By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The Brunswick High Pirates rolled to a 42-0 victory Friday night over Grovetown in their second Region 2-AAAAAA game of the season at Glynn County Stadium. A week after falling to Glynn Academy 22-15 in overtime in the annual City Championship Game which also was the region opener for the local teams, the Pirates delivered a better performance against the Warriors as they were the dominant team from the start. The Pirates forced a Grovetown punt on the game’s opening possession and then paraded to the opposing end zone the first time they had the ball. Brunwick would go on to take a 28-0 lead before halftime and would hold a 35-0 advantage after three quarters which led to a mandatory running clock in the final period. “We had a tough week of practice,” said BHS head coach Garrett Grady. “We wanted to make sure it was physical. We did a lot of ones vs. ones, good on good all week. I think it helped our guys tremendously, and we’re probably gonna have to continue to do that the rest of the season if we want to continue to get better, especially up front.” The shutout was the second this season for the Pirates who blanked Islands 63-0 two weeks ago in their annual Homecoming game. BHS is now 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in the region. The loss dropped Grovetown to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in early league action. The Warriors lost to Evans last week in their first region game. The Pirates put together a balanced offensive showing Friday as they rushed for 240 yards and passed for 137 to finish with 377 yards for the night. The BHS defense checked the Warriors to 171 total net yards, allowing 125 on the ground and 46 through the air. For the Pirates, senior quarterback J.R. Elkins was 10-for-14 passing for 139 yards and three touchdowns. Senior receiver Terry Mitchell caught four passes including two for touchdowns. He finished with 71 receiving yards. Sophomore wideout Grant Moore also caught a TD pass from Elkins. Junior running back Jamarious Towns led the BHS ground game with 141 yards on 11 carries. William Heck, also a junior running back, had nine carries for 46 yards and two touchdowns. The statistic that the BHS head coach like the most, however, was the penalty yardage against the Pirates. Brunswick finished with five penalties for 43 yards. They had only one penalty for 10 yards in the first two quarters. That’s a big improvement over the 17 flags thrown on the Pirates last week in the City Championship for a total of 89 yards which was a huge factor in a lackluster performance by BHS a week ago. The Pirates concentrated in practice leading into Friday’s game on eliminating the mistakes that cost them penalty yardage against Glynn. It paid off, at least for this week. “It was a pretty clean game, and I was proud to see that,” Grady said. In the opening half, the Pirates covered 82, 69, 30 and 71 yards for their touchdowns. BHS ran the ball four straight times on its first possession with Towns ripping off runs of 41 and 29 yards before Heck ran for 9 yards and then scored from 3 yards out to quickly put the Pirates in front. The next time the Pirates got the ball, Elkins threw a 34-yard pass to Mitchell on the fourth play from scrimmage as BHS went up 14-0 following the extra-point kick by Landon Etheridge. The Pirates turned a Grovetown fumble at its own 30 into a quick score moments later when Elkins hit Mitchell in the end zone from 16 yards out to extend their lead to 21-0 early in the second quarter. Elkins and Mitchell teamed up for a 30-yard scoring pass on Brunswick’s first snap after the turnover by the Warriors, but a holding call erased the score. The Pirates scored a fourth time before intermission when Heck scored on a 1-yard run on the 12th play of the 71-yard drive. After halftime, Grovetown recovered a short kick to start the third quarter at the BHS 39-yard line, but the Warriors couldn’t capitalize. The Brunswick defense stopped a scoring threat by the visitors as the Pirates forced a turnover on downs after the Warriors had the ball inside the BHS 10-yard line. The Pirates regained the ball at their own 17 and would mount an 83-yard drive to score with Moore catching a 25-yard pass from Elkins for the touchdown despite a pass-interference penalty against Grovetown on the play. With BHS now leading 35-0 late in the third, the game had a running clock when the fourth quarter started with that same tally showing on the stadium scoreboards. In the fast final stanza, the Pirates added one more score as they drove 55 yards in five plays with freshman running back Josiah Gibbons dashing 25 yards for the game’s final touchdown with nearly seven minutes left in the game. Brunswick will be on the road next Friday as they go to Augusta to take on Lakeside-Evans. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.