By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

On a rainy night in Douglas the Brunswick High Pirates fell to the Coffee Trojans 20-7 in the season opener for both schools.

The Pirates started out slow going down 13-0 with 9 minutes left in first quarter and then failed to cash in on a couple of scoring opportunities late in the half with a dropped TD pass and a missed FG on the last play of the half.

The Pirate run defense made some improvements in the second half. Coffee cashed in on a fumble and scored a touchdown to make it 20-0 early in the 4th quarter. Brunswick answered with a 10-yard TD pass from KJ Lee to Xavier Bean to make the final score 20-7.

Pirate Report Card.

Offense: C+. The offense moved the ball well most of the night. It was a wet night and the Pirates committed three turnovers and dropped a punt snap that resulted in two Coffee TD’s.

KJ Lee looked good for his first varsity start. Jaylen Trimmings looked very good running the football. The offensive line did a decent job against a championship caliber defense and Xavier Bean had his coming out party at WR. Che Foy looked good in space with football in his hands.

The Pirates need to clean up the drops as they dropped two TD passes. The penalties, turnovers and drops will get cleaned up with more game experience. This unit is going to be very good by the time region play starts.

Defense: C. Run defense needs to be cleaned up. The secondary did not play as well as I expected. I was proud of the effort on this side of the ball however. More game experience and an upcoming addition at middle linebacker will improve the run defense.

This group hung in there when things looked bad early. It was 13-0 before the BHS band took their seats; gutty effort to keep BHS in the game.

Special Teams: D. Poor snaps all night, dropped snap that led to a TD, and a missed 27-yard FG. Special teams will get better as last night was first live action for this group for the season.

Coaching: B. The team had a good game plan. Coaching made some good adjustments all night and the improvement from spring to first game against #2 ranked Coffee was significant.

Overall: C. A loss is a loss, but the young Pirates have good talent and good coaching.

The future is bright and this edition of the Pirates will be fine when region play starts.