The gist
- Gilmer 76, North Lamar 6. The Buckeyes are 9-2 and moving on in the Class 4A Division II bracket after the bi-district round.
- Zade Taylor missed zero. 8-for-8 for 169 yards and two scores through the air, plus 27 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.
- A 70-point margin reset the series. Gilmer now leads the all-time series 7-0 and has outscored North Lamar 383-37. The previous high was 56-0.
- The bi-district ghost is gone. Last November ended with a first-round loss to Athens. This November started with the loudest answer this series has ever seen.
What happened
Gilmer 76, North Lamar 6 at Hanby Stadium in Mesquite, Class 4A Division II bi-district. The Buckeyes are 9-2 and they are moving on. The Gilmer Mirror put the score on its front page Saturday morning, and MaxPreps filed a next-day recap that called it a balanced attack from a team that has already piled up five wins by more than three scores this season.
Our midweek preview framed this one as a 35-point gap at the floor, a 56-point swing at the ceiling, and one narrow lane for it to get weird. The actual number came in at 70, and nothing weird ever happened. If we were off, we were off on the low side. That is the kind of grade we are happy to take.
The box score tells the story the way Gilmer fans hoped it would. Zade Taylor threw it eight times and completed every single one, 169 yards, two passing touchdowns, and a rushing score of his own for 27 yards on the ground. A week after he missed one pass against Spring Hill, he missed none. That is the kind of trend a playoff team gets to write about itself.
Aiden Thomas needed two carries to go for 70 yards and score twice, which is the stat line of a back who gets his touches with a running clock on the scoreboard. Kaden Canady took a 63-yard shot the distance for his touchdown, one catch, one score, done. When the second unit is keeping pace with the opening script, the box score starts to read like a highlight reel.
The guys who did it
- Zade Taylor (QB). 8 of 8 for 169 yards and two passing touchdowns, plus 27 rushing yards and a touchdown. Finished the night without an incomplete pass. The quiet, methodical night a high school quarterback dreams about in the playoffs.
- Aiden Thomas (RB). 70 rushing yards and two touchdowns on two carries. A 35-yards-per-carry average is not a real number over a full season, but it is a real stat line for a Friday, and he earned the scoreboard.
- Kaden Canady (WR). 63-yard touchdown reception, his only catch of the evening. Taylor had eight targets and spread the ball; Canady got the deep shot and took it home.
- The defense, as a crew. North Lamar came in averaging 28.3 points a game and left Mesquite with 6. Jack Rusak threw for over 1,500 yards this regular season; whatever Gilmer did on first and second down made him a non-factor in the game that counted. The defense got the trophy for the shutout it almost had.
What we still want to clean up
Hard to grade a 76-point night at the micro level. The one note worth writing down is that a running-clock blowout in the bi-district round is a different thing than tempo against a team that has actually been to a regional round in the last decade. Keep the first-quarter urgency when the area-round opponent is sharper on tape. That is how last November feels further away, not closer.
Around the barbecue
The argument in East Texas on Saturday was not whether Gilmer won. It was what a win against a 4-5 fourth seed was supposed to prove, and the honest answer around the hardware store was: it proves the bracket. Over on the smoaky.com playoff-teams thread, fans were already counting sub-.500 teams in the Class 4A playoff field by the handful, and more than one poster pointed out that four-team districts send the fourth seed to the first seed on a reliable schedule. It is a format argument, not a complaint about the Buckeyes.
On the smoaky bracket board for the Carthage vs. Quinlan Ford matchup a few hours up the road, by the account of fans following that one live, someone noted that with North Lamar sitting fourth in their district, the bar to beat them to third place "wasn't a high bar." That is a hot take with teeth, and it is pointed at the opponent, not at us. The response from this corner of the map is simple. We did not draw the bracket. We just played the opener the way you are supposed to play it.
The other running debate in Gilmer threads this month is whether the defense is actually fixed or whether it just gets a cleaner look against weaker opponents than Carthage and Pittsburg were. Six points on the board tonight do not settle that on their own. A full game of a sharp passing quarterback getting nothing going is a more interesting data point than the final score. File it for next Friday.
Our take
This is the night we wanted to write about all year. We said in September that the standard is December, not the scoreboard. December starts here, and the Buckeyes showed up for the opener of it the way the town hoped: an efficient offense, a defense that did not give up a touchdown, and nobody on the roster coasting on the scoreline before kickoff.
Last November ended in the first round. This one started in it, and it was the loudest answer this series has ever seen.
First take: Zade Taylor is the player of the year in District 8-4A DII, and it is not close. 8-for-8 for 169 against a defense that was always going to sit in a shell and hope is not newsy on its own. Missing one pass against Spring Hill and zero against North Lamar is a quarterback who is not getting easier to play against in the area round.
Second take: this is the biggest-margin playoff win this program has ever hung on this opponent, by 14 points, and it happened in the one bracket that every East Texas fan watches first. Nobody has to hedge about whether this group is built for a playoff run anymore. They already beat Carthage. They just set an all-time series mark the week after. If you are still writing "can they?" into your takes on this team, that is a you problem now.
Falsifiable marker for the area round: Gilmer has gained at least 400 total yards in every game this season and rushed for at least 256. If the Buckeyes come in under 400 total yards next Friday, that is a story worth writing. Hold the next opponent under 21 points. We have earned the right to measure ourselves at that bar.
Next up: the area round
Area round of the Class 4A Division II Region II bracket, the following Friday. The pairing and kickoff information will be official when the matchup is confirmed, and this stream will have the preview on it with a real line and a real marker. Until then, enjoy this one. There are not many 70-point Novembers in the history of Gilmer football.
If you would rather back your East Texas high school football reads than just shout them at the hardware store, that is the whole game here. Make your picks.