Saturday, April 20, 2024
The Granbury Pirates knew they’d have to score points to keep up with Weatherford in Friday night’s season opener.
But a slow start for Gran-bury, combined with a historic night for Weatherford running back Dez Forrest, doomed the Pirates to an 80-41 loss to start the 2019 season.
Granbury fell behind 19-0 in the first quarter, with Forrest scoring twice in that stretch. He finished with 286 yards and seven touchdowns on 17 carries, and added another two touchdowns and 187 yards on five catches.
“He’s a unique talent in the fact that he’s quick, he’s fast, he’s powerful, he has a low center of gravity and he has good vision,” Granbury coach Chad Zschiesche said. “When you combine that, you tip your hat to him.”
The Pirates fought back in the second quarter, as Kyler Gibson found Bryan Williams and Dalton Loter for a pair of touchdowns to close the gap to 32-14 at the half. Gibson started the second half with another touchdown pass to Williams, and the Pirates were within 11 points with plenty of time left, but couldn’t stop Forrest, who scored four touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone.
Gibson finished with 290 yards and four touchdowns through the air and another touchdown rushing. Zach Watson led the Pirates with 105 rushing yards and 100 receiving yards, the bulk of which came on a highlight reel-worthy catch and run for over 50 yards in the fourth quarter.
The Pirate offense started clicking after the first quarter.
“I was extremely happy with the offense minus the slow start,” Zschiesche said. “We needed to put up points in the first quarter to match them.
“Again, the gameplan was great, it’s not as if they were stopping us. We were stopping us.”
The Pirates had several costly penalties, including a pair on kick returns in the first quarter that cost Gran-bury good field position.
“It’s the fundamentals of football,” Zschiesche said. “Stay on schedule.
“Penalties take you off schedule. Those things pile up and cause us not to sustain drives. Mix in some special teams blunders, and next thing you know you’ve spotted them 25 points.”
Now the Pirates have to “keep doing what we’ve been doing” offensively, Zschiesche said, and “go back to the drawing board defensively” to prepare for the rest of the season.
HIT THE ROAD
Granbury’s next game is against Dallas Seagoville, a team the Pirates beat 29-26 last year.
“Coach (Andy) Gutierrez does a great job out there. Really fast athletes that are able to play multiple positions,” Zschiesche said. “They mix and match defensive looks, bring pressure when they need to, let his athletes be athletes.”
Seagoville thrives on the run, and beat Wyatt 40-29 to start the season. Zschiesche thinks Granbury will be able to take advantage of Seagoville’s aggressiveness on defense. The Pirates will try to find “some of the holes and voids they leave” when blitzes come.
Zschiesche said Seagoville is “a little bit better than they were last year,” when the Dragons were a playoff team at 5-5.
“Gotta go on the road, play on a stadium we’ve never been in,” he said. “It’ll be good for us.”
