By Kevin Price

For GCS Athletics

 

The Glynn Academy Red Terrors cracked the win column in their third game of the season Friday night, rolling past Savannah Christian 45-28 at Glynn County Stadium.

 

The game really wasn’t even as close as the final score indicates. It was 14-14 before halftime, but the Terrors reeled off the next 31 points in the game to build up the 30-point margin that is necessary for a running clock going into the fourth quarter.

 

The Raiders (1-2) tacked on a couple of touchdowns in the closing moments, which made for a more respectable final score.

 

With the win, Glynn avoided the first-ever 0-3 start to a season under head coach Rocky Hidalgo who is in his 13^th season with the Terrors. Glynn hadn’t started a season with three consecutive losses since the 2009 campaign.

 

The Terrors opened the season falling at home to Calvary Day School, the preseason No. 1-ranked team in the Georgia High School Association’s private-school division. Glynn led that game 22-7 at halftime before losing 49-22.

 

Glynn lost on the road last Friday at Camden County, which defeated the Terrors 42-13 in its home opener in Kingsland after defeating Brunswick High in the season opener.

 

The Wildcats lost their first game Friday night at Benedictine, one of the top programs in the state regardless of classification. The Cadets knocked off the Wildcats 27-23 in a game that was nip-and-tuck from start to finish.

 

Savannah Christian isn’t Calvary or Camden, but still the Raiders are a perennial playoff team that is competing in Class AA this season and figures to make the private-school state playoffs again this fall.

 

Hidalgo was pleased with most of what he saw from the Terrors Friday night. He said they played better than they had previously. 

 

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and truth is, if you play well you have a chance to win. If you don’t, you gotta go back and get better,” the veteran coach said.

 

“That’s really what coaching football is. You can’t panic, or look in the mirror and go all this is wrong. You gotta coach your kids, go to work every day and hammer things out.

 

“We are gonna make the best of what we have here at Glynn Academy as long as I am the head coach here. We’re gonna go back and get really good at being us. We got better at being us this week. We’re not real good yet, but we’re better being us.”

 

Glynn, which did go back to its trademark 3-4 defensive scheme after the opener when they tried a different alignment they practiced in the summer, produced four turnovers Friday night against the Raiders.

 

One of those led to a short field and a second-quarter touchdown that gave the Terrors a 28-14 lead going into halftime.

 

Glynn executed an onside kick that Hidalgo called for coming out of halftime and immediately went up 35-14 just moments into the third quarter on a 36-yard run by junior running back Caiden Robinson who carried 11 times for 82 yards on the night.

 

Patrick Coyle, the GA kicker, actually recovered the loose ball for Glynn.

 

The Raiders put the ball on the ground on their first offensive series of the second half as well, leading to a scoop and score from 30 yards by GA defensive lineman Kobe Cutler for a 42-14 advantage following Coyle’s point-after kick.

 

Glynn blinked the scoreboard to 45-14 on a 37-yard field goal by Coyle just inside the final minute of the third stanza which gave the Terrors the margin needed for a continuous clock by rule in the final quarter.

 

Savannah Christian blocked a punt in the fourth quarter deep in GA territory which led to an easy touchdown. The Raiders also scored on a late pass against Glynn’s backups before the end of the game.

 

“We settled into our 3-4 defense. We settled in and played fast,” Hidalgo said. “After they scored a couple of touchdowns, we took over the game.”

 

The Terrors took the opening kick and drove 80 yards for a touchdown to jump out front. They ran 13 plays on the drive and ate up the first 8 minutes and 14 seconds of the opening quarter before Cooper Reiss scored on a 1-yard run. The extra-point was blocked, but Glynn thought the Raiders should have been penalized on the play.

 

The Raiders answered on their first series, connecting on a pass by Caden Godbee to William Bucey for a 57-yard touchdown and went up 7-6 with the extra-point.

 

Glynn regained the lead for good on its third offensive series of the night when Ian Pomiechowski ripped off a 55-yard run for a touchdown. The Terrors converted a two-point play on a run by Ja’Kori Roman for a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.

 

The Raiders answered again with another long pass and some help from a late-reacting GA secondary which Hidalgo pointed out in his postgame media session. But, it was a 55-yard pass from Godbee to Bucey again for the score that tied the game with the extra-point.

 

Glynn took charge from there. The Terrors went 92 yards in eight plays the next time they had the ball to take a 21-14 lead. The final play of the touchdown drive was a double-pass on third down coming out of a timeout. GA quarteback Max Noonan tossed the ball left to Jemayne Leggitt who then chucked a pass to a wide-open Roman in the middle of the field.

 

The play covered 48 yards for the score. Hidalgo said the play-call was made by offensive coordinator James Perry.

 

“We always have a little something, you know,” Hidalgo added.

 

Moments later, the Terrors went up two scores when defensive lineman Grant Ferrell caused a fumble that was recovered by fellow lineman Zamir Bell at the Savannah Christian 14-yard line.

 

The Terrors would punch in another score before the end of the half on a 4-yard run by Noonan that put Glynn up two scores, 28-14, at the break.

 

For the game, Glynn totaled 390 yards including 318 on the ground. Noonan ended up leading the way with 90 yards rushing on 14 carries.

 

The Terrors gave up 274 yards to the Raiders offense which had only 35 rushing yards to go with 239 passing yards.

 

Busey led their pass-catchers with 143 yards receiving. Three of the five passes he caught went for touchdowns.

 

“Our execution was better offensively, but the biggest issue we had was a lot of penalties. We gotta get lined up at wide receiver and we were moving at halfback. We can’t have any of that stuff,” Hidalgo said.

 

The Terrors were penalized 11 times for 95 yards on the night.

 

Glynn will be off next week and will play its Region 1-AAAAAA opener on Sept. 18 against Bradwell Institute at home.