First-year head football coach Jeryl Brixey has spoken frequently about the Brownwood Lions’ incremental progress from the time of his arrival until the start of the district campaign.
On Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium, both the Lions’ resiliency and tenacity were on display, as they vaulted to the forefront of the 4-4A Division I championship race in dramatic fashion, scoring with 18 seconds left to knock off the previously-unbeaten Lampasas Badgers, 42-39.
Down two touchdowns in the first quarter, only to later witness an eight-point fourth-quarter advantage evaporate, the Lions (4-3, 1-0) faced a 39-34 deficit with just 2:11 left in the contest. But Brownwood marched 81 yards in 11 plays, chewing 1:53 off the clock before Judson Coalson tossed his fifth touchdown pass of the night – a 7-yard reception to Carson Noe, who found his way into the end zone for the fifth time during the contest.
“It was a textbook two-minute drive,” said Noe, who finished with eight catches for 200 yards and four touchdowns, while rushing for a 13-yard touchdown as well on his only carry. “There was a lot of down energy on the sideline but I told them they left us way too much time to go down and score. We put a good drive together and ate up all the time.”
Coalson, who completed 12 of 22 passes for a season-high 295 yards, said of the Lions’ ability to rally in the closing moments, “Every week we have bands on and practice tempo, getting down the field quick. When a situation like this happens we just have to play it smart and stay level-headed and not get ahead of ourselves.”
Prior to the game-winning touchdown, the Lions moved from their own 19 to the end zone thanks to a 10-yard completion from Coalson to Noe on third-and-7 at the Brownwood 25. Coalson then connected with Grant Gray for a 20-yard gain that moved the ball to the Lampasas 41. A defensive holding call followed on the next play, then Coalson found Noe again for 11 yards to move the ball to the Badger 20. After back-to-back incompletions, Coalson scrambled for 13 yards on third-and-10 to place the ball at the Lampasas 7. Two plays later, Coalson and Noe connected once more to push Brownwood in front for good.
“To me, this victory says they listen to me and they’ve quit worrying about the scoreboard and are just playing the next play,” Brixey said. “That’s been our motto since the day I got here. We’re not ever going to worry about what that scoreboard says, we’re going to keep playing until it’s over and then we’ll look at it.”
The victory marked the third in a row for the Lions an after initial 0-2 start to the season, and is by far the most important in Brixey’s short tenure at Brownwood High.
“Honestly, Lampasas is a dang good football team, but I told our kids all week we were going to win,” Brixey said. “I’m happy we won, but I’m not satisfied with the victory because we did a lot of things that made this game closer than it should have been. That put us in a situation where we had to have a miracle comeback at the end, and our kids fought their hearts out and never gave up. That’s who we’re going to be, but we have to get some things fixed so games that shouldn’t be like this aren’t like this.”
The Lions were able to overcome a pair of fumbles and a high snap on a punt, which resulted in three scoring drives for Lampasas (6-1, 0-1). The Badgers, however, had to cover just 48 yards total to reach the end zone on those three possessions, including drives of just 1 and 11 yards.
“We gave them the short field twice and we had some other fumbles that we recovered but were still drive killers,” Brixey said. “There are things that we thought we had fixed and now they’ve shown their ugly head again. We’ve got to get it fixed.”
Brownwood countered with a two takeaways in the second half, and also intercepted a pair of two-point attempts by Lampasas. Nick Rodriguez finished with two picks, while Caven Webster and Wyatt Wolf recorded one each.
“They were a good team, we just had to play as hard as we could every single drive, and keep doing what we’re doing,” Rodriguez said. “Every time they made a big play, we had to keep our head up and keep on going. Don’t look at the scoreboard, just give it our best. We just had to make some great plays.”
Behind the front five of Gustavo Gonzalez, Aidan Packheiser, Avuid Gomez, Jackson Rainey and Rylan Martin, the Lions finished with 428 yards of total offense – 295 through the air and 133 on the ground – while Lampasas produced 370 yards – 244 rushing and 126 passing.
Brownwood found itself in a 14-0 hole with 4:14 left in the opening period as Bryson Roberts connected with Shawn Roberts on a 25-yard scoring toss on the opening possession of the contest. Then, after a fumbled snap at the Brownwood 36, the Badgers took eight plays to extend their cushion to 14-0 on a 4-yard plunge by Aaron Everts.
Down a couple of touchdowns, the Lion offense didn’t find its footing until the second period.
Taking over at their own 42, the Lions ventured 58 yards in nine plays as Coalson hurled an 11-yard touchdown to Noe to shave deficit to 14-7 with 8:49 left in the first half.
Another fumble by the Lions, this time at their own 11, with 5:19 left before intermission allowed Lampasas to stretch the lead to 20-7 on an 11-yard pass from Bryson Roberts to Kayden Van Pelt.
By halftime, however, the Lions had grabbed their first lead of the contest.
First, a 61-yard toss from Coalson to Noe on third-and-12 at the Brownwood 39 brought the Lions within 20-14 with 3:21 left in the second period.
Then, after forcing one of five Lampasas punts, the Lions needed just four plays to travel 67 yards as – following a 35-yard run by Trent Buffington, who picked a team-high 79 yards on the ground – Hudson Fry hauled in a 24-yard scoring reception from Coalson, and Eli Valenciano’s extra point with 49 seconds left in the quarter gave Brownwood a 21-20 halftime edge.
