By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The Brunswick High Pirates saw their season come to a sudden finish Friday night in the first round of the Class AAAAAA state playoffs as Houston County pulled out a 29-28 win with a two-point conversion in overtime to end the game. The Pirates had taken a 28-21 lead after going on offense first to start overtime at the 15-yard line and scoring on a 5-yard run by senior Jayden Drayton to break the 21-21 deadlock at the end of regulation. McClain Finneran added the point-after kick to give the Pirates the seven-point lead. Houston answered, however. After losing 2 yards on first down, the Bears scored on a 17-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Antwann Hill to junior tight end Branden Walden. Houston was prepared to go for two points and the win as soon as it scored, but the Pirates called timeout when they saw the Bears line up with their offense on the field instead of their extra-point team. Following the timeout, the Bears stayed with their plan. Hill took the snap, rolled to his right and drilled a pass to junior receiver Recardo Tarver in the back of the end zone for the two points, sending the Houston County sideline into a frenzy while breaking the Pirates’ collective heart. “They left it all out on the field,” said BHS first-year head coach Garrett Grady of his players following the tough loss. “Hats off to Houston County. That’s a heckuva team. That’s a great football team. They played hard tonight.” The first-round loss was a bitter pill to swallow for the Pirates who suffered another early exit from the playoffs after a huge regular season. Last fall, Brunswick finished 10-0 in the regular season while winning the Region 2-AAAAAA championship, and after winning big in the first round, the Pirates were upset by a good Dacula team at home in the second round. This year, the Pirates again went unbeaten in the regular season and won a second straight outright region title which they clinched last Friday at GC Stadium with a 30-27 victory over region rival Effingham in a down-to-the-wire battle. Thing is, with the playoff matchups determined by region prior to the season, the eighth-ranked Pirates drew the No. 10-ranked Bears (9-2) in the opening round. Houston had settle for the fourth seed from Region 1-AAAAA after tying with three other league teams for the runner-up spot with a 3-2 record in the final league standings. Brunswick knew this was a matchup made for a later round in the postseason. “Whoever wins this, we knew could make a run for it out of this bracket. It stinks that a team had to lose tonight here in Glynn County Stadium,” Grady said. During the regular season, the Bears were second in Class AAAAAA in scoring offense as they averaged 45.1 points a game. A Brunswick defense that entered the playoffs having allowed its regular-season opponents only 13.3 points a game did hold the high-powered Bears well below their scoring average even though Houston finished the night with nearly 600 yards of total offense. “Our defense played lights out all night long,” Grady said. “They scored 14 points in the first half and didn’t score again after that touchdown to start the third quarter.” Hill, who is 6-foot-4 and is rated a four-star prospect, threw for 409 yards and four touchdowns for the Bears while completing 30 of 38 passes. Also for the Bears, junior Ryan Taleb, a workhorse running back all season, again served as the primary ballcarrier for his team and ran for 171 yards on 28 attempts. The Pirates had to rally from a 21-7 deficit in the second half after trailing 14-7 at halftime. The Bears pushed their advantage to double-digits when they marched the opening kick 80 yards and scored in six snaps to start the third period. Hill threw a strike over the middle to Tarver on third-and-9 from his own 47-yard, but Tarver extended the play by bouncing off a would-be tackler in the open field and then parading into the end zone for the score. That touchdown would actually be the only score by the Bears in the second half. The Pirates looked like the might answer right back on their first possession after halftime when Ivan Johnson reeled off a 50-yard run to the Houston 22, but Drayton lost a fumble fighting for extra yardage on a carry and the Bears recovered the loose ball to end that threat. The Brunswick defense got a stop on Houston’s next series when the Bears gave up the ball on downs at the BHS 32. Taking over there, the Pirates would need only six plays to get into the end zone to make it a one-score game again. William Heck, one of Brunswick’s promising sophomore running backs, broke free for a 50-yard gain to the Houston 25. Five plays later, Drayton ran 5 yards for the Brunswick touchdown. Finneran made the PAT to make the score 21-14 with four minutes left in the third frame. Houston was on the move the next time it had the ball, but Taleb lost a fumble after a big gain. Gerald Quick, a Brunswick linebacker, recovered the fumble at the BHS 32 and returned it just