Warriors roll to road win vs. Gilmer
— The Gordon Central Warriors traveled to Ellijay to face the Gilmer Bobcats on a beautiful night, the Warriors came home with a massive win over Gilmer in non-region play, 44-15.
Gordon Central QB Nelson Gravitt was the star of the night for the Warriors (1-2) as he threw for 48 yards and ran for nearly 100 more while scoring three touchdowns. Gordon Central head coach Corey Nix said he was elated with his signalcaller’s performance.
“Nelson did a great job,” said Nix. “He was a spark plug. I didn’t know he had as many rushing yards as he did so that’s huge. Passing…he did a good job. We messed up as far as some routes as far as receivers, but I thought overall he led the offense.”
Despite the success of the offense, the Gordon Central defense made a huge impact on the night. On the opening play of the game, Alec Morris intercepted a pass from Bobcat quarterback David Smith. The Warriors quickly opened the scoring with a two-yard rushing touchdown by Gravitt.
Gilmer’s offense came to life as they drove the ball to the Gordon Central 22, but the Bobcats coughed up the football, and the Warriors took over. Then, the Gilmer defense came up with a big play of their own, as they intercepted a Warrior pass and returned it to the Gordon Central 18.
However, the Warrior defense came up with a huge fourthdown stop to force a turnover on downs in the red zone from the home team with seconds left in the first quarter. The Warriors took a 7-0 lead going into the second period.
In the opening minute of the second quarter, the Warriors made a costly mistake, as they botched an option pitch, and Gilmer recovered the football and returned it six yards for a touchdown. The Warriors put the turnover in their rearview mirror on the next drive, as Gravitt improvised and scampered 30 yards to the house for the second GC touchdown of the day. Unfortunately, the snap was botched on the PAT, and the attempt failed, pushing the lead to 13-7.
After two punts by Gilmer and a fumble by the visiting Warriors, Gordon Central was driving after a big sack of Smith forced a punt. The Warriors took it deep into Bobcat territory. With less than a minute to go in the half, Edgar Ramirez nailed a 36-yard field goal to put his side up 16-7, which was the score as the teams headed to the locker room for halftime.
Gordon Central opened up the second half with a solid drive that ended in a threeyard touchdown run by Cam Pierce. Gilmer answered with their first big play of the game as Smith threw a 45-yard touchdown pass. The Bobcats went for the two-point conversion and were successful. They cut the visitors lead to 23-15.
After that point, the Warriors shut down Gilmer and scored three times in the process. The first was a 24-yard touchdown scamper by Gravitt, the second was a tough 25-yard run by and the third was a twoyard plunge by Morris. Pierce finished the night with 75 yards on the ground.
The Warriors defense played very well the majority of the night. Besides a few moments, Gilmer could not get much done offensively. Both lines of scrimmage for the Warriors dominated the game.
Nix addressed the need for improvement but praised his defense and the overall performance.
“Alec Morris did a great job tonight and (so did) special teams and offense,” said Nix. “As far as defense, we missed some tackles. (Gilmer) got behind us in the secondary, but I was very pleased with my defense. I thought we played a really, really good ballgame tonight. I’m proud of my Warriors. I’m proud that they showed up and believed in themselves tonight.”
Gordon Central has next Friday off before opening the Region 7-AA schedule on Sept. 14 at home against Pepperell.