Gilbert football head coach Ozzie Exume was full of nerves entering Friday night’s matchup against a winless Airport team. 

The Indians are deep in a battle for playoff positioning, sitting third in the 4A Region-4 standings. The game against the Eagles was a must-win to stay in that spot, and Gilbert, Exume said, was coming off a lackluster week of practice. 

However, practice is the time for mistakes. When it came time to hit the playing field, things couldn’t have gone any better for the Indians.

It was a complete effort as Gilbert scored in the passing game, rushing game and on the defensive side of the ball en route to a 55-3 win. On the flip side, Airport struggled to find any rhythm, falling to (0-9) this season with one game to go. 

“I was so worried about us just not being sharp,” Gilbert head coach Ozzie Exume said. “ Our kids just did a really good job of being focused for the most part, and that paid off.” 

On offense, Gilbert's skill players were explosive. The team had multiple one-play touchdown drives and scored five touchdowns from at least 35 yards out in the first half alone. 

Quarterback Kitt McLauchlin had 140 yards passing and three touchdowns. Two of those went to Chandler Guthrie. Jiraiya Staley led the running back group, with 132 yards and two touchdowns.

For Exume, he said it was a relief to finally see his passing game click after some problems in previous matchups. 

“ This has been a battle all year trying to get our passing game back to where we were. We're really excited about that,” he said. “ Kitt's been battling and we've been coaching him hard. We've been really pushing him. He had a rough practice, to be honest, and we really drilled him all week. But he came out, played free, and we hit some deep balls that all year long we haven't hit.”

On defense, Gilbert forced four interceptions and recovered a fumble. Airport was held to under 150 total yards of offense, and the Eagles made it into the red zone just once. 

“ Our defense has been great all year. We’ve tackled well, and I think that's the biggest thing that happened here. I thought we tackled well,” Exume said. “We got pressure without having to blitz, and I tell my guys on defense every time, ‘The ball is yours just as much as it is theirs. It helps when you have two or three guys that are converted from receiver over there.”

The game was well in Gilbert’s control by halftime. The Indians led 42-3 at the break, and the clock ran non-stop in the second half. 

Airport’s winless year continues. The Eagles have had a rough go of things under new head coach Chris Napier, and have one more chance to earn a victory next week against Brookland-Cayce.

Gilbert improved to (5-4) overall and (4-2) in region games. The team can maintain its hold on third place in the region with a win in its regular-season finale against first-place Gray Collegiate (7-2, 6-0), or a Midland Valley loss against second-place North Augusta. Gilbert beat Midland Valley in their head-to-head this season. 

[Gray’s]  tough, man. They're freaking good. But we're hungry, and I think we're finally starting to play a better brand of football,” Exume said. “ I really don't care about who we're playing on our schedule. Our focus is trying to make sure that we are playing our best ball, that we're playing sharp, and that's where we focus. We're playing to the standard.”

Week 9 scoreboard

Dutch Fork: 37, River Bluff: 0

Irmo: 48, Chapin: 6

White Knoll: 37, Lexington: 6

North Augusta: 58, Brookland-Cayce: 12

Gilbert: 55, Airport: 3

Gray Collegiate: 48, Aiken: 0

Swansea: 24, Fox Creek: 13

Ninety Six: 42, American Leadership: 0

Batesburg-Leesville: 60, Pelion: 14

Florence Christian: 35, Northside Christian: 6