Ellijay, GA — Gilmer started strong and fast in their Friday night showdown with the Lumpkin Indians. The crisp, clear October evening set up perfect playing conditions for the full crowd of spectators on the home side for Homecoming. The Bobcats were looking to even their Region 7-AAA record after coming off a tough loss in a rainy mess at Cherokee Bluff the previous week. Boy did they. 

The Cats offense wasted little time, scoring in the first minute on a Kobe Stonecipher run of 75 yards. The Gilmer defense got the ball back and before you could blink, Stonecipher had another long touchdown run. By the end of the 1Q Stonecipher was well over 100 yards rushing with three touchdowns. 

It wasn’t just Stonecipher in on the action. The Gilmer Bobcats scored early and often in almost every imaginable way. Spenser Smith got in on a QB sneak. Then Smith hit Seth Darling on the first play of a drive 55 yards to the house. Ashton White got his on a run straight up the middle untouched for yet another 50+ yard touchdown play. It’s never looked so easy for an offense like Gilmer’s. 

But it wasn’t just the offense. The defense had takeaways left and right. They scored on two interceptions, the last one returned 95 yards by Sophomore Hunter Watkins as time expired on the first half. Adolfo Bautista’s extra point made it 62-0 at the break. It was complete and utter dominance. 

The second half running clock caused the second to go by in less than half an hour. Lumpkin added a touchdown in the 3Q, but the game was filled with mostly backups by that point. 

“We got after them pretty good, 62 points in the first half,” commented Gilmer Head Coach Kevin Saunders after the game. 

The win was a perfect statement to the community about just how far this Bobcats program has come. The home side was packed for Homecoming and they saw firsthand the growth between year 1 and year 2 under Saunders. He added, “we got a lot of kids in the game and did a lot of things well, we got to 3-2 which is something iI didn’t know we’d be at this point.” 

The win also sent a message to the rest of Region 7-AAA. After the tough loss to undefeated Cherokee Bluff it was vital to get the region record evened up. On that Saunders said, “it’s important, we had a tough game last week but we got everyone back but one player… I feel pretty good about where we are.” 

At this point last year we were excited about winning games and staying competitive. Make no mistake, this is a team that expects to be in the playoffs.