MARBLE FALLS – The District 4-4A Division I runner-up Brownwood Lions tuned up for their 17th consecutive trip to the postseason with a 41-7 road victory over the Marble Falls Mustangs in Friday night’s regular season finale.
The Lions (6-4, 3-1), who led 20-0 at halftime, scored the first five touchdowns of the contest before allowing a late touchdown to Marble Falls (3-7, 0-4) in the fourth period.
“I feel like we needed to rebound from last week and come back and play well tonight and I think we did,” said Lions first-year head coach Jeryl Brixey, whose team was coming off a 49-0 loss to Harris Ratings Weekly No. 1-ranked Stephenville that snapped a four-game win streak. “Obviously when we go back and look at the video there’s going to be a lot of things we wished we did a lot better, but we challenged the kids at halftime to come back out and play like the score doesn’t matter and just play hard, and they did. It was a good night.”
Playing without starting center Gustavo Gonzalez due to an injury, the makeshift offensive line of Aviud Gomez, Aidan Packheiser, Rylan Martin, Jackson Rainey and Omari McNeil paved the way for 407 yards of total offense – 248 passing and 159 rushing – for Brownwood, without a turnover.
“They really did a great job, and they did a great job all week,” Brixey said of the offensive line. “We had one starter out tonight and another kid out sick most of the week. Just to be able to do what they did, which I think was a great job, they just went back to doing the things we work on. I’m certain there are things we need to do better, but I feel like we did move forward tonight.”
Trent Buffington rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns, with 120 of those yards coming in the first half, to pace Brownwood’s rushing attack.
“He’s getting better and better, and starting to understand there’s a flow in every offense and a way that plays work and a way they’re designed,” Brixey said. “He’s getting that figured out.”
Quarterback Judson Coalson connected on 14 of 19 passes for 248 yards and a pair of scoring tosses, while adding a 1-yard touchdown on the ground. Conner Cornelius caught a team-high six passes for 96 yards with a touchdown, while Carson Noe finished with four grabs for 83 yards and also crossed the goal line once.
“Conner had a big night because they were bound and determined to take Carson away,” Brixey said. “He spent most of the night with two or three people on him, but if you’re doing that you’re not taking care of other things. Judson was able to go through his progressions and see what he was supposed to see and he did a great job.”
Defensively, the Lions yielded just 183 yards of total offense, including 21 yards rushing on 23 carries. Marble Falls passed for 162 yards, completing 18 of 34 attempts, with an interception that was picked by Durham Brown, which set up Brownwood’s second touchdown.
“They had one play, a one missed tackle that would have been a tackle for loss, and he bounces off that and goes, but that can’t take away from how well the defense played tonight,” Brixey said of the defense’s near shutout. “And again, we were able to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback.”
The Lions also tallied five sacks, including consecutive sacks on the final three plays before halftime. Hayden Fulkersin finished with two sacks, while Isaac Gonzales, Brinson Martin and Brown contributed one apiece.
“It starts with our mindset when we go into practice,” Fulkersin said of the Lions’ defensive pressure. “We do everything we can to make sure we’re pushing and that carries over to the game. It really just comes down to our coaches, the film we watch and all the plays we were calling. We were able to give the quarterback pressure he couldn’t handle the whole game and got back there as many times as we could.”
Brownwood started the game with the ball, but went four-and-out and turned over the ball on downs on its own 42. Marble Falls advanced to the Lion 5 before the drive stalled, where Caven Webster blocked a 22-yard field goal attempt.
The Lions’ second drive then began at their own 3 yard line, and Brownwood marched 97 yards in 11 plays before Coalson’s 1-yard plunge at the goal line on the final snap of the first period resulted in a 7-0 advantage.
On Marble Falls’ second snap following the Lions’ first touchdown, Brown intercepted a Crawford Mattox pass attempt as Brownwood took over at the Mustang 30. Five plays later, Buffington scored on a 1-yard dive to stretch the Lions’ lead to 13-0 at the 9:19 mark of the second period.
“I did what the coaches taught me, I dropped back to my hook and I saw the ball, caught the ball and ran,” Brown said of his interception, the Lions’ 21st takeaway of 2025. Regarding his sack later in the game, Brown added, “I was on a blitz and he looked a little scared. I didn’t really hit him that hard, he just sort of fell with me.”
