By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Brunswick High posted a lopsided victory Friday night as the Pirates sailed to a 65-0 rout of Evans in a Region 1-AAAA game played just outside of Augusta. It was a record night for the Pirates, too. The 65-point margin of victory was the largest-ever for a Brunswick High football team. And, the 65 points the Pirates put on the scoreboard against the Knights were the fourth-most ever scored by a BHS team in a single game. The Pirates scored 70 points which stands as the school record in both the 1998 and 1999 seasons. The 1998 BHS team which reached the Class AAAA quarterfinals defeated Windsor Forest 70-13 during the regular season. The 1999 Pirates which played for the state championship matched the 70 points when they decked Liberty County 70-13 during the season. Brunswick scored 68 points in a decisive win over Osborne back in 2017. The most points the Pirates had scored under current head coach Garrett Grady who is now in his fourth season leading the team was the 63 they notched in a 63-0 victory over Islands in 2023. That also had been the largest margin of victory for the Pirates. With Friday’s victory, the Pirates (3-1) have now won three in a row since the loss at Camden County in the season opener. Brunswick has won its first two region games. The Pirates rolled past Effingham 42-14 last week at home to kick off the defense of their region title. The Knights, winners over Lakeside-Evans last week in their region opener, fell to 1-3 on the year under new head coach Lee Hutto who had been the head coach at Westside (Augusta). Hutto was once the defense coordinator at Glynn Academy under Rob Ridings. Brunswick is now 6-0 all-time versus Evans. The Pirates led Friday’s game 23-0 after the first quarter and 44-0 at halftime. Brunswick intercepted three passes in the victory wih Aviyon Addison and Antwan Kirk both returning interceptions for touchdowns. Josiah Gibbons gave the Pirates a 58-0 lead before the end of the third quarter with a 59-yard touchdown run. Fellow running back Brody Marshall finished out the night with a 1-yard TD run with just over five minutes left in the game. The Pirates will be back at home next Friday for a matchup with Greenbrier which will come down from the Augusta area for the region game. Evans will be off next week and will return to action on Sept. 26 at home against South Effingham. ...

By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Week 2 of the Region 1-AAAAA schedule brought different results for Glynn Academy and Statesboro which squared off Friday night at Glynn County Stadium. The Red Terrors bounced back from their hard-to-swallow defeat last Friday at Bradwell Institute with a 36-8 victory over the Blue Devils to make for a happy Homecoming game between the bricks. “It was a good game for the most part,” said GA head coach Rocky Hidalgo. “We started slow, but we were physical on both sides of the ball. We came off the ball, the running backs ran hard, and (quarterback) Max (Noonan) played well.” Statesboro (2-2) came into the league counter against Glynn after winning its opening region game at home last week over Greenbrier by a 42-28 score. On Friday, the Terrors (2-2) did all of the first-half scoring to take a 16-0 advantage into halftime when Glynn crowned its Homecoming queen and king during the usual on-field ceremony. The GA defense set up the first score of the game with a fumble recovery by Quan Coleman that gave the Terrors the ball at the Statesboro 43-yard line. On the third play from scrimmage, sophomore quarterback Max Noonan hit T.Y. Chisolm in stride for a 39-yard scoring strike to break the scoreless deadlock just moments into the second quarter. “That’s what we want. We wanna throw play-action,” Hidalgo said when asked about the play after Glynn had been running the ball straight ahead with its halfbacks on its first two possessions. Glynn sent the kicking team out for the extra-point try after the touchdown, but snapped the ball to Landon Wilson who ran through the line for two points and an 8-0 led for the Terrors. GA took the 16-0 lead late in the second quarter when it drove 79 yards in seven plays following a punt by the Blue Devils. Noonan scored the touchdown for the Terrors on a 32-yard keep after faking a handoff to his halfback and then running off the left side of the line. He would slip away from a would-be tackler just beyond the line of scrimmage before heading toward the end zone. “On offense, we just wanna find a crack,” Hidalgo said. “As people adjust to things, if they wanna take the dive away, then the quarterback has an option. If they wanna take that away, then we gotta pitch it out on the edge. It’s like anything else.” The Terrors converted twice on third down on the scoring march