No. 3 Pirates register second shutout of season against Keys

LEA LESSLEY SPORTS WRITER

GORE–The Pirates‚ defense delivered its second shutout of the young season and quarterback Noah Cooper completed three touchdown passes Friday night inside K.G. Horn Stadium as Class A No. 3 Gore (2-0) topped 2A Keys (0-1) 47-0 in a nondistrict game. The Pirates journey to Mounds on Friday night and Keys hosts Stilwell.

“We‚ve still got a lot we‚ve got to get cleaned up, especially before district play starts, and the closer we get to it we‚ve got to clean up all our penalties,” Gore head coach Brandon Tyler said. “We had way, way too many penalties. We‚ve got to do a little better job on the defensive side of the ball with our defensive ends squeezing instead of running up the field. A lot of success Keys had on their run game was because our ends were flying up the field too far instead of squeezing so they were just cutting right underneath us. Just still a lot of correctable things that we‚ve got to get done and get taken care of.”

The Pirates were penalized 11 times for 100 yards in the contest.

“Offensively I thought we did a great job of running the football,” said Tyler. “I thought Noah (Cooper) did a good job of throwing the ball and the receivers did a good job of catching it so just all-around team effort. Special teams were solid again and just excited to get another big win over a good Keys team.”

Gore wide receiver Liam Edwards, who scored two touchdowns in the contest, caught a 10-yard touchdown throw from Cooper with 9:23 left in the opening period before Christian O‚Connor added the first of his five successful pointafter kicks to make the score 7-0. Blue Steward returned the opening kickoff 21 yards to the Gore 47 and a key play in the scoring drive was a 29-yard run by Gunner Dozier.

Cooper, a linebacker on defense, recovered a Keys‚ fumble at the Cougars‚18 following moments later, and after Jackson Duke ran 13 yards to the 5 Dozier crossed the goal line for the Pirates‚ second touchdown with 8:15 remaining.

Later in the quarter Dozier‚s 34-yard run took the Pirates to the Keys 27 and Duke ran for a 15-yard touchdown at the 2:50 mark after gaining 12 yards on the previous carry. The score remained 20-0 after O‚Connor‚s PAT hit the right upright.

Completions of 16 (Treveon Guthrie) and 10 yards (Garret Glory) from Keys quarterback Colton Combs helped the Cougars gain a first down at the Gore 13 early in the second stanza but two tackles by defensive lineman Garrett Douthit and four straight negative plays ended the scoring threat at the 20.

After Gore‚s defensive stand Dozier‚s first-down carry netted 17 yards and on the next snap Cooper completed a 60-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Journey Shells. O‚Connor‚s extra point with 8:47 to go before the half made the score 27-0.

The Pirates started their seconds offensive series of the period from their 40 and after Dozier ran 26 yards wide receiver Ben Kirkpatrick caught a 34-yard touchdown throw to give Gore a 33-0 lead with 3:19 left before the intermission.

At the 8:56 mark of the third quarter Gore defensive back Keigan Reid intercepted a pass at the Keys 39 and 13 seconds later Edwards crossed the goal line after receiving a handoff from Cooper.

Gore reserve running back Bladin McCartney ran for a 29-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left in the third frame and O‚Connor‚s point-after kick split the uprights to end the scoring.

Cooper completed 5-of-6 passes for 108 yards and three touchdowns and Shells (2 catches for 56 yards), Kirkpatrick (2 for 42) and Edwards (1 for 10) had the receptions.

Dozier was the game‚s leading rusher with eight carries for 125 yards and also reaching double digits in rushing yardage for Gore were Duke (8 carries for 38 yards), Edwards (1 for 38), McCartney (3 for 34), Alex Hallum (7 for 22), McCartney, Tyler Lane (3 for 12) and Cooper (1 for 10).

Reid intercepted a pass in the contest and Cooper, McCartney and Jagger Moore each recovered a fumble.

Combs completed 13-of-17 passes for 70 yards with one interception and catching the throws for the Cougars were Guthrie (7 catches for 36 yards), Rylee Blair (3 for 13) and Bronc Quetone (2 for 12) and Glory (1 for 10).

Cooper Hamilton (11 carries for 34 yards), Payton Williams (11 for 23) and Boomer Robinson (7 for 13) were the Cougars‚ leading rushers.