By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The Brunswick High Pirates won their third straight Region 2-AAAAAA game Friday night as they topped the South Effingham Mustangs 38-14 at Glynn County Stadium. The Pirates actually fell behind 7-0 at the outset of the game with the Mustangs scoring on their first possession, but BHS also scored on its opening series to quickly tie the score. Brunswick would score the next 31 points as well before the Mustangs scored a second touchdown early in the final quarter. BHS improved to 5-2 overall with the victory and ran its region record to 3-1 with two games left on the schedule. The Pirates will host Evans next Friday for their final home game before going to Springfield to close out the regular-season schedule the next week against Effingham. For South Effingham, Friday’s loss to the Pirates was the team’s second inside GC Stadium this season. The Mustangs also came to the local field to play Glynn Academy back on Oct. 6 and were blanked by the Red Terrors 35-0. With Friday’s loss to the Pirates, the Mustangs dropped to 5-3 on the season while falling to 1-3 in league play. BHS head coach Garrett Grady was pleased to win, but knows the Pirates can and must play better with the playoffs looming. “We’ll go back and look at the film, and we’ve got some stuff we have to clean up,” he said. “We’re going into our eighth game of the season, and we should be trending upward. Tonight, I think we kind of plateaued and coasted a little bit. There were some good things I saw, but we’ve gotta keep getting better every week." South Effingham’s opening touchdown came on the third offensive snap of the game when the Mustangs faced third-and-7 from their own 28-yard line. Quarterback Kaden DeGenaro hit Dominic Martell for first-down yardage, but the South Effingham receiver raced away from the defenders in the Brunswick secondary to complete a 72-yard touchdown play. The Mustangs tacked on the extra-point for the early 7-0 lead, but their lead was short-lived. BHS started its first drive at its own 20 after a touchback, and on the third play for the Pirates, sophomore quarterback Grant Moore unleashed a pass over the middle that senior wideout Terry Mitchell hauled in and took for an 61-yard scoring play. McClain Finneran added the PAT, and less than three minutes into the game, both teams were on the scoreboard with touchdowns. BHS kept scoring, and South Effingham didn’t, however. The Pirates scored three touchdowns inside the final seven minutes of the first half to take command. BHS took advantage of good field position early in the second period to take its first lead. The Pirates got the ball at the South Effingham 48 following a punt and would cover the distance in nine plays with Heze Kent scoring from a yard out to give Brunswick a 14-7 lead with 6:45 left in the quarter following Finneran’s PAT. Mitchell actually returned a South Effingham punt for a touchdown just over two minutes later, but a penalty against the Pirates wiped out the score. The Brunswick offense put the touchdown back on the board, though, after starting on the South Effingham 46 following the mark-off for the penalty during Mitchell’s return. Junior running back Jamarius Towns ran 29 yards for a score on the Pirates’ third play from scrimmage for a 21-7 lead with 3:15 left in the first half. Brunswick’s defense got the ball back for the offense one last time before halftime, and the Pirates would score after starting on the South Effingham 44 for a 28-7 advantage at the break. Moore actually threw a pass to Mitchell for a touchdown, but he was penalized for crossing the line of scrimmage before throwing the ball. Moore ended up throwing another pass to junior receiver Jordan Hicks for a 41-yard touchdown that put the Pirates up by the three scores at intermission. BHS went up 35-7 moments into the third quarter as it drove 67 yards in five plays, scoring on a 3-yard run by junior William Heck. The final points for the Pirates came at the start of the fourth quarter when Finneran booted a 38-yard field goal to make the score 38-7. The Mustangs scored for the first time since their opening possession with just over six minutes remaining on a 10-yard run senior Gannon White. White’s run came on first-and-goal after the Mustangs converted on fourth-and-4 from the BHS 41 by completing a 31-yard pass. Moore started at quarterback for the Pirates and went the whole way for BHS. He had been the team’s second-string quarterback for the first seven games. Moore threw three touchdown passes in Brunswick’s win at Lakeside-Evans two weeks ago while sharing snaps with starter J.R. Elkins who was the holder for the extra-points and the one field goal by Finneran in Friday’ game. Against the Mustangs, Moore was 11-of-20 for 207 yards and the two scores. “Grant, in practice, showed that he deserved to start. He did a great job out here tonight,” Grady said. Towns led the Pirates with 146 yards rushing on 10 carries. Mitchell caught nine balls for 149 yards. BHS gained 400 yards on offense while totaling 195 on the ground. Aviyon Addison intercepted a late pass for the Pirates. There were a combined 26 penalties called on the Mustangs and Pirates. Sixteen of the penalties were against BHS. The Pirates were penalized 17 times in the loss to Glynn to start the region schedule. The Pirates will honor their seniors next Friday when they take on Evans. The Knights, a playoff team in the region a year ago, lost to Glynn 22-14 on Friday night at home.