with Noonan making a play with his feet and another with his arm to keep the drive going. He ran for a 22-yard gain and a first down at the Statesboro 49 when Glynn needed 2 yards the first time it faced third down. Three plays later, when it was third-and-9, Noonan hit halfback Ian Pomiechowski for 16 yards and a first down at the Statesboro 32. Noonan’s number was called on the next snap and he scored for the twin-figure lead for the Terrors. Glynn would actually convert another two-point play when they gave the ball to kicker Patrick Coyle after lining up to kick the point-after. Coyle scored in the right corner for the 16-0 lead. The Blue Devils were whistled for two dead-ball fouls in the end zone on the play, and one Statesboro player was ejected for his infraction. Statesboro got right back in the game on its first possession to begin the second half. The Blue Devils, starting from their own 20, lined up in a heavy package with all running backs in the backfield without their usual quarterback. They called on senior tight end/linebacker Rashad Chavers to carry the ball, and he powered through the line, going all the way to the GA 2 before the Terrors could tackle him. Starting running back Keon Childers scored on the next play to get the Blue Devils on the board. They would add the two-point conversion as well, with Chavers taking a handoff across the goal line to make the score 16-8 less than 30 seconds into the second half. The Terrors didn’t let Statesboro get any closer, however. Glynn answered with a six-play, 64-yard scoring drive on its opening possession of the third period with Sean Wallace scoring on a counter-play from 26 yards out for a 22-8 lead. Da’Sean Howard had runs of 11 and 14 yards on the drive while Noonan had a 14-yard keeper as well. Statesboro would give up the ball on downs inside Glynn territory on its next offensive series when Childers dropped the ball and then lost yardage on fourth-and-4 from the GA 30. Taking over at their 33, the Terrors would take complete control of the game when they went the 67 yards in seven plays to score again for a 29-8 lead following a Coyle kick late in the third. The Terrors converted on third down on this drive, too, when Chisolm left his feet to haul in a pass over the coverage for a 21-yard gain and a new set of downs at the Statesboro 45. Chisolm scored the Glynn touchdown on a 24-yard run around left end after lining up on the right side of the formation. Wallace lined up on the left side of the line and went in motion going right before the snap, but Noonan got the ball to Chisolm as he came left. The senior play-maker went around the end and ran away from the defense for another Glynn touchdown. “We ran counter, then we ran reverse. Some people think that’s a trick play. That’s not a trick play for us,” Hidalgo explained. “That’s one of our football plays. That’s a play we’re gonna run once or twice a game.” The Terrors finished off their productive second half with a 10-play, 65-yard drive in the fourth quarter with Noonan scoring from 9 yards out for his second rushing TD of the night. Coyle added the PAT to put the final 36-8 score on the board with 7:24 left on the clock. Noonan finished the game 3-of-4 passing for 76 yards and the early touchdown, but obviously he had a major impact on the game running the ball. He ended the game with team-best 108 yards on seven carries while notching the two touchdowns. GA totaled 376 yards in the win with exactly 300 coming on the ground. Howard followed his quarterback with 74 yards on 14 carries, DJ Creighton added 56 yards on 11 tries and Wallace carried for 37 yards on three attempts. The Blue Devils ended up with 298 yards in the losing effort. Sophomore quarterback Beckham Jarrard was 13-of-22 for 147 yards. Childers, a senior for the Blue Devils and their top running back coming into the game, gained only 14 net yards on 11 carries. He was averaging over 100 yards through the team’s first three games. The Glynn defense forced fumbles on Statesboro’s first two possessions. In addition to the Coleman recovery mentioned above, Smith Whitehead recovered a loose ball for the Terrors on the Blue Devils’ opening drive after Amari Moore knocked the ball away from Jarrard as he closed in to sack him from behind. “You gotta play fast. If you play fast and hit people, good things can happen. That’s the nature of defense,” Hidalgo said. GA’s Hidalgo praised Statesboro’s third-year head coach Matt Dobson for the job he is doing with the Blue Devils. “Statesboro had a lot going against it. He has done a good job with his players,” Hidalgo said. Glynn will be on the road next week as it goes to Augusta to take on Lakeside-Evans in region action. Statesboro goes to Hinesville to face off with Bradwell Institute at Olvey Field. ...

