WICHITA FALLS – In their first preseason scrimmage of the Jeryl Brixey coaching era, the Brownwood Lions experienced their bright spots, and some that weren’t so stellar, but played their best ball during a live session to conclude Thursday night’s action against the Class 5A Division II Wichita Falls Legacy Leopards.
“I told the kids we did a lot of good things, and we did probably a lot more bad things than good things, but that’s not unusual for a first scrimmage, and it’s dang sure not unusual for a first scrimmage with a new system,” Brixey said. “Everybody wants to be good, it’s are you willing to work to be good? And what our kids are demonstrating is that they’re willing to work to be good. We’ve got to have a lot of improvement between now and next week, and then a lot of improvement coming off that going into the Wylie game, but I feel like it was a good, positive scrimmage for us tonight.”
Brownwood was outscored two touchdowns to none during a controlled scrimmage, 3-1 if you count touchdowns called back on penalties. In an overtime simulation, Eli Valenciano kicked a 39-yard field goal for the Lions, then Aiden Jimenez intercepted a Legacy pass at the 5 to stop the drive. The live action followed where Legacy punted to the Lions, who drove 87 yards and scored as time expired on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Judson Coalson to Robbie Robinson.
“I did feel like our kids, defensively, were flying around the field,” Brixey said. “They gave their bodies up and we missed a few tackles that we don’t need to miss, and those things are going to get better. When we went live, to me for what I want us to be offensively – a physical run team with play action – I thought there was glimmers of that. Obviously I’m not going to be happy when I watch it because that’s what coaches do, but right now I feel like the kids got a little feel of how this thing is supposed to look and supposed to feel.”
Counting all offensive snaps taken during the scrimmage, the Lions competed 8 of 19 passes for 125 yards and rushed the ball for 56 yards on 24 carries behind linemen Gustavo Gonzalez, Jackson Rainey, Rylan Martin, Julio Fletes, Omari McNeil and Aviud Gomez, among others. Conner Cornelius caught two passes for 24 yards during the live scoring drive, while Robinson pulled down a pair of receptions totaling 45 yards on the same possession, with the score. On the ground, Trent Buffington reeled off the longest Brownwood run of the night at 16 yards, Hutton Malone added a 12-yard burst, and Caven Webster chipped in an 11-yard carry.
Meanwhile, Legacy tallied -11 rushing yards on 18 carries with five Brownwood sacks, including three by Christian Gray, but connected on 16 of 20 passes for 270 yards with the Jimenez interception. Hayden Fulkersin and Denny Hopkins also collected sacks and Kasyn Wooten pounced on a fumble for the Lions’ defense. A Leopards’ 65-yard scoring toss was negated by a holding penalty.
“Christian is going to be a beast, he’s shown quite a bit, and Brinson Martin made some run-stopping tackles,” Brixey said. “We had some kids on the back end making plays and the plays we didn’t make in the back end were probably busted coverages where we turned somebody loose. But we were getting out there against something you don’t see every day, it’s just different. But I feel defensively we’re in a good place.”
In the controlled portion of the scrimmage, a 7-yard scoring toss from Coalson to Grant Gray was wiped out on an illegal motion penalty. Gray’s 51-yard catch and run from Coalson moved the ball inside the Legacy 10.
“I’m a believer in marking penalties in scrimmages and not everybody is, but I believe that you have to come to a true understanding of what penalties cost you,” Brixey said. “When Grant scored the touchdown, he didn’t stop when he stepped off to pause when he went in motion, so it’s illegal motion and called back. Ignoring that and counting the touchdown, to me that doesn’t make us better.”
During a session of field goal work, Valencia booted all five of his field goal attempts with a long of 42 yards, while Legacy converted just two of five tries.
“Eli was kicking the snot out of the football on field goals and PATs, that’s another one of a lot of pluses tonight,” Brixey said.
The Lions played Thursday night without Levi Pearson, Aidan Packheiser, Nick Rodriguez and Wyatt Wolf, for various reasons.
Brownwood wraps up the preseason scrimmage schedule Thursday, Aug. 21 as Class 4A Division I No. 10 Alvarado visits, then the Lions head to 5A Division II Abilene Wylie for the Friday, Aug. 29 season opener.
