ABILENE – The Brownwood Lions’ Friday night path to a fourth consecutive Class 4A Division I Region I bi-district championship was reminiscent of the team’s journey to a 17th straight postseason berth – a sluggish start followed by rapid, consistent improvement.
By the end of the night, the Lions were able to overcome a pair of turnovers and a scoreless first period as they pummeled the Big Spring Steers, 51-7, for the program’s first-ever victory at Abilene Christian University’s Wildcat Stadium.
The win for the Lions (7-4) was also the fourth in as many seasons over Big Spring (5-6), and seventh in a row in the series for Brownwood, which owns a 16-5 advantage.
“We got off to a slow start offensively but we ironed that out,” said Lions first-year head coach Jeryl Brixey, who attained his first postseason triumph at Brownwood. “We’ll always find ways for us to play better than we did in the first half. Defensively, the kids did an outstanding job. I don’t that I could ask them to play much better than they did, but we will. Now it’s on to round two.”
Brownwood’s defense limited the Steers to 174 yards of total offense – 157 through the air and just 17 on the ground despite 38 carries – while creating four more takeaways, bringing the season total to 25. The Lions also tallied four additional sacks, increasing that number to 25 this season as well.
Raven Prado, Sirr Beam and Durham Brown recorded interceptions, while Nick Rodriguez pounced on a fumble. Isaac Gonzales led the way with a pair of sacks while Christian Gray added one and Preston Cook and Miles Jones split one.
“Defensively, tonight, we did what we planned to do,” Gonzales said. “We planned to limit the quarterback and the runs because we knew they were more of a run-heavy team than pass. We did our assignments and got the job done. The playbook is still new and we’re adding more pressures and more variety to switch things up.”
Gray added, “We’re just preaching in practice every day aggression, watching our keys on the d-line, and we just had a really good game plan going into this and some really great play calling by (defensive coordinator) Coach (Steve) Fanara. The little things you wouldn’t expect to make a big difference do, and these coaches stay on that.”
Offensively, the Lions were able to take advantage of numerous short-field opportunities and still finished with 385 total yards, including a season-high 222 rushing. Brownwood possessed the ball 14 times, and the average starting field position for the Lions was the Big Spring 42.
“That’s just part of where I feel defensively where we’re at,” Brixey said of the takeaways leading to improved scoring chances. “That certainly helps when you have a short field. Our goal is to get better every week and play complementary football, which is what we’re really working on with great defense and ball control offense, and I feel like we did that tonight.”
Behind the front five of Aviud Gomez, Aidan Packheiser, Jackson Rainey, Rylan Martin and Omari McNeil, Trent Buffington rushed for 141 yards and reached the end zone twice. Rodriguez tacked on 51 yards with a trip to the end zone, Hutton Malone’s varsity debut featured 32 yards on the ground, and quarterback Judson Coalson added a touchdown and 3 yards rushing overall.
“They weren’t going to let us throw the football, that was their mentality coming in,” Brixey said. “But we found some things running game-wise where they weren’t lined up very well in part I think because of worrying about the passing game, so we were able to take advantage of that.”
Through the air, Coalson connected on 8 of 15 passes for 123 yards with a pair of interceptions, but also tossed three touchdowns – one to Conner Cornelius, who for the second week in a row led the Lions with three grabs for 71 yards, one each to Carson Noe, who caught two passes for 39 yards, and one to Gray.
“Our kids understand what we’re doing and had some good execution on those plays,” Brixey said of the passing touchdowns.
The first touchdown for the Lions followed a bad snap on a Big Spring punt that resulted in a 25-yard loss, and Brownwood with the ball at the Steer 15. Three plays later a 1-yard plunge by Coalson made the score 7-0 with 11:14 left in the second quarter.
The next Big Spring drive ended with a 9-yard punt, and the Lions were back in business at the Steer 34. Two snaps later, Coalson connected with Cornelius on a 26-yard touchdown toss over the middle, and the Lions were in control, 14-0, with 9:24 left before intermission.
Brownwood tacked on another touchdown before the break as, after an interception return by Brown set up the Lions at the Big Spring 5, Coalson connected with Gray from 3 yards out for his first reception of the season, and first touchdown. Eli Valenciano’s extra point made the score 21-0 with 2:06 remaining before halftime.
“I was not expecting that ball to come to me, but I’m very glad he threw it to me,” Gray said. “I just thought about the ball all the way to my hands, tuck it tight and don’t let them hit it out. I was very happy to get a touchdown today.”
Like the second period, the Lions scored three more touchdowns in the third quarter to pad the cushion to 42-0.