Kickoff A look at Glynn Academy’s next game: Opponent: Statesboro When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Glynn County Stadium Records: GA 1-2; 0-1 Region 1-AAAAA; SHS 2-1, 1-0 Region 1-AAAAAA Last week: GA lost 35-28 at Bradwell; Statesboro won 42-28 at home over Greenbrier. Last year/All-time: GA won 21-20 in Statesboro; SHS leads 20-14 Game Preview Glynn Academy will be looking to bounce back from a tough loss last week at Bradwell Institute in its Region 1-AAAAA opener. The Red Terrors fell 35-28 in Hinesville and never trailed until falling behind late when the hometown Tigers broke the 28-28 deadlock with the winning touchdown. Glynn won its opening game 38-14 at home on Aug. 15 over Wayne County, but lost to Richmond Hill (21-0) and Bradwell in back-to-back games. A victory over the Blue Devils on Friday would allow the Terrors to avoid their first three-game losing streak since the 2022 season when they actually lost four in a row before reeling off four straight wins to finish out the regular season. That was also the last time Glynn lost its first two region games. Statesboro, which is off to a 2-1 start, defeated Greenbrier last week in its region opener at home. The Blue Devils avenged a 43-14 loss to the Wolfpack in the 2024 season with their win at Womack Field. The Blue Devils have not won their first two region games since the 2013 season when they enjoyed a 10-2 campaign. Last year, Glynn got out of Statesboro with a 21-20 victory. The Blue Devils scored in the closing seconds to pull within a point and lined up to go for two points and the win, but a penalty backed them up 5 yards. They then decided to kick the extra-point to tie the score, but missed the point-after try. In 2022, Glynn faked an extra-point kick in Statesboro and ran for two points and a 43-42 victory over the Blue Devils. Glynn has won the last eight games against Statesboro which last defeated the Terrors in 2008 when the Blue Devils won 3-0 in a region game at GC Stadium. That Statesboro team was ranked second in the state and went on to play in the state quarterfinals. --- Compiled by Kevin Price for GCS Athletics ...

Kickoff: A look at Brunswick High’s next game: Opponent: Evans When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Knights Stadium, Evans Records: BHS 2-1, 1-0 Region 1-AAAAA; EHS 1-2, 1-0 Region 1-AAAAA Last week: BHS won 42-14 at home over Effingham. Evans won 27-12 at Lakeside-Evans. Last year/All-time: BHS won 48-14 at home; BHS leads 5-0 overall. Game Preview Brunswick is coming off an impressive 42-14 victory last week at home over Effingham to kick off the Region 1-AAAA schedule. The Pirates drove for a touchdown on their opening possession, and then after the BHS defense picked off a pass on the first play from scrimmage by the Rebels, the Brunswick offense quickly put the ball in the end zone again to give BHS an instant 14-0 lead. Brunswick completely dominated the Rebels who were the last team to win a region title other than the Pirates when they won the league in 2023. The Pirates led 28-7 at halftime, with 328 yards to 80 by the Rebels. BHS finished the night with 545 total yards including 398 on the ground while checking Effingham to 208 for the game. Junior running back Nigel Gardner ran for 186 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. One of his TD runs covered 69 yards. Now, Brunswick will make the long trek to Augusta to face Evans this week. The Pirates have never lost to the Knights, winning all five meetings between the teams including the 2022 game which BHS won 28-7 at Evans. That was the last time the Pirates played the Knights on their home field. Brunswick’s perfect march through the region a year ago en route to the region crown included a 48-14 win over the Knights at Glynn County Stadium. The Knights have a new coach this season. Lee Hutto has replaced Barrett Davis as head coach. Davis was 22-22 in four seasons with the program before stepping down from the job in early 2025. Hutto was hired to take over the program in the spring after previously serving as head coach at Westside (Augusta) for four seasons. His 2024 team was 8-3 and made the playoffs. Hutto also has been a head coach at Washington-Wilkes and Warren County. He also was once the defensive coordinator at Glynn Academy when Rob Ridings was head coach. The Knights lost their first two games, falling to Thomson (7-0) and Grovetown before winning their region opener last Friday at Lakeside-Evans (27-12). Evans led 13-12 at halftime last week and pulled away in the second half. ---- Compiled by Kevin Price for GCS Athletics ...

