VIDEO: Thad Hinds hauls in a 25-yard touchdown reception from Ike Hall, his second of the game.
WACO – The wins continue to mount for the Class 4A Division I No. 9 Brownwood Lions, who used a string of 31 unanswered points to take control of Friday night’s 52-21 road victory over the Class 4A Division II No. 10 Waco Connally Cadets.
Trailing 14-7 with 2:06 left in the first period, Brownwood (4-1) reeled off four touchdowns and a field goal before Connally (4-3) scored again, then tacked on two additional touchdowns before the night ended.
“I thought once we got rolling in the first half and took the lead going into the half, our kids have a lot of belief in themselves coming out in the second half that they’re going to be dominant,” said Lions fifth-year head coach Sammy Burnett, whose team has surrendered just 21 of its 90 points allowed after intermission. “That’s a result of their work ethic and their effort. They’re working hard every day and they came out in the second half and imposed their will.”
Regarding the four-game win streak, Burnett said, “I just love their courage, I love their desire and the way they are doing things. They’re trying to be uncommon, they’re playing together, they’re believing in what their coaches are telling them, they believe in their teammates, and they don’t think they’re going to lose. They always think they’re going to be successful.”
Behind the play of offensive linemen Chris Robinson, Damian Sanchez, Roan Aguinaga, Isaac Gray and Slayde Espinoza, the Lions produced 442 yards of total offense and scored the most points Connally has allowed all season.
Quarterback Ike Hall rushed for a team-high 123 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, Konlyn Anderson chipped in 113 yards on 21 carries with a pair of end zone trips, and Logan McKibben tacked on 49 yards on his 12 rushes.
Through the air, Hall connected on 11 of 17 passes for 157 yards with a pair of touchdowns – both to Thad Hinds, who led the team with five grabs for 92 yards. Jordan Leach added four catches for 29 yards, Brayden Daub hauled in a 26-yard reception, and Hayden Noe made his first grab of the season, a 10-yarder.
Brownwood rushed the ball a season-high 46 times to go along with 17 pass plays.
“I thought the balance was perfect because we don’t want to throw the ball unless we have to,” Burnett said. “We believe in running the football and setting up the pass. When you have a lead and you can move the chains on the ground and you can burn the clock, that’s our M.O. We’re going to stick with that until we have to throw the ball, then we’re going to play action and put the ball in the air.”
Defensively, the Lions yielded touchdowns on the first two Connally drives, but stiffened as the game went on, which has followed the trend of each game this season. The Cadets, playing without Oklahoma State commit Jelani McDonald at quarterback, turned almost exclusively to tailback Kiefer Sibley, who rushed for 227 of Connally’s 297 total yards, and scored all three touchdowns.
Leading the charge defensively were Jake Jetton with 14 tackles and one for loss; Quinten McCarty with 10 tackles; Cole Miller with eight tackles and one for loss; Noe with eight tackles; Stevie Ramirez and Sam Kallman with seven tackles apiece; Noah Barron with five; Chance Jones, Davis Le, Jaylan Brown and Hayden Deen with four each; Daub, Morsello Hooker and Jordyn Nickerson, who added a tackle for loss, with three apiece; McKibben, Trent Loftin and Bryan Osbourn with two tackles each; and Xavier Zapata with one.
“Defensively, we had a good game plan,” Burnett said. “That back, as you can tell, was very good, very powerful. He broke one big one on us and that’s under his norm. It’s usually two or three a game.”
The Lions scored a touchdown on their opening drive, just 1:47 into the contest, needing only five plays before Hall connected with Hinds on a 26-yard toss after Connally jumped offsides.
“The passing game opened up the run game,” Hinds said. “They weren’t blitzing as much and they kept holding back the safeties and they weren’t coming down, and that allowed us to make plays. That was a free play so why not throw it? And Ike threw it up and I was able to make a play.”
Connally responded with two straight touchdowns on runs of 21 and 34 yards by Sibley, as the Lions’ only punt of the night was sandwiched between, as Brownwood faced a 14-7 deficit.
But Brownwood immediately fired back with an 11-play, 77-yard march that knotted the score at 14 just 27 seconds into the second quarter. Anderson scored on a 2-yard carry after barreling 17 yards the play before – his second-longest carry of the night.
On the tying drive, the Lions converted a third-and-6 with a 10-yard toss from Hall to Noe to the Brownwood 47, and another third-and-5 on an offsides penalty – one of eight flags for 75 yards against the Cadets.
Brownwood then forced the first of three Connally punts after the next series of plays, which set up the possession that put the Lions in front for good.
Taking over at their own 30, the Lions traveled 70 yards in nine plays, with Hall and Hinds again connecting on a 25-yard scoring toss to stake Brownwood to a 21-14 lead with 5:11 left in the first half.
“The ball usually doesn’t come to me on that play, but the corner just sat there so I knew I was open and called for it, and Ike just threw a perfect ball,” Hinds said.
Burnett added, “I thought Ike played a much better game today. I thought he was more accurate with his balls, and he threw some great balls. His growth over the last week was huge. Our receivers caught the ball well, and ran good routes.”
Connally’s next drive was stuffed at the Brownwood 40 on a fourth-and-5 run play that netted just 3 yards. The Lions took over with 49 seconds left and were able to advance to the Cadet 28, where Junior Martinez booted a career-long 45-yard field goal to extend the lead to 24-14 at halftime.
