By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The Brunswick High Pirates delivered Garrett Grady his first victory as a head coach Friday night with a 23-13 victory over Andrew Jackson High at Glynn County Stadium. Grady, who had been the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the Pirates, was promoted to head coach when former BHS coach Sean Pender resigned earlier this year to take the head coaching position at North Hall. Grady came to Brunswick from Pierce County with Pender when he took the Pirates’ job prior to the 2017 season. “It feels great,” said Grady. “We got the first one taken care of. I’m very pleased with the effort. There’s a lot of mistakes we can clean up, but I’m very happy. “It just goes to show about work-ethic and what you can do if you follow your dreams and try to make an impact on these young guys. That’s what I’m here for, and tonight’s special, very special.” The Pirates never trailed in the game, but red-zone turnovers, a sure-fire touchdown pass that was dropped and penalties that piled up as the game wore on were among the miscues that kept the home squad from pulling away from the Jacksonville-based school for a win by a wider margin. Brunswick jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when senior Jayden Drayton fielded a short punt on the bounce and dashed 21 yards down the visitors’ sideline for the first touchdown of the 2022 season for the Pirates. McClain Finneran added the point-after kick. The Pirates drove from their own 43-yard line to the Andrew Jackson 36 to begin the night before junior quarterback J.R. Elkins had a third-down pass intercepted at the 1-yard line. The BHS defense, stingy most of the night, forced a three-and-out, which forced the Tigers to punt from their own end zone, setting up the Drayton return for the score. The Tigers quickly answered with the first of their two touchdowns. Senior running back Fred Gaines hauled in a third-down pass in tight coverage along his team’s sideline and raced 85 yards to paydirt to tie the score after the extra-point kick. BHS went back up by 13-7 with a touchdown on its next drive which was 7 plays and 65 yards. Sophomore running back William Heck scored from 4 yards out. Two big plays on the march by the Pirates were a 36-yard pass from Elkins to Terry Mitchell to the Tigers’ 42 and a 22-yard run by Ivan Johnson two plays later to get the Pirates inside the 20-yard line. The Pirates added a 23-yard field goal by Finneran as the horn sounded to end the opening half for a 16-7 lead at halftime. The Pirates scored the first time they had the ball in the third quarter as they started on the Tigers’ 28 yard-line following a punt return and a late-hit penalty. A holding penalty would back up the Pirates to the 35, but on third down, Elkins hit a wide-open Drayton behind the Andrew Jackson secondary for a touchdown and a 23-7 advantage after the PAT. The Tigers got within 23-13 with 5:28 left in the third as they scored a touchdown on an 80-yard drive. In the fourth quarter, the Pirates had a dropped pass in the end zone that prevented a touchdown. They also drove into the red zone again, but penalties moved them back and they turned over the ball on downs at the Tigers’ 27. “I’d like to see us finish drives when we’re down there,” Grady said. “We struggled at times running the ball against a great defensive front. “Our defense bowed their neck at times when we called on them, and our special teams were prepared. We can clean up things with personnel issues and we’ll do that in practice this next week.” Johnson led the Brunswick rushers with 81 yards on 10 carries while Heck gained 58 yards on 14 attempts. For the BHS defense, senior linebacker Lionell Twitty finished with five tackles, fellow senior linebacker Zion Turner had four solo stops as did sophomore linebacker J’Shawn Towns. Jordan Jimmerson and Ka’Shawn Thomas both recorded sacks for the Pirates who held the Tigers to 200 total yards for the game. Brunswick will be back at home next week against Camden County. The Wildcats’ season got off to a disappointing start Friday night with a shocking 13-10 loss to Columbia High from Decatur.