By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics There was the Miracle Between the Bricks back in 2020, when Brunswick High defeated Glynn Academy 24-21 in the final seconds with one of the biggest single plays in the history of the City Championship Game. The 2025 edition of the Brunswick-Glynn rivalry was another instant classic, and perhaps for the Pirates, it was Miracle Between the Bricks, the Sequel. Brunswick won in thrilling fashion again on Friday night at Glynn County Stadium, but not on a single play. This time, the Pirates (5-1 overall, 4-0 Region 1-AAAAA) staged a fourth-quarter comeback that will forever stand out in the history of the local football rivalry as they scored the final 20 points in the last 7 minutes, 27 seconds to pull out a 41-37 victory over the Red Terrors to claim the city crown a second straight season and a fifth time in the last six years. “There’s no quit in this team,” said Brunswick head coach Garrett Grady. “Hats off to Glynn Academy. It was a heckuva battle. The thing I’ll say about our team, there’s no quit. The relentless effort they gave all the way to the end, they never stopped believing in each other. That brotherhood was very strong.” Like the legendary University of Georgia play-by play announcer Larry Munson was known to say about the Bulldogs in his time when they pulled out a win that seemed improbable, the Pirates seemed “out of it and gone” when Glynn went up 37-21 on a 1-yard touchdown run by D.J Creighton with just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. That short scoring run came after the Terrors (3-3, 2-2) took possession at the Brunswick 13-yard line when the Pirates went for a first down on fourth-and-14 when trailing 30-21 with more than nine minutes left in the game. BHS quarterback Grant Moore was dropped for a loss on the play, and Glynn took over on downs deep on Brunswick’s side of the field. Three plays later, the Pirates found themselves trailing by the 16 points after the Terrors punched in the rushing score. The next time they got the ball, the Pirates’ quick-strike offense went to work after starting from their own 20. Brunswick covered the 80 yards in 2:55 to cut its deficit to 37-27 with exactly 4:32 to go. Junior running back Nigel Gardner scored from 2 yards out to close out the fast march. Along the way, Moore, who threw for 336 yards and four touchdowns in the game while going 14-for-18 on the night with an early interception, completed back-to-back passes to Dontre’ Butler that were for gains of 8 yards to the Glynn 33 and 22 yards to the GA 9. BHS then called for two straight Gardner runs to get into the end zone. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Pirates after the touchdown did hurt the Pirates as it forced them to try for two points farther out and their pass attempt on the two-point play fell incomplete, leaving them down 10. The Pirates tried an onside kick, but Glynn gained possession at the BHS 49-yard line when the kick didn’t travel the necessary 10 yards before someone could try to recover it for Brunswick. Glynn could have put the game away as the Terrors drove to the Brunswick 5, but a fumble on a rushing play that was recovered by the Pirates kept them alive with still 3:35 remaining. That big-play offense for the Pirates, the one that has BHS averaging almost 44 points a game to rank among the top 5 in scoring in Class AAAAA, returned to the field. The BHS offense was 95 yards away from its team having a chance if they could score in a hurry, and boy, the Pirates sure did. A 63-yard run by junior running back Josiah Gibbons on third-and-1 quickly put Brunswick on the Glynn 23, and on the next play, Moore would toss a 23-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Isreal Henry to pull Brunswick within 37-34 with just under two minutes left. The Pirates, of course, had to onside kick again, and this time they recovered the kick at the Glynn 48, sending the BHS faithful who didn’t leave early into a frenzy on the visitor’s side of the field. Covering less than half the field had to seem like a piece of cake for Moore and his offensive mates after having just paraded 95 yards moments earlier, and sure enough, it was. It took Brunswick only four plays to score the go-ahead touchdown. Glynn was penalized 5 yards at the start of the drive, and after a 6-yard run by Gibbons, Moore was sacked for a 6-yard loss back to the GA 43. From there, Moore would connect with Butler for a gain of 34 to the Glynn 9, setting up BHS with first-and-goal. Gardner’s number was called on the next snap and he carried for the score that completed the amazing comeback by the Pirates. An extra-point kick by Landon Etheridge made for the 41-37 score with 33 seconds left. Brunswick did have to make one last stop to finish it, and Zi’Yan Rankin picked off a pass to end it for the Pirates. Rankin was named the Farm Bureau Defensive MVP for BHS following the game. Moore, who was 7-for-7 in the second half for the Pirates and ended up being named the Glynn County Sports Hall of Fame Player of the Game, kneeled on the ball a couple of times to run the remaining seconds off the clock. “He’s the difference,” said GA head coach Rocky Hidalgo of the BHS quarterback who has a walk-on offer from Georgia Tech. “It all revolves around him for them. He’s good, a really good player.” This one will be hard to stomach for the Terrors who did everything they needed to but win the ballgame against a Brunswick team which had shut out its last two opponents and had given up a little more than 13 points a game coming into Friday night. The Pirates walloped Evans 65-0 two weeks ago for the most decisive win in program history and rolled past Greenbrier between