By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics The Brunswick High Pirates held serve in Region 2-AAAAAA on Friday night, knocking off Evans 35-7 at Glynn County Stadium in their final home game of the regular season. The Pirates ran their record to 6-2 overall with the victory while going to 4-1 in the region and remaining tied for second in the league standings with rival Glynn Academy going into the final week of the season. The local teams trail Effingham (6-3, 5-0) by a game in the standings as the Rebels remained unbeaten in the league with a 36-31 win over Lakeside-Evans on Friday night. The Pirates and Rebels are set to square off next Friday in Springfield in a game with major playoff implications. A Brunswick win over the Rebels would forge a three-way tie for first in the region, assuming Glynn also wins its final game at home. That would force the use of the region tiebreaker rules to determine seeding for the Class AAAAAA state playoffs since all three teams would have beaten each other during the regular season. BHS would have beaten Effingham in this scenario, while Glynn defeated Brunswick but lost to Effingham. The next tiebreaker is points allowed by each team in the games involving the teams involved in the tie. The Pirates could win the region with a win at Effingham and a Glynn loss to Lakeside-Evans, but BHS would finish third if it loses next week no matter what Glynn does because the Red Terrors defeated the Pirates head-to-head. They would get the higher seed if the teams were tied with two losses each in the league. Evans (3-6, 2-3) and South Effingham (6-3, 2-3) will play each other next week with the winner claiming the fourth and final spot reserved for the region in the state playoffs. All that will shake out next week. On Friday night, the only score by Evans came on a 86-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Knights’ senior running back Rayshaun King after the Pirates had just taken a 7-0 lead with 7:22 left in the second quarter. The Pirates went on to score twice before halftime to take a 21-7 lead into the break and would tack on two more touchdowns in the second half to win by the 28-point margin. The BHS defense held Evans to 207 total net yards including 146 yards rushing. The Pirates checked King to 81 yards on 18 carries with a gang-tackling effort. King came into the game having rushed for 834 yards while averaging 104.3 yards a contest. “Their offensive line is huge, and I told our defensive line it would be a challenge for them all night,” said BHS coach Garrett Grady. “(King) is a heckuva running back. One guy is not gonna take him down. You gotta swarm to the football. I was proud of our defensive line. They were running to the ball. Our inside (linebackers) were laying the wood all night long. And our secondary responded, too.” The highlight of the night for the BHS defense was a goal-line stand early in the fourth quarter after Evans had the ball first-and-goal at the 7-yard line. Evans gained 5 yards to the 2 on first down and a yard to the 1 on second down, but Brunswick stopped quarterback Ej Hogan for no gain on third down before dropping him for a loss of a yard on fourth down with junior linebacker Jashawn Towns knocking Hogan back with a hard hit to finish off the stand. “Our guys did a good job of defeating blocks and shooting the gaps, just a heckuva effort down there,” Grady said. Brunswick, meantime, cranked up its running game following a slow start overall by the offense. The Pirates rushed for 314 yards with juniors Jamarius Towns and William Heck finishing with almost identical numbers. Towns carried 12 times for 149 yards and a touchdown while Heck ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns on 13 attempts. Sophomore quarterback Grant Moore threw for 147 yards and two scores while going 9-of-14 with an interception in the red zone. “Towns looked full-speed tonight and Heck had some good runs, too. We had our screen game working well, and our guys did a great job of getting out and blocking on the perimeter,” Grady noted. Brunswick’s first scoring drive covered 47 yards, and the Pirates needed only two plays. Moore threw a screen to the left side to Towns who sped into the open field and went 40 yards to the 7. On the next play, Moore rolled right and found senior Terry Mitchell open in the back of the end zone for the quick score. McClain Finneran added the extra-point kick. Following King’s kick return for the Evans score, BHS quickly scored again, covering 80 yards in three plays. Towns reeled off a 43-yard run on first down to the Evans 37. Moore then hit Mitchell for 15 yards to the 22 before handing off to Heck who took the ball to the house from there for his first score of the night. Finneran added the point-after again as he would do after each Brunswick score in the game. The next time BHS got the ball, the Pirates started at the Evans 47 and took advantage of a pass interference on the Knights on a fourth-and-4 play that gave them a first down at the Evans 26. On the very next snap, Moore delivered a short pass to senior wideout Ronald Spradley who would dart toward the end zone and score to give the Pirates the two-score lead at intermission. Brunswick got the ball to start the third quarter and would parade to the end zone to take full control at 28-7. The Pirates wheeled 80 yards in seven plays with Towns scoring from 14 yards out to complete the drive. Moore completed a 22-yard pass to Daron Monroe on the previous play. Heck had a 24-yard carry along the way, too. In the final period, the Pirates lost a fumble in Evans territory, and the Knights returned the ball to Brunswick’s side of the field. Evans reached the BHS 14, but Brunswick senior Ty’ler Sams picked off a pass in the end zone to stop the scoring threat by the Knights. BHS turned the turnover into a touchdown, going 80 yards in five plays for its final score of the game. All five plays were runs with Heck scoring from 32 yards out on the fifth play. Towns had a 36-yard carry to the Evans 43 on the second play of the drive. Following the PAT, the final score was on the scoreboard with 4:42 left in the game.