The Pearl River Rebel running game took up where it left off last week, putting up 362 yards of rushing offense to post a lopsided victory over the visiting Pine Raiders, 48-0. 

Leading the way again for the Rebels was their outstanding junior running back James Gillum. He galloped for 168 yards on nine carries and scored four touchdowns. 

The potent Rebel rushing offense scored on every possession in the first half. In fact, it took Pearl River only 6:06 minutes to score six touchdowns. 

Will Reed 57 yards

Gillum scored his first touchdown at the 10:55 mark in the opening period on a 44-yard scamper. The point after was good off the foot of Kevin Dancer.

Gillum tallied again at 6:23 with a 40-yard run capped by another successful PAT from Dancer to make it 14-0. 

The Rebels culminated the first quarter on another Gillum TD, covering 20 yards with only 1:37 left in the period. Dancer again split the uprights to push the lead to 21-0. 

Gillum’s final score of the night came at 9:33 of the second quarter on a 5-yard romp followed by Dancer’s fourth consecutive PAT. 

Will Reed made his presence known when he scored on a 28-yard TD run to make it 35-0. 

Pearl River’s Jeremiah Levy rounded out the Rebel scoring in the first half with a 19-yard dash into the Raider end zone. Dancer made good on his sixth PAT attempt to push the halftime score to 42-0. 

Rebel coach Joe Harris called off the dogs in the second half by sitting his starting back field.  

The Raider defense, spearheaded by Neil Warren, put up a game battle, but Pearl River’s big offensive line wore them out in the first half.

Thanks to quite a few Rebel penalties the Raiders threatened several times during the night. But penalties of their own and a Rebel defense that seemed to stiffen every time they tried to mount a drive stymied Pine on every attempt to get on the board. Remarkably, the Raiders had possession of the ball for 17:54 in the first half.  

“We can’t make this many mistakes and expect to win against anyone,” said Rebel coach Joe Harris.  

The Rebels committed 11 penalties for 85 yards.

One of the game’s highlights came with only 9:51 to go. Substitute quarterback Jason Gerstner, who took over for Matt Smith in the second half, attempted a pass which went incomplete. 

This was the first pass attempt for the Rebels this season. Gerstner, much to the surprise of the Rebel faithful, tried another pass that also went incomplete. Pine did not attempt a pass on the night. 

The Rebel substitutes drove down the field but fumbled the ball into the Raider end zone to turn it over on a touchback.

Eric Warren scored the only points of the second half, rumbling in from the 1. 

Dancer’s perfect evening ended when the PAT snap was mishandled, resulting in the final score of 48-0.

Having big nights on defense were Pearl River’s T.J. Peterson, Stephen Arthur, Craig Dominique, Seth Craddock and Blake Ladner.

“Our defense never gets enough credit. We played hard out there tonight and had complete control of their offense. It was a great team effort,” said Harris.

Some bright spots for the Raiders were the fact that they converted on nine first downs in the game. Also of note were running backs Victor Magee and Edward Pittman. Magee led the way on the ground for Pine with 41 yards on seven carries, while Pittman contributed 16 yards on 10 carries.

For the Rebels, Cory Miller and Reed did their part. Miller had 62 yards on four carries, while Reed lugged it 57 yards on four attempts.

Pearl River dominated in the total yard category, rushing for 362 yards on 32 carries. Pine had a disappointing 84 total yards on 41 rushes. 

The Rebels move to 2-0 on the season while Pine drops to 0-2.