Pirates Blast Cook
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The All Weather Brunswick High Pirates playing their second game in five days drilled the Cook County Hornets 53-7 in a strange game. The 2017 season so far has been marked by weather delays. Bad weather caused two delays in Thursday night’s contest.
The Pirates rolled up 415 yards of total offense in only 27 minutes of action. With a running clock in second half after being up 47-7 at the half the Pirates immediately scored to make it 53-7 and Cook threw the towel in with 9:42 left in the third quarter.
Pirate Report Card:
Offense: A+: How could it have been better? The Pirates had 20 points in 4 offensive plays in the first three minutes of the game and 156 yards.
Jamarius Stevens had the game of his life as a Brunswick High Pirate. Stevens played the first half only and was 11-13 for 310 yards and 6 TD’s. He also had a 4-yard rushing TD.
Jaylen Jackson had three TD’s in his first game playing just offense including a great 75-yard TD catch off his shoe top and just ran away from Cook defenders.
The OL blew holes in the Cook defensive line and just mauled them for 27 minutes until Cook threw in the white towel.
Shaq Robinson had another good night running the football. DJ Whitfield and Alonzo Brown had long TD receptions. This WR group is talented and fast and when the entire group is clicking then opposing defenses have to man up and cover each one on one and that is what the air raid offense is all about.
Defense: A: This unit caused Cook problems all night long with the speed at LB. Sharrod Frazier and Kam Futch flew around all night long.
The game plan was solid and the run defense was dominant. Cook had one 36-yard TD drive after a long kickoff return. Defensive lineman George Mincey ran down a Cook punter on a fake punt and prevented a first down on a great hustle play when the game was well in hand.
The Pirates packed 9 men in the box to stop the Cook single wing offense and completely smothered the Cook rushing attack.
The speed on this defense will cause problems for teams later on the schedule. This unit will continue to get better.
Special Teams: B: The weather was not good. The ball was wet and the unit had a high snap on an extra point, which BHS did not convert. The unit gave up a long kickoff return but Sean Ward made a highlight reel body slam hit on a Cook player on one kickoff return.
Dalton Thrift kicked the ball deep to around the 10 yard line on kickoffs. His leg may be sore today as BHS kicked off seven times in the contest. It was a big turnaround from the Coffee game.
Coaching: A+: This team was ready to play and the game plan went right at Cook and the Hornets folded early.
The passing game was phenomenal, which opened up running lanes. The defense was striking hard, and the effort was there by the players in a short week due to the game time being moved up 24 hours. Sean Pender said the biggest improvement would be from game one to game two and he was correct.
On a wet night, no turnovers meant that ball security issues from the Coffee game were addressed and coached up in practice. Great plan and execution by players and that reflects solid coaching.
Overall: A: Total team effort to come out and dominate a team that is used to making the playoffs in their classification. BHS made a team quit and go home. Enough said.
The Cook radio broadcast team told me post game that the Brunswick team is by far the best team they have seen this year. This is a team that has played Lee County, Brooks County, and Tift County all highly thought of teams around the State.
Up Next: Wayne County in Jesup. That game is going to be tough. Wayne County beat Valdosta in Bazemore-Hyder Thursday night 23-13.