After a 46-yard Marble Falls punt set up Brownwood at its own 1 midway through second quarter, the Lions ventured 99 yards in nine plays to open a 20-0 advantage with 1:33 left in the first half. The play of the drive was a 40-yard completion from Coalson to Cornelius, which set up Buffington’s second touchdown from 5 yards out.
“I have to thank the line, that’s who it is,” Buffington said of his performance. “They make the hole wide open and it’s easy to score when there’s that big of a hole. The line definitely stepped up when we needed them to. We had a few guys in there tonight that weren’t used to playing where they were, but they definitely played the best they could.”
Leading by three touchdowns at intermission, the Lions padded their cushion to 27-0 thanks to a five-play, 51-yard drive that ended with a 4-yard scoring toss from Coalson to Cornelius at the 6:40 mark of the third period.
“They sent a little double team over to Carson tonight and that left me open on some of the plays,” Cornelius said. “The delays worked. There was no one down there to guard the delays in the flats, so it really helps when no one’s there to get up field and get some yards when no one’s there.”
Brownwood later scored on the first snap of the fourth period – a 6-yard run by Daylyn Ansons – to put the finishing touches on a 10-play, 53 yard march.
Marble Falls answered with its only points with 10:11 left in the contest as Kaden Langbein – who caught seven passes for 95 yards – eluded a pair of tackles on a jail break screen pass from Crawford Mattox for a 56-yard touchdown.
The Lions immediately fired back with a 23-yard scoring toss from Coalson to Noe with 4:55 remaining for the final 34-point margin of victory, the last snap of a three-play, 60-yard trek.
Next week, the Lions face District 3-4A Division I third seed Big Spring (5-5), a 34-21 winner over Pecos (3-7) Friday night in a battle for playoff positioning, in the Class 4A Division I Region I bi-district round of the playoffs. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14 at Abilene Christian University.
“We’re ready for the playoffs,” Cornelius said. “We’re going to practice hard, we’re going to watch film, we’re going to do everything we can to play to our best ability.”
***
Brownwood 41, Marble Falls 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 7 | 13 | 7 | 14 | – 41 |
| Marble Falls | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | – 7 |
***
SCORING SUMMARY
B: Judson Coalson 1 run (Eli Valenciano kick), 0:00, 1st
B: Trent Buffington 1 run (kick failed), 9:19, 2nd
B: Buffington 5 run (Valenciano kick), 1:33, 2nd
B: Conner Cornelius 4 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 6:40, 3rd
B: Daylyn Ansons 6 run (Valenciano kick), 11:56, 4th
M: Kaden Langbein 56 pass from Crawford Mattox (Joaquin Aguilar kick), 10:11, 4th
B: Carson Noe 23 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 4:55, 4th
***
| TEAM STATS | B | M |
| First Downs | 23 | 13 |
| Total Offense | 407 | 183 |
| Rushes-Yards | 33-159 | 23-21 |
| Passing Yards | 248 | 162 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 14-19-0 | 18-34-1 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 3-25 | 2-20 |
| Punts-Average | 0-0.0 | 3-35.6 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: B – Trent Buffington 19-125, 2 TD; Nick Rodriguez 7-33; Daylyn Ansons 1-6, TD; Judson Coalson 5-4, TD; Team 1-(-11). M – Joaquin Aguilar 8-22; Doak Timmerman 2-2; Diego Aguilar 1-1; Crawford Mattox 12-(-4).
PASSING: B – Coalson 14-19-0-248, 2 TDs. M – Mattox 18-33-1-162, TD; Timmerman 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING: B – Conner Cornelius 6-96, TD; Carson Noe 4-83, TD; Hudson Fry 2-42; Raven Prado 1-15; Ansons 1-12. M – Kaden Langbein 7-95, TD; Joaquin Aguilar 4-14; Atreyu Machacek 3-18; Gage Coleman 1-18; CJ Alexander 1-7; Timmerman 1-6; Olen Dalton 1-4.
KICKING:
* Eli Valenciano 5 of 6 PATs. 0 of 0 FGs
0 punts, 0 yards, 0 average – 0 inside 20.
