One team moves on, the other goes home. This is enough motivation to get anyone fired up to play. Fortunately for the Gorillas, running back Michael Sinks wasn’t ready to end his season a day early.

Sinks broke free for three touchdown runs on the day and led the Gorillas to a 19-6 win over the Cougars in the fourth- and fifth-grade semifinal game of the Toy Bowl on Saturday at Youth Sports Inc.

“Sinks played unbelievable today, he got the offense rolling,” Gorilla head coach John Flynn said.

The Gorilla offense capitalized on a long, methodical scoring drive that took all of the first quarter to complete. It was Sinks who finished the drive, diving into the end zone and giving the Gorillas the early momentum.

However, the Cougars struck back by giving the ball to their power runner, Austin Downing. Downing broke through two Gorilla defenders and raced downfield for a 50-yard touchdown run.

After the Downing touchdown, both defenses tightened up, holding one another scoreless for the remainder of the half.

Run-stuffing specialist Mason Fast led the Gorillas defensively. Fast was able to use his size to bust through the Cougar offensive line and disrupt the Cougars’ timing.

With Fast manning the front line, Nyle Anderson roamed the secondary for the Gorillas. Facing second and 10, Anderson came on a corner blitz, wrapping up the Cougar runner for a 7-yard loss. On the ensuing play, Logan Smith was able to recover a fumble, which set up the Gorilla offense.

Gorilla Michael Sinks stiff-arms a couple of Cougar defenders as he bulls his way into the endzone Saturday at Youth Sports Inc.

With the score locked at six, Sinks and the Gorilla offense looked to grind away at the Cougar defense. Fast, who is also the Gorilla fullback, blasted holes in the Cougar defense, setting up Sinks for large chunks of yardage at a time. Sinks took advantage of a Fast block and raced 20 yards for the touchdown as time expired in the third quarter.

“I was hoping the offense was going to get rolling,” Flynn said. “They did a nice job of responding to the Cougar touchdown.”

The Gorillas added an insurance touchdown early in the fourth quarter after Sinks broke free for a 10-yard touchdown scamper and advanced to Sundays Toy Bowl championship game.