“I thought we finished the first half well,” Burnett said. “Putting the points on the board at the end was huge to take a 10-point lead. I actually thought offensively we started slowly. Internally we understood what we weren’t doing right and we fixed it quickly.”
The Lions held Connally to a three-and-out on its first possession of the second half, then the fourth down snap sailed over the punter’s head into the end zone, where Stevie Ramirez recovered for a touchdown to boost Brownwood’s cushion to 31-14 just 2:07 into the third quarter.
“We were going hard every single play,” Ramirez said of scoring the touchdown. “Every time we’re on the field we’re going hard.”
Burnett added, “We were telling our kids it was a possibility, we’ve seen it on film and to be ready for it. For it to happen and take advantage of it, not just get a safety but have Stevie recover it for a touchdown, that was huge. It takes away the momentum, and anything we can do to cause a mistake on their part to give us momentum we’re going to try and do.”
The Cadets managed just one first down on the next drive before booting the ball back to the Lions. A seven-play Brownwood march ensued, capped by a 14-yard touchdown run by Anderson at the 6:13 mark of the third, putting the final touches on the Lions’ run of 31 points and extending the lead to 38-14.
Sibley immediately responded with a 75-yard touchdown run to close the gap to 38-21, but it marked just the third trip to the end zone in the second half allowed by the Lions all season. Aside from that carry, Connally mustered just 34 total yards the rest of the second half.
“Our coaches really did a great job,” Ramirez said. “We adjusted and just played our game instead playing their game. We’re really good at tackling. Everyone’s swarming to the ball and they have no place to go.”
Burnett added, “They scored one touchdown in the second half and it was a big play, and we knew that guy had big play potential. We knew it would happen at some point, he’s done it to everybody, he’s just that good. We wish it wouldn’t have happened but it did. But for us to give up just one big play to him, that’s our kids’ strong belief and that could carry us into the future.”
The Lions tacked on two more touchdowns before the game ended on runs of 3 and 5 yards by Hall. Brownwood used a 16-play, 65-yard drive that chewed 6:53 off the clock to pad the cushion to 24 points. The last score was the culmination of an eight-play, 53-yard journey that milked 5:01 off the clock.
Next week, the Lions are back on the road at Class 4A Division I No. 1 Stephenville – the reigning state champion – for the Battle of 377. The Yellow Jackets (5-0) are coming off a 43-42 victory over 5A Division II No. 5 Wichita Falls Ryder.
“We’re going to celebrate this win because they’re hard to come by,” Burnett said. “We’ll work on Stephenville tonight, work on them again tomorrow, and work on them again Sunday. We’ll have a game plan ready to go for them. They’re scoring a lot of points and they’re doing it running the football behind that big offensive line. We have to find a way to get off the field and score every time we touch the football.”
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Lions 52, Waco Connally 21
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 7 | 17 | 14 | 14 | – 52 |
| Connally | 14 | 0 | 7 | 0 | – 21 |
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SCORING SUMMARY
B: Thad Hinds 26 pass from Ike Hall (Junior Martinez kick), 10:53, 1st
C: Kiefer Sibley 21 run (kick failed), 5:40, 1st
C: Sibley 34 run (Jylon Nobles), 2:06, 1st
B: Konlyn Anderson 2 run (Martinez kick), 11:33, 2nd
B: Hinds 25 pass from Hall (Martinez kick), 5:11, 2nd
B: Martinez 45 FG, 0:00, 2nd
B: Stevie Ramirez recovered high punt snap in end zone (Martinez kick), 9:53, 3rd
B: Anderson 14 run (Martinez kick), 6:13, 3rd
C: Sibley 75 run (Erick Lara kick), 6:00, 3rd
B: Hall 3 run (Martinez kick), 11:07, 4th
B: Hall 5 run (Martinez kick) 2:49, 4th
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| TEAM STATS | B | C |
| First Downs | 28 | 16 |
| Total Offense | 442 | 297 |
| Rushes-Yards | 46-285 | 38-270 |
| Passing Yards | 157 | 27 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 11-17-0 | 6-8-0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 5-45 | 8-75 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Punts-Average | 1-37.0 | 3-35.6 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Brownwood – Ike Hall 13-123, 2 TDs; Konlyn Anderson 21-113, 2 TDs; Logan McKibben 12-49. Connally – Kiefer Sibley 22-227, 3 TDs; Kobe Black 4-33; Dae’Veion Sayles 3-14; Jylon Nobles 4-11; Ja’Morris Sayles 3-11; Jarrett Shepard 1-4; Team 1-(-30).
PASSING: Brownwood – Hall 11-17-0-157, 2 TDs. Connally – Shepard 6-8-0-27.
RECEIVING: Brownwood – Thad Hinds 5-92, 2 TDs; Jordan Leach 4-29; Brayden Daub 1-26; Hayden Noe 1-10. Connally – Black 3-25; Ke’Are Riley 1-3; Jack Johnston 1-3; Sibley 1-(-4).
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KICKING – Brownwood – Junior Martinez 1 of 1 FG: Made 45. 7 of 7 PATs.
1 punt, 37 yards, 37.0 average.