inside Houston territory. Brunswick wasn’t able to capitalize on the turnover with a score, but the Pirates did punt the Bears deep and forced them to start inside their 10. Again, Houston drove into BHS territory and would miss a 47-yard field goal with just over six minutes to play which left the Bears only up by seven. With a chance to tie the game, Brunswick gave the ball to Johnson on first down. He sprinted out of the backfield and ripped off a 55-yard run to the Houston 25. Drayton got the next carry and gained 15 to the 10 to give the Pirates a first-and-goal situation. Brunswick wouldn’t score, though, and its chances to win seemed all but gone after back-to-back passes fell incomplete on third and fourth down from the 3-yard line. The BHS defense got the ball back for its offense one last time in regulation with 1:59 to go after forcing a three-and-out. The Pirates started a drive at the Houston 30 after a short punt return. BHS gave the ball to Drayton who had runs of 8 and 2 yards for a first down at the 20. Following a 2-yard loss on a running play, the Pirates called a pass play. Elkins was forced out of the pocket, and while rolling left toward the BHS sideline, the left-handed quarterback delivered a pass to a wide-open Kevin Thomas just outside the goal line. Thomas caught the ball and immediately turned and scored with 48 seconds left. Finneran made the point-after to bring the Pirates even at 21-21. Yes, that was indeed enough time for the Bears who like to move fast to get in position for a game-winning field goal try before time expired in regulation. And, Houston did just that. The Bears started at their own 35 following a kickoff that went out of bounds. They gained 12 yards and then 6 yards in two plays. On their next snap, Hill threw a long one that was caught for a 33-yard gain to the BHS 14 with 19 seconds left. On the next play, Hill completed a pass to Ricky Johnson near the Houston sideline for a 2-yard gain, but the junior receiver went down before he could get out of bounds to stop the clock. The Bears didn’t have any timeouts, but the ball was spotted, and they quickly spiked it with only one second left on the stadium clock. The Bears had a shot to win it on the final play of regulation, but a 30-yard field-goal attempt was wide left, leaving the score deadlocked and sending the game into the overtime period. The game ended with both teams scoring on their OT possessions. It also started with both teams scoring on their very first drives of the night. The Pirates got the ball first after Houston won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. BHS motored 80 yards in nine plays to score first on a 2-yard run by Drayton after he took a direct snap from center. BHS quickly got into scoring position when Terry Mitchell caught a short pass and raced away from two Houston defenders for a 60-yard gain to the Bear 19 on Brunswick’s second play. The Pirates converted on third-and-3 from the 12 when Elkins hit tight end Caleb Butler underneath the coverage for a 6-yard pickup and a first down on the 3. Houston showed its explosiveness on its opening drive, also. The Bears dashed 83 yards in six plays, scoring on a 53-yard pass from Hill to Johnson and tying the score with the extra-point. The Pirates actually scored on the first snap of their next possession when Elkins quickly hit Drayton just beyond the line of scrimmage with Drayton speeding away from the defense for an apparent 80-yard score. However, Brunswick was flagged for having an illegal man downfield, thus the penalty wiped out the touchdown. The Bears went in front for the first time just moments into the second quarter when Hill tossed a 28-yard pass over the defense to senior wideout Arthur Brown on third-and-2 to finish out an 85-yard drive. For BHS, Elkins finished his first playoff start 8-of-18 passing for 114 yards. Johnson led BHS rushers with 116 yards on seven carries. Heck ran for 63 yards on nine tries, and Drayton finished with 54 yards on 13 carries. Sophomore running back Jamarious Towns was injured before halftime and didn’t return. He had six carries for 14 yards. The only catch by Brunswick’s Mitchell was his 60-yarder on the game’s opening series. He had 10 receptions for 170 yards and a touchdown last week. “To get back in it, tie it up and go to overtime, I’m proud of our guys,” Grady said. “They could have shut it down real quick in the second half but they didn’t. Even going to the fourth quarter, we were still down, but they kept fighting. “I’m extremely proud of the Brunswick High Pirates, and the coaching staff and the job they did.” Houston advances to take on North Atlanta, the No. 3 seed from Region 4 which defeated Lovejoy 30-17 Friday in the first round. Lovejoy was the No. 2 seed from Region 3. Region 1 won all four games over Region 2. in the opening round. From Region 2, Glynn Academy lost 18-13 at Northside (Warner Robins), Effingham got blasted 57-7 by Lee County and Evans fell 49-10 to Region 1 winner Thomas Country Central.