The Lions started the second half with the ball and, after a 40-yard pass from Coalson to Connor Cornelius, Brownwood completed a four-play, 66-yard scoring drive with a 13-yard carry to the end zone by Noe, boosting the lead to 28-20.
“The rushing touchdown was my favorite because against China Spring I got a jet sweep and I did not hear the end of it because I fell on the 1 yard line, so I had to get in the end zone,” Noe said.
After Rodriguez’s first interception of the game ended the Badgers’ first drive of the third quarter, Lampasas turned the momentum back in its favor as a snap over the Brownwood punter Valenciano’s head resulted in the Badgers taking possession at the Lion 1 with 3:48 left in the third period. On the next snap, Jaden McElwain caught a 1-yard swing pass from Bryson Roberts to close the gap to 28-26. Wolf intercepted the two-point attempt, however, as the Lions held on the lead.
Brownwood then fired back on its first play of the ensuing drive as Coalson found Noe running free for a 75-yard touchdown at the 3:30 mark of the third quarter. The Lions opted for two after the touchdown and failed, which kept the Badgers within one score at 34-26.
Leading by eight points to start the fourth period, the Lions witnessed the Badgers travel 53 yards in four plays, aided by a 34-yard rumble by Wesley Stephens, then Bryson Roberts scored from 10 yards out to bring Lampasas within 34-32 with 8:32 to go. The Lions again turned away another Lampasas two-point try thanks to an interception by Rodriguez in the end zone.
“I knew the receiver was behind me and I kind of baited the quarterback a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “When he threw the ball, I was there to make a play.”
Lampasas then tried an onside kick, which Isaac Gonzales recovered for Brownwood at the Lion 46, but a three-and-out gave the ball back to the Badgers with 7:29 to go.
A 10-play, 60-yard, 5:18 scoring drive culminated with an 18-yard touchdown toss from Bryson Roberts to McElwain with 2:11 left, but that proved to be too much time as the Lions recorded the final touchdown.
After attaining their 42-39 advantage, the Lions sealed the victory on the final snap when a Bryson Roberts pass was deflected by Rodriguez and intercepted by Webster.
“I was extremely nervous going into that play, but he just threw up the ball and I knew I had to make a play on it,” Rodriguez said.
The Lions’ bye falls next week, then Brownwood resumes District 4-4A Division I action at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 at Burnet (3-4, 1-0), which picked up a 35-14 league win over Marble Falls (3-4, 0-1) Friday night.
For Coalson, “This was an awesome game, the most important game I’ve played here in Brownwood. It sets us up for a lot. We played a great game and I’m so happy we came out and did what we did.”
Noe said of the victory, “It’s a big momentum booster. We were 3-3 before, but that doesn’t matter now. We’re 1-0 in district and that’s what matters. We’re going to keep using that momentum.”
***
Brownwood 42, Lampasas 39
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Lampasas | 14 | 6 | 12 | 7 | – 39 |
| Brownwood | 0 | 21 | 13 | 8 | – 42 |
***
SCORING SUMMARY
L: Shawn Roberts 25 pass from Bryson Roberts (Zimri Vergara kick), 7:56, 1st
L: Aaron Everts 4 run (Vergara kick), 4:14, 1st
B: Carson Noe 11 pass from Judson Coalson (Eli Valenciano kick), 8:49, 2nd
L: Kayden Van Pelt 11 pass from B. Roberts (kick failed), 5:13, 2nd
B: Noe 61 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 3:21, 2nd
B: Hudson Fry 24 pass from Coalson (Valenciano kick), 0:49, 2nd
B: Noe 13 run (Valenciano kick), 10:36, 3rd
L: Jaden McElwain 1 pass from B. Roberts (pass failed), 3:48, 3rd
B: Noe 75 pass from Coalson (pass failed), 3:30, 3rd
L: B. Roberts 10 run (pass failed), 8:32, 4th
L: McElwain 18 pass from B. Roberts (Vergara kick), 2:11, 4th
B: Noe 7 pass from Coalson (Noe pass from Coalson), 0:18, 4th
***
| TEAM STATS | L | B |
| First Downs | 21 | 21 |
| Total Offense | 370 | 428 |
| Rushes-Yards | 42-244 | 29-133 |
| Passing Yards | 126 | 295 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 12-25-2 | 12-22-0 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 2 |
| Penalties-Yards | 7-65 | 2-20 |
| Punts-Average | 5-42.6 | 3-29.6 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: L – KJ Reed 19-109, Wesley Stephens 11-81; Bryson Roberts 9-44, TD; Aaron Everts 1-4, TD; Cayhil Isom 1-5; Kayden Van Pelt 1-2. B – Trent Buffington 14-79; Levi Pearson 8-56; Carson Noe 1-13, TD; Judson Coalson 4-10; Daylyn Ansons 1-0; Team 1-(-25).
PASSING: L – Roberts 12-25-2, 4 TDs. B – Coalson 12-22-0-295, 5 TDs.
RECEIVING: L – Jaden McElwain 6-64, 2 TDs; Van Pelt 3-12, TD; Shawn Roberts 2-42, TD; Reed 1-2. B – Noe 8-200, 4 TDs; Grant Gray 2-31; Connor Cornelius 1-40; Hudson Fry 1-24, TD.
KICKING: B – Eli Valenciano 4 of 4 PATs. 0 of 0 FGs
3 punts, 89 yards, 29.6 average – 1 inside 20
