Courtesy of PG Hawks FB
The Pleasant Grove Hawks host the Gilmer Buckeyes at Hawk Stadium this Friday night.
As usual when these two teams meet, the winner will be in the drivers seat as far as likly winning the district championship and obtaining the number 1 seed in the high school football playoffs.
Before we look at the huge match up lets look back on what happened last Friday night in Pittsburgh.
The Hawks went on the road and hammered the Pirates 49-19. It was the first game of district play for the Hawks and Head Coach Josh Gibson loved what he saw from his team. “We had a HUGE first half. Everything was clicking on offense and defense. Ben was 9 of 11 with 2 TD’s passing. We opened the game with a 99 yard scoring drive, 4 straight pass plays that were completed and Bruce finished off the drive with a big run. Defensively we played fast and physical and created turnovers. The second half was as dominating, but that’s because we pulled some of our key starters at the end of the second quarter. Every kid had an opportunity to play and contribute in the second half.”
The Hawks did utilize a lot of different kids especially on offense according to Gibson, ” Yes, we had a long list of players getting touches on both the ground and through the air. It’s great to see so many get opportunities and capitalize.”
As the Hawks have turned their attention towards the Gilmer Buckeyes, they have gotten some good news as far as the injury status of the team. Both Nick Martin and Jamie Lewis who have been sidelined recently will be available for action Friday night. Gibson says, “That will help us a lot on both sides of the ball.”
We asked the coach his assessment on this year’s version of Gilmer. “Gilmer has a great football program and a lot of tradition and belief. This will be a HUGE game for both programs. Gilmer is playing great defensively right now. They play fast and they held two great programs, Carthage and Newton, to 3 TD’s and a shutout respectively. They always do a great job on offense and creat opportunities for big plays. We will have to play a sound game and a clean game.”
The weather is going to be perfect and with such a great match up, I would expect a crowd similiar to what showed up a couple of weeks ago to see Carthage and the Hawks do battle. My advice would be show up early and be prepared to stay to the end. These two teams are evenly matched. I feel the if there will be a difference it will be with the PG defense being able to contain Gilmer and give the Hawks the chance to possibly pull away in the second half.
But that’s just my thoughts and opinion, it should be a very exciting night of high school football at Hawk Stadium.