By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The first Region 1-AAAAA game of the season for Glynn Academy didn’t go as planned on Friday night. The Red Terrors were knocked off 35-28 by Bradwell Institute at Olvey Field in the first of eight league games for both teams. The Tigers never led in the game until their long pass play for a touchdown gave them the lead with just over a minute left in regulation. Bradwell tied the score at 28-28 on their previous possession when the home team faked a punt and scored on a 49-yard pass to pull even following the made extra-point kick. Glynn had regained the lead at 28-21 with 6:45 remaining in the game on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Max Noonan to Sean Wallace. The Terrors had won 13 straight games against the Tigers dating back to the 2009 season. GA head coach Rocky Hidalgo had been 9-0 against the Tigers before last night and his Glynn teams had given up more than 14 points only once in the previous games against Bradwell. Last year, the Terrors defeated the Tigers 57-12 at Glynn County Stadium. Bradwell won only two games a year ago, defeating rival Liberty County in the season opener and South Effingham in a region game in mid-October. Bradwell (1-1) lost its final three games last year and lost its opener this season to Liberty. The Tigers’ Week 2 game against Westover was wiped out by inclement weather, and they were off last week. Glynn won its opening game this season against Wayne County but now has dropped two in a row. The Terrors lost 21-0 at Richmond Hill in their second game before having an open date last week. GA jumped out to a 14-0 lead Friday night, scoring twice in the second quarter on a pair of Da’Shawn Howard runs. Bradwell scored late in the opening half to make it a 14-7 game at halftime. Glynn went up 21-7 early in the third, getting the ball right away following an interception by Cooper Reiss on Bradwell’s first offensive series of the second half. The Terrors turned the turnover into points as Max Noonan scored on a keeper from 9 yards out to extend the GA lead. The Terrors couldn’t hold back the Tigers, however. Bradwell pulled within 21-14 with a touchdown, and then after a missed field goal by the Terrors late in the third, the Tigers would connect on a 77-yard pass play to draw even at 21-21 going into the final quarter. Again, Glynn went back in front on that aforementioned TD pass from Noonan to Wallace that gave the Terrors the 21-14 lead. But again, Bradwell tied it late and then added the late score to come away with the region victory. The Terrors will be back at home next week for a region game against Statesboro. Bradwell visits Effingham next week. ...

