By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The Brunswick High Pirates are region champions once again. The Pirates held off Effingham 30-27 in a wild game that went down to the wire Friday night at Glynn County Stadium to claim a second straight Region 2-AAAAAA title. “The word of the day was ‘earn it,’ and we had to earn every single bit of that game,” said BHS first-year head coach Garrett Grady. “Our guys just fought really hard, and I’m so proud of them and our coaches for the job they’re doing.” Brunswick (10-0) also defeated the Rebels (7-3) in the season finale last year by a 21-18 final score in Springfield to win the region championship. Also with Friday’s victory, the Pirates completed their second consecutive perfect regular season. The unbeaten season last year was the first for the Pirates since 1999 when Brunswick played for the Class AAAA state title. Now, the Pirates have accomplished the feat twice in a row while running their regular-season winning streak to 22 games. BHS started its current string with two wins to end the 2020 season before winning all 10 games on its schedule last fall and again here in the 2022 campaign. Brunswick will now be the No. 1 seed from the region for the Class AAAAAA state playoffs which start next week. The Pirates are assured of playing at home in the first two rounds if they can win their opener next Friday against the No. 4 seed from Region 1 which is Houston County. Effingham now settles for the No. 2 seed and will play at home next week against Region 1’s third seed which is state power Lee County which had been ranked second in the state until losing back-to-back region games prior to closing the season with a win Friday night. The Rebels had won seven in a row coming into the matchup with the Pirates after dropping their first two games of the season. Both the Pirates and Rebels had won their first five region games to set up the showdown for the league crown again on the final night of the regular season. Brunswick led the entire game between the GC Stadium bricks, but the Pirates had to stop the Rebels in the closing seconds to keep the game from going into overtime or possibly ending with an incredible comeback for the win by Effingham. With Brunswick scoring a touchdown with 1:54 left to play to go up 30-20, it appeared the Pirates had this one wrapped up. It was far from done, however. The Rebels moved into BHS territory, but faced a fourth-and-14 from the 22-yard line in the closing moments. Under pressure from BHS defenders, Effingham quarterback Nate Hayes heaved a pass to the left corner of the end zone that was caught by senior receiver Keion Wallace, a major-college prospect, for an improbable touchdown with 19 seconds left. The point-after kick made it 30-27. Of course, Effingham lined up for an onside kick, but first the Pirates were penalized for having two players with the same jersey number on the field at the same time. The penalty moved the ball from the 40-yard line to the 45, and the Rebels kicked from there and proceeded to recover their onside kick along their sideline. So, now Effingham had a chance to possibly get in position for a game-tying field goal or score a winning touchdown. Three straight incompletions, including a third pass that was almost intercepted just outside the end zone, left the Rebels down to their final play with six seconds left. On that final play, Hayes dropped back to pass, but pressure forced him out of the pocket and he was chased down for a game-ending sack as time expired. This final sequence happened after the Pirates had perhaps their most impressive drive of the regular season to go up by the 30-20 score. Taking possession at the Effingham 41 following an errant punt by the Rebels that sailed into the Brunswick bench after going only 13 yards, the Pirates lost 5 yards on first down. A second-down completion by junior quarterback J.R. Elkins to junior receiver Terry Mitchell gained 14 yards to give the Pirates a third-and-1 situation. BHS, though, lost 3 yards back to the 35 which left it facing a fourth-and-4 play with 5:07 left on the clock. With the play-clock winding down, the Pirates called timeout to talk over their fourth-down call. The call turned out to be a thing of beauty. Elkins threw a pass over the defensive front to senior athlete Jayden Drayton who was running across the formation going to his right, and Brunswick gained 6 yards for a first down. Again, though, Brunswick would end up facing a second fourth-down play from the Effingham 26 moments later. Needing 7 yards for a first down, the Pirates got more than that. They gained 21 to the Rebel 5 when Elkins delivered a strike over the middle to Mitchell who lined up wide on the right side of the formation in single coverage. The conversion gave the Pirates first-and-goal, and Drayton would score from 3 yards on second down for the 10-point cushion following the extra-point kick. The catch by Mitchell to set up the score was part of a huge night for Brunswick’s electrifying receiver who they call “Touchdown Terry” in the BHS locker room. Mitchell scored Brunswick’s first touchdown for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter after catching a pass from Elkins and racing away for a 53-yard score. Also late in the second quarter, Mitchell fielded a punt and dashed 73 yards for a touchdown to give the Pirates a 20-7 advantage at halftime. Mitchell ended the game with 10 catches for 170 yards. He caught all but two completions by Elkins who finished the night 12-of-17 passing for 182 yards with the touchdown and also an interception which he threw on Brunswick’s first play of the game. “He’s lightning in a bottle,” Grady said of Mitchell. “You saw the room he had to work with on the punt return. His speed, that’s phenomenal. He’s incredible.” The Pirates’ other TD before halftime came on a 68-yard jaunt by sophomore running back Jamarius Towns who finished with 80 yards on six carries. The extra-point try after this score was no good. The Rebels scored in the first quarter to tie the contest at 7-7 on an 8-yard keeper by Hayes. They had kicked a field goal previously, but the Pirates were called for roughing the kicker which resulted in a first down for Effingham at the BHS 8. The penalty was one of many called on the Pirates who were hit with 14 flags for 145 yards. Perhaps the one that upset Grady the most was the one called on him for playing a player who had been earlier disqualified from the game for receiving a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. By rule, the head coach is penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct himself when this happens. The player in question was a BHS offensive lineman who had been charged with the two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the first half. Grady told reporters after the game he was under the impression the penalties had been called on two different players and added that he had not been directly informed that a player had been disqualified. The penalty on the BHS coach thus occurred on Brunswick’s opening possession of the third quarter because that player was on the field. And, a wild second half began to unravel from there. On fourth down, Brunswick was prepared to punt, but a low snap led to Brunswick’s McClain Finneran stumbling after getting his hands on the ball and then electing to chuck a pass instead of kicking away the ball. The desperate pass to seemingly no one fell incomplete. So, Effingham went on offense deep in BHS territory. On third down, the Pirates were penalized for roughing the passer which gave the Rebels the ball at the BHS 12 after the penalty was marked off. The Rebels then lost a fumble, and BHS regained possession at its own 15. Then, Effingham’s Messiah Bacon stripped the ball away from a Brunswick running back and returned it for a touchdown that made the score 20-14 after the made extra-point. Clearly, it was a wild first four minutes to the second half, which perhaps made it only fitting that the end would be just as crazy. BHS went ahead 23-14 on a 32-yard field goal by Finneran to open the fourth quarter. Brunswick settled for the three points after having a touchdown brought back by penalty. The Rebels quickly answered the score with a touchdown on a 65-yard bomb from Hayes to Ashley Thompson who got behind a BHS defensive back for a walk-in touchdown. The PAT failed, leaving the score at 23-20 with just under 11 minutes to play. Hayes threw for 134 yards on the night, completing 9 of 18 passes. “Their quarterback is phenomenal, and he’s a great kid,” Grady said. “And hats off to Effingham. I’ve got nothing but respect for (head coach) John Ford and his coaching staff. They do an excellent job. “But that’s what a championship game looks like. You come in here and you fight tooth and nail. And you claw and empty the tank out. That’s what our guys did tonight.”