Pirates rout Allen, headed to Woodland for playoff opener

Although county rival Central helped out with its home win last Friday night over Liberty, the Gore Pirates wanted to take care of business themselves to secure the final playoff spot from District AII-3 — and did they ever.

The Pirates routed the Allen Mustangs 40-6 on Senior Night on a wet and sloppy Friday night at K.G. Horn Stadium to lock up the fourth seed from the district, and earn a Class A, Division II opening-round playoff match-up with the Woodland Cougars at 7 p.m. next Friday in Fairfax.

“It wasn’t the best conditions, but the kids had fun,” Gore coach Brandon Ellis said. “They’ve never played in a ball game like that. They had a lot of fun with it. With what we run our style of offense, it (the weather conditions) kind of played into our hands. That’s the type of weather we like to play in.” The Pirates (6-4 overall, 4-3 in district play) jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a two-yard touchdown run by Bladin McCartney and a four-yard TD run by Devon Mannon — which was capped by Drake Cowart’s two-point conversion run. Jagger Moore’s one-yard touchdown plunge in the second quarter put the Pirates ahead 20-0 at halftime.

McCartney scored his second TD of the game on a 17-yard run to make it 26-0 in the early stages of the third quarter, then tight end Keiden Denton picked up an offensive fumble by a teammate and rambled 20 yards to paydirt to up Gore’s advantage to 32-0 later in the period before the Mustangs (1-9, 1-6) scored their lone TD late in the third quarter to send the game into the final period with Gore ahead 32-6.

Gore quarterback Tate Brooksher scored on a 41-yard TD run, followed by Brendon Keith two-point conversion, to cap the scoring.

For the game, McCartney rushed for 209 yards and scored two touchdowns, Mannon had 49 yards rushing and a TD and Brooksher rushed for 55 yards and a touchdown. Gore only tried one pass play, and it came on the two-point conversion attempt after Denton’s third-quarter TD.