The win kept Pearl River (7-0, 3-0) in a tie with Salmen (5-2, 3-0) atop the district. The two will meet Friday night at Salmen in a game that could determine the District 9-4A champion.
Pearl River coach Joe Harris said it was a good win, but now his attention is on Friday’s opponent.
 Pearl River'€™s Will Reed (42) carries two Holy Cross defenders into the end zone on an 18-yard touchdown run during Saturday'€™s District 9-4A game held at Joe Yenni Stadium. (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid) |
Holy Cross (1-6) fell to 0-3.
Gillum’s touchdown runs came on big plays as he scored from 58, 24 and 69 yards.
His first came on the Rebels’ sixth play from scrimmage and his third carry of the game. Pearl River was facing a first-and-15 from its own 42. Gillum took the handoff, ran right and through a hole on his way to the end zone for a 58-yard touchdown, giving PRHS a 7-0 lead after Reed hit the extra point with 9:24 left.
But the Tigers answered quickly. On their first offensive play from scrimmage quarterback Bryce Ellzey hit Blake Toups, who got behind PRHS’ secondary, and he raced in for a 76-yard score. Zachary Collier applied the extra point to knot the contest at 7-7 with 9:03 left in the opening period.
The Rebels were forced to punt on their next drive, but the snap to punter Jacob Maxwell was bad, and he was tackled at his own 14. The Rebels defense came up big as Holy Cross had two incompletions, a false start and a 2-yard pass play. On fourth down, Collier hit a 34-yard field goal, giving the Tigers a 10-7 lead.
The Rebels had a golden opportunity to re-take the lead but turned it over. PRHS got the ball on its own 26 and drove 63 yards on 16 plays, but failed to score. The Rebels actually fumbled twice during the drive. The first one was recovered by Holy Cross on the Tigers’ 24, but Holy Cross was called for an illegal block. Then Pearl River fumbled again but recovered it. Facing a third down from Holy Cross’ 11, quarterback Matt Smith was intercepted by Dominque Johnson to end the possession.
After a Tiger punt, the Rebels went on a 59-yard drive. Reed finished it off when he ran up the middle and scored from 18 yards out. Kevin Dancer applied the PAT, and the Rebels had a 14-10 lead with 2:56 left in the first half.
It stayed that way until the third quarter. On Pearl River’s first possession of the second half, the Rebels drove 80 yards in three plays. Gillum ran for 35 yards to begin the drive and Reed followed with a 21-yard rush. Then Gillum finished it when he ran to his right and hit pay dirt from 24 yards out. Dancer was good on the point after, giving Pearl River a 21-10 advantage.
Gillum said the Rebels played better as the game went on.
“They (Holy Cross defense) were slanting hard. Our offensive line came out kind of flat, but they picked it up at the end,” Gillum said. “We started seeing big opportunities. We just came together. We knew it was going to be a good game when we came out, and we just kept fighting to the end.”
Early in the fourth the score was still 21-10, and the teams exchanged turnovers. PRHS ran a halfback pass, but Jeremiah Levy was intercepted by Toups. On the next play, Pearl River’s Craig Domingue returned the favor when he picked off an Ellzey pass on his own 14. Three plays later, the Rebels blew the game open when Gillum ran up the middle, then right, and he scored on a 69-yard TD. Dancer once again hit the extra point, and PRHS had a commanding 28-10 advantage with 8:54 left.
The Tigers got a late score to make it 28-17, but Maxwell recovered an onside kick with 49 seconds left to seal the win.
Holy Cross coach Barry Wilson said his team has to cut down on the errors.
“We just made a lot of mistakes, but they’re a good team and they deserved to win. They did an excellent job,” Wilson said.
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