By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics If Brunswick High and Effingham were the frontrunners for the Region 1-AAAAA championship going into their game Friday night, there’s only one frontrunner remaining for the region title after the Pirates and Rebels played in the league opener at Glynn County Stadium. And that would be the Pirates (2-1), the defending region champions who appear headed for back-to-back crowns and a fourth in five seasons. Brunswick posted a 42-14 victory over the Rebels (1-2) between the bricks in a game that was one-sided from the opening kick, leaving little doubt about who the team to beat in the region is again this season. “It was a great team win,” said BHS head coach Garrett Grady. “Our kids came ready to play tonight. The region championship has come down to this game the last four years, and our guys were well-prepared. We just came out ready to play. I was proud to see that.” Last season, the Pirates opened the league slate with a 42-20 victory over the Rebels in Springfield and that was the first of their eight straight wins to claim the region crown with a perfect record in league play. Two years ago, the Rebels won the region with a perfect run through the league which included a win over the Pirates in the final game of the regular season. Effingham’s 2023 title ended Brunswick’s two-year reign atop the region as BHS had won back-to-back championships the previous two seasons. Now a month into the 2025 campaign, it doesn’t look like anyone in the region will be able to match the scoring prowess of the Pirates who surpassed the 40-point mark for the eighth time in their last nine region games while putting up 545 yards of offense against an overmatched Effingham defense. Brunswick had 328 total yards in the first two quarters while building a commanding 28-7 lead at halftime. “We were clicking tonight. We had a few times in the red zone when we had some drive-killing penalties, penalties that took us out of scoring position,” Grady said. “But we were able to put the ball in the end zone several times tonight, and we can build off that and just go back and correct the mistakes.” The 11 penalties by the Pirates for 97 yards on the night were perhaps the one negative number on the final stat sheet, but the other numbers by the Pirates were eye-popping in a good way for sure. Brunswick rushed for 398 yards including 200 in the opening half while throwing for 147 yards as well. The two junior running backs for the Pirates were dynamite again, combining for exactly 300 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries between them in the win. Speedster Nigel Gardner, who received a state championship ring with the other members of the BHS 4x200-meter relay team that won a state title this past spring, ran for 186 yards and two scores on 10 carries. He dashed 69 yards to paydirt to open a third-quarter drive for the Pirates as BHS went up 35-7 on the scoreboard. Gibbons was impressive, too. He carried 12 times for 114 yards and scored on a 33-yard run for Brunswick’s last touchdown early in the fourth quarter that made it 42-7 following the extra-point kick. Also for the Pirates, sophomore Brody Marshall carried 8 times for 55 yards. Meantime, senior quarterback Grant Moore was solid again. He finished the game 11-of-16 for 147 yards as the Pirates came off the gas pedal the more the game wore on after halftime. Moore was on the money early, especially. He completed his first eight passes in the game for 120 yards including a 28-yarder on Brunswick’s opening drive which covered 80 yards and ended with Moore keeping for a 7-yard TD run. Moore, who has a walk-on offer to Georgia Tech, also completed a 39-yard strike down the home sideline to Isreal Henry on the first play of Brunswick’s second possession which started at the Effingham 41-yard line following an interception by the BHS defense. The big play to the 2 led to a scoring run by Heze Kent on the next play, and BHS was up 14-0 before everyone got comfortable in their seats. Kent, a senior tight end and Florida commit, also scored on another 2-yard run late in the second quarter that gave the Pirates their 28-7 cushion before halftime. That pass interception by Zi’yan Rankin on Effingham’s first play from scrimmage was the first big play on an impressive night by Brunswick’s defense. The Pirates handcuffed a Rebels offense which put up 42 points in a loss to Houston County to start the season. BHS held Effingham to only 80 net yards in the first half, and the Rebels would finish with 208 for the game. Effingham’s senior quarterback Tucker Perkins, who threw for more than 3,000 yards and 36 touchdowns last year, was only 7-of-18 against the Pirates for 114 yards with the early interception. Perkins did not play last week after leaving Effingham’s opener against Houston County with a sprained ankle. He played with a noticeable limp Friday night, and Brunswick’s defense harassed him all game, pressuring the second-year starter into inaccurate passes and sacking him several times on the night. BHS also bottled up the Effingham ground game, limiting the visitors to 27 rushing yards in the first half and 94 for the game. Both of Effingham’s touchdowns were short runs by Mauricio McKenzie. His first score cut the BHS lead to 14-7 with just over four minutes left in the first quarter. His second touchdown made for the final score with about seven minutes remaining in the game. “The lines of scrimmage really dominated tonight for us,” Grady said. “That showed in our run game. Our defensive line was getting to the quarterback as were our blitzes with our linebackers, and when they got home, they were physical which is what we wanted to see.” Brunswick will go on the road next week for a region game at Evans in Augusta. Effingham returns home to face Bradwell Institute which stunned Glynn Academy on Friday night, winning 35-28 in Hinesville. ...