the bricks 42-0 last week to record consecutive shutouts for the first time since the great 1999 Brunswick team posted four shutouts in a row to open the season and six overall on the way to playing for a state crown. Following a scoreless first quarter, Glynn trailed 7-0 and 13-7 in the second quarter before going into halftime ahead 14-13. The Terrors led throughout the second half, never trailing until the Pirates scored the go-ahead and winning touchdown in the closing moments. “We ran out of gas on the defensive side, but our kids played their tails off,” Hidalgo said. “We had a chance. They did what we asked them to do. It just wasn’t in the cards for us.” Glynn outgained the Pirates on the ground, rushing for 295 yards while churning out yards and eating clock which was their strategy to keep that Brunswick offense off the field as much as possible. The Terrors passed for 111 yards as sophomore quarterback Max Noonan was 3-of-4 through the air on the night. Creighton led the GA rushing attack with 105 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown. De’Sean Howard carried 18 times for 85 yards and a score. For the Pirates, Gibbons had a big night running and catching the ball and was named the Farm Bureau Offensive MVP for the Pirates. He rushed for 124 yards on 10 carries while catching three passes for 104 yards and a touchdown which covered 52 yards. Gardner, a speedy runner known for breaking long runs, finished with 72 yards and two scores on 14 carries after having 11 yards on five tries in the first half. Brunswick had only 67 rushing yards at the half, but did finish with 222 yards on the ground. With the 336 passing yards by Moore, the Pirates ended up with 558 yards for the game. “Glynn had a good offensive game plan, and played good defense, too,” Grady said. “There was nothing easy about this game. Hopefully, we can use this momentum and move forward.” The Terrors opened the game with an onside kick, but didn’t come away with the loose ball, so Brunswick started with excellent field position at their own 41. Glynn would stop an early threat by the Pirates with an interception at their 13-yard line. The Terrors drove just inside BHS territory before losing the ball on a fumble on their first possession. Again, though, they’d get a stop and force a rare Brunswick punt which teams have had a hard time doing this season. Glynn looked like it would be punting as well on its next series from its own 33 now late in the first quarter, but the Terrors ran a fake instead. They snapped the ball to Caiden Robinson, an up-back in their punt formation, and he would pick up 43 yards to the BHS 33 to keep the GA possession alive. Glynn couldn’t capitalize on the gamble, though, giving the ball back to the Pirates on downs at the 27. This time, on their third possession, the Pirates hit paydirt. Moore found Waseem Murray wide open behind the secondary for a 59-yard touchdown bomb. Murray walked into the end zone for the first score early in the second stanza for the 7-0 lead after the PAT. The Terrors would score on their third series, too. Noonan hit a wide-open T.Y. Chisolm over the middle, and the Glynn senior would race to the end zone to complete the 66-yard TD play that tied the score at 7-all after the point-after. The Pirates scored again on their following series in seven plays with Moore and Gibbons teaming on a 52-yard pass play for a touchdown to finish an 80-yard drive for a 13-7 lead with just over eight minutes left in the first half. They missed the extra-point. Glynn would go on the first of its long scoring drives the next time it had the ball to take the lead going into halftime. The Terrors went 65 yards in 14 plays, using 7:18 of the clock to take the lead on a 2-yard run by Cooper Reiss, a starting linebacker for Glynn as well. The Terrors got the ball to start the second half, and again would score while running down the clock. They kept the ball for the first 6:17 of the third quarter before finishing off a 10-play, 83-yard TD drive with a 1-yard run by Noonan. Creighton ran off the right side for two points to extend Glynn’s lead to 22-13 with 5:13 left in the third period. Brunswick answered the GA score with a touchdown on its opening series of the second half with Moore hitting Heze Kent, his four-star tight end, in the end zone from 27 yards out on the eighth play of an 80-yard drive. Kent caught three passes for 73 yards in the game while also playing along the defensive front for the Pirates. Brunswick converted a third-and-3 play early in the series and then converted on fourth-and-5 with Moore hitting Murray on the BHS sideline for 7 yards and a first down at the 27. On the next play, Moore went up top to Kent for the touchdown. Kent then got the call and ran for two points to make it a 22-21 score with 3:19 left in the third. It was a one-point game going to the fourth, but the Terrors had the ball first-and-goal on Brunswick’s 5 when the final quarter began. They quickly blinked the scoreboard to 30-21 with a Howard scoring run and a Noonan conversion run. The next time BHS had the ball is when the Pirates went for it on fourth down deep in their own territory and gave up the ball on downs at the 13. Glynn took advantage, punching in the score from the short distance for the 37-21 cushion. It seemed all but over, with the clock approaching seven minutes. So much so, that even some BHS fans filed out of the stands, thinking their Pirates who came in as 19-point favorites according to the Maxwell Ratings released each week, were about to be upset-victims in this year’s rivalry game. Obviously, they left too early and didn’t get their money’s worth. The comeback - the miracle sequel - was just about to unfold.