Sep. 24—The Pirates haven’t found themselves in this position in quite some time.
Brunswick High (4-0) enters the City Championship game against Glynn Academy (1-2-1) as the defending champion and favorite when it takes the field at Glynn County Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Unbeaten and ranked seventh in Class 6A, the Pirates are rolling as their crosstown rival searches for its footing, coming off a 42-point loss against another ranked competitor last week. While the Maxwell Ratings might favor Brunswick by 21 points, head coach Sean Pender knows records and past history can be thrown out the window at kickoff — five of the past seven meetings have been determined by a single score.
Both programs ultimately have higher aspirations than the City Championship on the season, but there’s no doubt this game is on each team’s annual bucket list.
“It’s definitely one of our goals,” Pender said. “We have several goals that we put out, and a lot of those goals are stepping-stone goals. One of those stepping stones is to be 1-0 in region play. Another one of those stepping stones is to be the city champion, and then you have another one to be the region champion.
“You are on the path to completing three goals with a victory (Friday).”
Brunswick leads the all-time series against Glynn Academy 38-37-2 after snapping a six-game losing skid in the rivalry in dramatic fashion a year ago.
The Pirates led much of the contest until Caden Hutchinson came up with a diving catch in the corner of the end zone to give the Terrors a four-point lead with just 41 seconds remaining on the clock. But soon after, Brunswick answered with its own improbably scoring play as Tyrease Jones plucked a tipped ball out of the air and raced 75 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
It was the first City Championship win for Pender with the Pirates, and now that Brunswick has removed the monkey from its back, the team should be free to play the brand of fun, carefree football its displayed this season.
“One of the things that we talk about in our every day talks are: play hard, have fun, expect to win,” Pender said. “In that have fun aspect is playing with that unbridled enthusiasm to get after it, have fun, and remember who it was playing in the backyard type deal.
“I do think our kids this year’s energy has been more so of that, and hopefully that will be the case throughout.”
One of the keys for Brunswick will be to weather the storm of emotions that are always present in big rivalry games. Players and coaches on both sides are especially amped up early on, and that overzealousness can turn into miscues.
For the Pirates, the City Championship isn’t the end all, be all of their season. But a loss means Brunswick no longer controls its destiny in its pursuit of a Region 2-6A title.
“Regardless of how much you try to underplay it and control your team, you have to weather the storm of the hype,” Pender said. “Both sides are going to by hyped, the community is extremely involved. You can’t come out and ignore your fans being four or five times the size of a normal game.
“But games like this are why you play. I wish we had more games of this caliber, this atmosphere.”
Brunswick has found most of its offensive success this season on the ground through a stable of ball carriers that can each explode for a big game any given night.
As a team, the Pirates are averaging more than 218 yards a game at 7.1 yards per carry. Chuckobe Hill leads the team with 333 rushing yards and five touchdowns, while Ree Simmons has tallied 230 yards and five scores of his own. Leon Charlton and Jayden Drayton have also combined for 229 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.
Defensively, the Pirates are holding opponents to fewer than 11 points per game using a deep, balanced unit that can both plug up run lanes and make life tough on opposing quarterbacks. Brunswick will have to balance its defensive approach between preparing to stop the run-heavy single wing attack Glynn Academy has deployed in the past, as well as the more pass-happy offense the team has run this season.
“Preparing for what they’ve done in the past, we built it into our regiment that throughout the summer, and throughout the weeks we’re preparing ourselves, we’re always throwing it in,” Pender said. “We’re not an option team, for example, and Glynn has been a veer type team that’s been doing that. So we put a lot of veer concepts before our defense to have to study and do anyway throughout the summer time. When you go against it that week, it’s no the first time we’ve seen it.”