MOUNDS — The good news was Gore place-kicker Nick Eklund was a perfect 4-for-4 in field-goal attempts in last Thursday night’s District AII-3 road game against the Liberty Tigers.
The bad news is the Gore offense sputtered at inopportune times, and the end result was a 20-12 loss to the Tigers.
Eklund connected on field goals of 32, 30, 37 and 32 yards. In fact, Ekland’s 37-yarder in the fourth quarter put the Pirates (3-5 overall, 2-3 in district play) ahead 9-6.
“Nick did a great job,” Gore coach Brandon Ellis said.
However, the Tigers (5-3, 3-2) scored two straight fourth-quarter TDs to take a 10-6 lead before Eklund’s final 32-yard field goal ended the game’s scoring.
“The kids played hard,” Ellis said. “The kids just came up short. We made drives, then we made some errors. We didn’t finish (drives). We got down there close, and we couldn’t finish (drives) — whether it was a penalty or miscommunication. So, we were taking points as we could get them.”
In defeat, Zach Comer rushed for 138 yards on 29 carries.
The Pirates will return home for a countywide match-up against the Central Tigers for Senior Night at 7 p.m. this Friday at K.G. Horn Stadium. The game likely will be one in which the winner will keep its slim playoff hopes alive and the loser will be eliminated from playoff contention.
