By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Below are recaps of the preseason scrimmages involving the Glynn Academy and Brunswick High football teams from Friday night: Pierce County 21, Glynn Academy 0 The Red Terrors fell to the Bears in their only preseason game which was played at Glynn County Stadium. The varsity teams played three 12-minute quarters before giving way to sub-varsity players who finished out the night by playing the final period in which the Bears tacked on two more touchdowns. The scrimmage came after a short week of work for Glynn which didn’t get to practice Monday or Tuesday because of the storm that closed Glynn County Schools. The Terrors also got in limited work on the field on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday’s matchup was the second scrimmage for Pierce which played Groves last week at home in Blackshear and won big over the severely outmanned Rebels from Garden City. The Bears didn’t have spring practice so they could play two preseason scrimmages under Georgia High School Association rules. Pierce won the Class AA state championship last fall and looks primed to contend for the crown again in 2024. Glynn trailed 14-0 after two quarters before seeing the Bears varsity team score again in the third period. “We’ve got a lot to work on,” GA head coach Rocky Hidalgo said matter-of-factly following the scrimmage which was met with rain showers. "I knew we would struggle offensively. We lost an offensive lineman last week and had to reshuffle our line, and haven’t really gotten to practice with it. We’ve been doing some different stuff offensively that we’ve been practicing. We didn’t do a lot of it today, but we’ve got to see where our groove is gonna be and start whittling that groove a little bit. “Defensively, we found some guys who competed a little bit. We were slow off the ball early, but we settled down on the defensive line. We've got to tackle better in the secondary, and our discipline wasn’t real good at times, and that cost us some long throws. I thought our linebackers got better the more we played, but we’ll have to go look at the film.” The Bears scored their first touchdown on a time-consuming drive engineered by their returning All-State quarterback Caden McGatha who passed and ran for more than 2,000 yards last season. The drive, the second of the game for Pierce, started at the Bears’ 17-yard line with 8:17 to go in the opening quarter and ended with the senior quarterback tossing a 9-yard scoring pass in the end zone on fourth-and-5 to senior Jones Herrin who came out of the backfield uncovered. The play was the first of the second quarter and also was the second fourth-down conversion on the series for the Bears who kept their drive alive when McGatha hit Nigel Brown on fourth-and-8 from the Glynn 33 on an underneath route that turned into a 19-yard gain to the 14. Pierce quickly went up 14-0 when it recovered a GA fumble at the 28-yard line. The Bears turned the turnover into seven points when McGatha scored on a keeper from 7 yards out on a third-and-3 play. Glynn gave up the ball on downs twice inside the Pierce 30 in the second quarter. After halftime, GA got the ball first, but had to punt. The Bears took over at their own 17 after the punt rolled dead. Special teams weren’t live in the scrimmage. On the first play for the Bears, McGatha broke free down the home sideline for a 48-yard pickup to the Glynn 35. His run, in addition to a pass interference call against the Terrors which moved the ball to the 20, quickly moved Pierce into the red zone. A few plays later, McGatha, who accounted for six touchdowns in last year’s state final which Pierce won in overtime, delivered a pretty pass toward the right corner of the end zone which was hauled in by Brown for the Bears’ third score. Garrett Stevenson added his third extra-point kick to make for the 21-0 score with 7:22 to play in the third quarter. Along with his long run in the quarter, McGatha also completed a 50-yard pass to Chance Williams from his 9 to the GA 41 late in the frame. Glynn started junior move-in Niko Munoz at quarterback, but also gave senior Jayden Ellis who became the starting quarterback last year nearly equal time. Ellis started at cornerback on defense and was a team captain. Senior running back/receiver Greg Peacock did not play. The Terrors are counting on him as a big-play threat following an injury-riddled junior season when he never really got untracked. In the fourth period, the sub-varsity players battled it out. Freshman running back Dylan Johnson scored twice for the Bears in the quarter, finding paydirt from 27 yards and also scoring from 75 yards on the final play of the night. Glynn opens the regular-season next Friday at Wayne County. Ware County 28, Brunswick High 19 The Pirates finished on the short end of the final tally on the scoreboard at Memorial Stadium in a contest that was pretty action-packed and exciting for a preseason get-together. The meeting between the Pirates and the Gators was the only scrimmage for both teams who open their seasons next week. Brunswick is coming off a second-round appearance in the Class AAAAAA state playoffs last season while Ware lost close in round two in Class AAAAA last fall after going unbeaten on its way to its first state championship back in 2022. The teams faced off this summer during segments in the two-day padded camp the Pirates hosted on their campus in late June. On Friday, BHS scored first after the Gators had missed an early field-goal try from 38 yards. Brunswick’s score actually came on a 38-yard pass from junior quarterback Grant Moore to Jamarious Towns. The Pirates led 7-0 after the point-after was true. The Gators answered before the end of the opening stanza on a 1-yard run that capped a 60-yard drive comprised of all rushing plays by the home team to pull even at 7-7 going into the second quarter. Ware would take its first lead on a long run following an interception of the Pirates in the end zone and would lead 14-7 at halftime. In the third quarter, the Gators wasted little time going up by two scores. They returned the second-half kick 65 yards and would score on an 18-yard pass thrown by senior quarterback Noah Hooks for a 21-7 advantage after the made kick. Brunswick roared back, though. Starting a drive at their own 18 following a penalty on a kickoff, the Pirates went to their Pirate Package to chew up yardage on the ground before Moore teamed up with tight end Heze Kent for his second TD pass of the night, this one covering 22 yards. The PAT was blocked, so the score stayed 21-13. BHS missed a golden chance to draw closer after intercepting Ware’s backup quarterback and going on offense at the Gator 28 moments later. The Pirates ended up losing yardage and had to punt. The Pirates did capitalize on another pick right after that, however. After starting at the Ware 25, they put Kent in the shotgun and snapped him the ball. Ultimately, though, it was William Heck who scored from 2 yards out to bring Brunswick within 21-19. Brunswick elected to try for two points and the tie, but with Kent taking the direct snap and running, he was stopped on the conversion try, leaving the Pirates down by two points. The Pirates were flagged for a personal foul on the play and thus had to kickoff from their 25. Ware would then start their next drive at their own 40 following their return. The Gators sealed the varsity scrimmage when their ballcarrier sped 60 yards for another touchdown with a little more than a minute to play in the third frame. BHS did drive from its own 20 to the Ware 14 before time expired in the third quarter, ending the varsity time on the field. In the fourth quarter, with the sub-varsity players in action, neither team scored as the Pirates and Gators both had the ball for six minutes each while the other team played defense. The Pirates will open their season next Friday at home against rival Camden County. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Glynn County Stadium.