First, Buffington capped an eight-play, 62-yard drive with a 1-yard dive at the 8:11 mark of the third quarter to stretch the lead to 28-0.
Big Spring fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which Rodriguez recovered and returned to the Steer 9. One play later, Coalson connected with Noe, who barreled his way into the end zone for a 35-0 advantage at the 7:54 juncture.
“Isaac punched it out and I was able to recover the fumble, and I thought I was going to take it to the house,” Rodriguez said. “We practice forcing turnovers all the time, Tuesday practice is made for turnovers. We practice the entire day on punching the ball out and ripping the ball out and it comes out in the game.”
Then, with 4:17 to go in the third, Buffington scored again on a draw play from 12 yards out, increasing the lead to 42-0.
“This is probably the best I’ve seen out of all the offensive lines I’ve played on growth-wise,” said offensive lineman Aidan Packheiser, the lone starter up front back from last season. “We just continue to work hard everyday. We practiced hard all week, working on our footwork. The small things, that’s what we preach as offensive linemen, small things will get you to big places. That’s why I like being part of this program. I have big expectations for this team and we’re going to go places.”
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Rodriguez scored on a 2-yard carry to boost the advantage to 48-0.
“That play, I did not get touched,” Rodriguez said. “That was phenomenal blocking by the o-line.”
At the 8:29 mark of the final stanza, the Lions put the finishing touches on their scoring for the night with a 26-yard Valenciano field goal.
Brownwood was one second away from posting a shutout, but after a pair of timeouts in the closing seconds, Big Spring eventually reached the end zone on a 20-yard toss from Javon Jackson to Jacobi Lozano against a defensive unit comprised mostly of Lions JV and freshman playoff call-ups.
“We brought a bunch of kids out, we dressed about 78 kids tonight because we want them to experience what it’s like in the playoffs, and a bunch of kids got to play,” Brixey said. “That’s always fun for them.”
Next week, the Lions face District 2-4A Division I fourth seed Canyon (7-4), which knocked off District 1 champion El Paso Ysleta (10-1) Thursday night by a 66-13 count, in the Class 4A Division I Region I area round of the playoffs. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. Friday at Odessa Permian’s Ratliff Stadium.
***
Brownwood 51, Big Spring 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 0 | 21 | 21 | 9 | – 51 |
| Big Spring | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | – 7 |
***
SCORING SUMMARY
Bwd: Judson Coalson 1 run (Eli Valenciano kick), 11:14, 2nd
Bwd: Connor Cornelius 26 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 9:24, 2nd
Bwd: Christian Gray 3 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 2:06, 2nd
Bwd: Trent Buffington 1 run (Valenciano kick), 8:11, 3rd
Bwd: Carson Noe 9 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 7:54, 3rd
Bwd: Buffington 12 run (Valenciano kick), 4:17, 3rd
Bwd: Nick Rodriguez 2 run (kick failed), 11:57, 4th
BS: Jacobi Lozano 20 pass from Javon Jackson (Sebastian Torres kick), 0:01, 4th
***
| TEAM STATS | Bwd | BS |
| First Downs | 23 | 12 |
| Total Offense | 385 | 174 |
| Rushes-Yards | 41-222 | 38-17 |
| Passing Yards | 163 | 157 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 9-19-2 | 18-30-3 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 1 |
| Penalties-Yards | 7-35 | 7-60 |
| Punts-Average | 0-0.0 | 6-24.5 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Bwd – Trent Buffington 23-141, 2 TDs; Nick Rodriguez 10-51, TD; Hutton Malone 4-32; Judson Coalson 3-3, TD; Team 1-(-5). BS – Colin Mikels 13-43; Xander Garza 7-17; Jacob Lozano 1-5; Javon Jackson 4-(-8); Marcus Rios 12-(-15); Team 1-(-25).
PASSING: Bwd – Coalson 8-15-2-123, 3 TDs; Carson Noe 1-1-0-40; Riggs Gray 0-3-0-0. BS – Rios 12-21-3-75; Jackson 5-8-0-52, TD; Lozano 1-1-0-30.
RECEIVING: Bwd – Connor Cornelius 3-71, TD; Hudson Fry 2-40; Noe 2-39, TD; Buffington 1-4; Christian Gray 1-3, TD. BS – Lozano 6-50, TD; Kaine Valenzuela 5-25; Eithan Threats 4-63; Mikels 3-19.
KICKING:
* Eli Valenciano 6 of 7 PATs. 1 of 3 FGs
0 punts, 0 yards, 0 average – 0 inside 20.
