After Celina Coach’s Comments, Gilmer Offense Puts on a Show in State Semifinals

DALLAS -- If the desire of reaching the state championship game wasn't enough for Gilmer, the Buckeyes had a little extra motivation before their 67-14 win over Celina on Friday night.

Earlier in the week Celina coach Bill Elliott had something to say about Gilmer's vaunted offense, and its seemingly never-ending cache of skill players who can score at any given moment.

Elliott compared the Buckeyes' skill players to those at Sweetwater, which Celina beat to reach the Class 4A Division II semifinals at SMU.

“You look at the skill kids that Sweetwater had, and the ones Gilmer has, there’s not a lot of difference," Elliott told ETFinalScore.com. "When you run a 4.4, you run a 4.4."

One has to wonder if his opinion changed after Friday night. Celina's defense saw Gilmer put up 538 yards of offense and 67 points -- 33 of those coming in the first quarter.

"He's a coach and I respect him. He knows a lot about football, but in my opinion our skill players are better than Sweetwater's," said Gilmer's all-everything star Blake Lynch, who scored four touchdowns on eight touches. He finished with four carries for 55 yards and a 44-yard touchdown, while catching four passes for 148 yards and three scores.

Gilmer scored 26 points in the game's first 6:50. Lynch had two catches for 66 yards and two touchdowns in the first 2:05. He scored on a 37-yard touchdown pass from McLane Carter on Gilmer's second play, 11 seconds into the game. His 44-yard touchdown run ended a 33-0 first quarter for Gilmer, practically ending Celina's hope of a win in just 12 minutes.

"I did read (Elliott's quote), and our kids took exception to that," Traylor said.

And the Buckeyes showed it. Six different Gilmer players scored touchdowns. Quarterback McLane Carter saw six of his nine completions go for touchdowns, including the first four.

Elliott was just one of several thousand at Gerald J. Ford Stadium who witnessed one of the greatest offenses in Texas history.

Carter's fifth touchdown of the game, a 60-yarder to -- you guessed it, Lynch -- gave Gilmer a 54-7 lead with 8:11 left in the third quarter. But it also sent the Buckeyes past Refugio for second-most points scored in Texas high school football history.

Gilmer ended the night with 915 points for the season, giving the Buckeyes an average of 61 points per game. They'll finish the season only trailing Aledo, which scored 1,023 points on its way to a state title in 2013.

But when it comes to East Texas, the Buckeyes are No. 1.

"I watch (this offense) in practice every day, so I see them do it every day," Gilmer coach Jeff Traylor said. "I'm spoiled. I've got the best seat in the house every day. It's a lot of fun."

The Buckeyes (15-0) will take their heralded offense into AT&T Stadium in Arlington at noon Friday (Dec. 19) to take on West Orange-Stark in what will be a showcase of sheer speed.

And the Gilmer offense will have one final, and undoubtedly its toughest, test.

"We're always playing ourselves. In the end you're playing you. In the end they're gonna coach hard but we've gotta do our thing," Traylor said. "Hopefully we finish it off on Friday."