat him to the spot for the ball. Then he showed some of his speed just getting up the sideline. It was an unfortunate penalty, it wasn’t much of a penalty but it was not wrong to be called. It was a good start for us on defense.”
Ustianowski grabbed Gilman’s second interception on a ball that was tipped by Kroeplin at the line of scrimmage. That drive ended in a lost fumble and Gilman’s next drive ended in an interception by Glynn, leading to the Pirates’ least productive first quarter of the season.
The turnovers went away after the opening quarter, but the penalties did not. Gilman lost 100 yards during the game on 12 penalties.
“Penalties killed us,” Duellman said. “We had a lot of penalties. We need to clean that up.”
“It was a lot of stuff that was just out in space that we need to work on and not getting so handsy,” Rosemeyer said. “A lot of that was on our returns and on our pulls that we just need to be better on. We can’t be blocking in the back and grabbing a hold of things.
“It’s easier to talk about it after a win. They’re smart kids. They knew during the game that it was unacceptable. In a competitive game that’s going to hurt you.”
The offense started to click on its first possession of the second quarter, getting chunk runs from Duellman and Kroeplin to cover 58 yards in five plays. Duellman’s 9-yard run put the ball in the end zone. Kroeplin hit a wide-open Wayne McAlpine for the two-point conversion and a 16-0 lead.
The Pirates overcame a holding penalty to go 66 yards on their next drive. Two 25-yard pass plays to Ustianowski were the highlights on a drive that ended with Duellman’s 16-yard score with 3:52 left that made it 24-0.
Sam Syryczuk collected Gilman’s third interception of Glynn in the half, picking off a deep fourth-down try. The Pirates then went on a 76-yard scoring drive, overcoming a penalty that wiped out a 71-yard touchdown run by Kroeplin. They got their touchdown with 14 seconds left on a 41-yard pass from Kroeplin to Duellman, who got matched up on a linebacker, caught a short pass over the middle and had to avoid just one tackle as he cut to the right side of the field.
“We put that in the playbook a couple weeks earlier,” Duellman said. “We kinda knew, not that that was going to happen, but we knew it was going to be a good play. It turned out that it worked really good.”
Duellman also ran in the two-pointer for a 32-0 halftime lead.
“Any time we can get some of our fast kids in man-to-man out in space is good,” Rosemeyer said. “Troy just was doing a crossing pattern where everybody kind of clears out for him and Grady hit him in stride. That’s part of eight-man football, get those kids out in space.”
Gilman quickly put the running clock into effect as Kroeplin, the homecoming king, made a couple of nice cutbacks on a 23-yard scoring run with 9:36 left in the third quarter. That followed a 27-yard completion to Ustianowski, who finished with 149 yards on five receptions.
Duellman went virtually untouched on a 43-yard score down the left sideline that pushed the lead to 46-0 with 3:54 left in the quarter.
Greenwood stopped punting the ball after that and when Gilman got fourthdown stops, it also got great field position it took advantage of. Syryczuk got a 31yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter, Lee Zagorski bulled up the middle for an 18-yard score with 8:09 left and Brady McAlpine’s 30-yard touchdown run capped the scoring with 3:54 left.
The Pirates finished with season highs on offense of 335 rushing, 202 passing and 537 total yards. They averaged 13.4 yards per carry. Kroeplin completed seven of 12 passes for the 202 passing yards. Duellman caught two balls for 53 yards to add to his rushing total. Kroeplin ran for 81 yards on seven carries.
Gilman allowed a season-high 133 yards of offense from the Indians, but the zero on the scoreboard was the biggest thing for the defensive unit, which was led by Kroeplin’s 14 total tackles. Ustianowski had seven.
“That’s really important,” Duellman said. “Not many teams can put a zero on the board.”
“It definitely was (our most physical opponent),” Rosemeyer said. “Their best player (Rogan Travis) was back. He got injured a little bit in game one. He played tight end and defensive tackle and did a really good job. They ran behind him and he was all over the field at defensive tackle making plays. We were forced to double team him based on alignment but he got off those double teams and did a good job of getting to the ball and made us work harder than we’ve had to. It was good for us to see that.”
The win sets up a Central Wisconsin East showdown this Friday between the Pirates and host Owen-Withee, who both come into the game at 4-0 overall and 1-0 in league play. The Blackhawks destroyed Athens 56-0 in their league opener.
