ODESSA – Trailing by 24 points with just over four minutes left in the third period, the Brownwood Lions tallied four touchdowns over the next 14 minutes, but their comeback fell short in a 31-28 loss to the Canyon Eagles in Class 4A Division I Region I area playoff action Friday night at Ratliff Stadium.
“We fought our tails off,” said Lions first-year head coach Jeryl Brixey. “Credit to our kids in the second half for not quitting. We were 24 points down and we just fought and fought and gave ourselves a chance.”
Canyon (8-4) finished with 459 yards of total offense – 251 passing and 208 rushing – and all four touchdowns covered at least 25 yards, with the last three scored from more than 50 yards out, as Brownwood (7-5) had limited big plays for the most part throughout the season.
“We gave up some crucial big plays tonight on third-and-long, but that’s the way the game goes,” Brixey said.
Eagles quarterback Brox Hacker passed for 251 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 150 yards and another score, and his 52-yard scoring toss to Noah Sanchez put the Lions in a 24-0 hole at the 4:39 mark of the third quarter.
A Brownwood offense that had amassed just 95 of its 345 yards to that point, generated 250 yards over its next four possessions to turn a blowout into a nail-biter.
Two plays after Canyon established its largest lead of the night, Lions quarterback Judson Coalson connected with Carson Noe – who hauled in a game-high eight receptions for 175 yards and two scores – on a 62-yard touchdown pass to close the gap to 24-7 with 3:46 left in the third period.
Canyon punted the ball back to Brownwood after its next possession, and the Lions marched 55 yards in five plays as Coalson and Noe again connected from 19 yards out on the first snap of the fourth period, as the Eagles’ lead was reduced to 24-14. Coalson finished the season with 1,925 passing yards and 24 scoring tosses, while Noe grabbed 51 receptions for 989 yards with 13 trips to the end zone, and recorded 1,142 all-purpose yards with 15 touchdowns.
“That’s definitely something that’s always been big all year long,” Brixey said of the connection between Coalson and Noe. “It was big again tonight, and those are two kids probably as much as anybody that from day one when I got here bought in to what I was asking them to do.”
Facing a third-and-10 from their own 45 with 10:12 remaining, the Eagles tallied their final touchdown as Hacker hit Bayler Schilling – who hauled in five catches for 155 yards and crossed the goal line twice – on a 55-yard screen pass as he darted to the end zone to boost Canyon’s advantage to 31-14.
Brownwood again answered with 7:29 to go as Trent Buffington, who rushed for a team-high 91 yards, scored on a 4-yard carry to cap a six-play, 62-yard trek to the end zone. Noe’s 30-yard toe-tap reception from Coalson the play prior set up the Lions’ third touchdown.
Then, after forcing another Canyon punt, the Lions drove 59 yards in eight plays as Coalson – who completed 13 of 20 passes for 234 yards – threw the last of his three touchdown passes to Hudson Fry, who dragged a defender into the end zone over the final 5 yards of his 28-yard scoring reception with 1:21 remaining.
Brownwood then attempted an onside kick, which Canyon recovered, as the Eagles were able to run out the clock.
In the first half, Canyon scored on the first play of the second quarter on a 26-yard carry by Hacker, who later connected with Schilling on a 67-yard scoring toss. On the final play of the first half, Lane Burton booted a 26-yard field goal for a 17-0 Eagle advantage.
The Lions had a 56-yard touchdown run by Buffington negated, which would have cut the deficit to 14-7 midway through the second period, on the second of two consecutive illegal block below the waist calls, which eventually forced Brownwood into a first-and-40 situation, and later a punt from its own 45.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever get over the momentum-robbing plays in the first half,” said Brixey, who added the officials told him they got the calls wrong. “You can come back and apologize to me all you want with ‘Coach, we blew the call.’ But blowing the call and killing those plays, that changed the game in the first half.”
Brownwood slipped to 2-3 all-time against Canyon, as the Lions won the most recent outing between the two teams, 31-10, in the second round of the playoffs in 2022. Canyon also has a 1987 postseason victory over Brownwood, while the Lions and Eagles split a regular-season series in 2016 and 2017.
Canyon moves on to face Canyon West Plains (11-1) – a 42-7 winner over Lampasas (9-3) Friday night – in the Class 4A Division I Region I semifinals.
Reflecting on his first season as Brownwood head coach, Brixey said, “I can’t imagine a better group of seniors for my first year here. It’s been an honor to coach those kids this year. We didn’t accomplish what I wanted to, honestly, but way more maybe than we thought we would if you go back to the Wylie game. How far we’ve come since week one is really pretty amazing and a tribute to our coaches for as hard as they work and a tribute to our kids for doing everything we asked them to do.”
***
Canyon 31, Brownwood 28
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 0 | 0 | 7 | 21 | – 28 |
| Canyon | 0 | 17 | 7 | 7 | – 31 |
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SCORING SUMMARY
C: Brox Hacker 26 run (Lane Burton kick), 11:52, 2nd
C: Bayler Schilling 67 pass from Hacker (Burton kick), 9:26, 2nd
C: Burton 26 FG, 0:00, 2nd
C: Noah Sanchez 52 pass from Hacker (Burton kick), 4:39, 3rd
B: Carson Noe 62 pass from Judson Coalson (Eli Valenciano kick), 3:46, 3rd
B: Noe 19 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 11:54, 4th
C: Schilling 55 pass from Hacker (Burton kick), 10:12, 4th
B: Trent Buffington 4 run (Valenciano kick), 7:29, 4th
B: Hudson Fry 28 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 1:21, 4th
***
| TEAM STATS | B | C |
| First Downs | 15 | 17 |
| Total Offense | 345 | 459 |
| Rushes-Yards | 24-111 | 46-208 |
| Passing Yards | 234 | 251 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 13-20-0 | 9-10-0 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 3-40 | 6-35 |
| Punts-Average | 4-28.7 | 3-27.6 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: B – Trent Buffington 17-91, TD; Judson Coalson 4-14; Raven Prado 1-9; Daylyn Ansons 1-0; Team 1-(-3). C – Brox Hacker 24-150, TD; Austin Turner 10-32; Tripp Miller 9-18; Bayler Schilling 2-6; Beckett Miller 1-2.
PASSING: B – Coalson 13-20-0-234, 3 TDs. C – Hacker 9-10-0-251, 3 TDs
RECEIVING: B – Carson Noe 8-175, 2 TDs; Connor Cornelius 3-29; Hudson Fry 1-28, TD; Ansons 1-2. C – Schilling 5-155, 2 TDs; Noah Sanchez 2-80, TD; Isaiah Amaya 1-11; Tripp Miller 1-5.
KICKING:
* Eli Valenciano 4 of 4 PATs. 0 of 0 FGs
3 punts, 93 yards, 31.0 average – 0 inside 20.
* Daylyn Ansons
1 punt, 22 yards, 22.0 average
