Following a promising start to the 2022 football campaign, the Harris Ratings Weekly Class 4A Division I No. 10 Brownwood Lions shift their focus to a goal that has not been attained in 12 years – a district championship.

The first step on that journey comes with Friday’s 7 p.m. homecoming showdown at Gordon Wood Stadium with the Big Spring Steers in a battle of a 4-2 squads.

“It’s the No. 1 goal and it’s our job,” Lions fifth-year head coach Sammy Burnett said in regard to earning the District 2-4A Division I title. “We feel like we have the team that can do that and play for that. Our expectations are to do that. We have high expectations for ourselves and we feel like if play our ‘A’ game – it doesn’t matter who we play but how we play – we can be successful. Anything less than that we’ll take and be thankful we got an opportunity to go to the playoffs, but we want to be district champions.”

The Lions dropped their season opener to 5A Division II No. 14 Abilene Wylie, 30-24, and fell at 4A Division I No. 1 Stephenville, 42-21, last week, but pieced together a four-game win streak in between to prepare for league play.

“Through six pre-district games I thought our kids performed well,” Burnett said. “When we play well, we can play with anybody, but I don’t think we’ve reached our potential. I don’t think we’ve played to our potential ability yet and that’s a good thing. If they continue to strive for it, continue to work for it, it’s all going to click and happen. When these kids play to their full potential and use the gifts they’ve been given, they could be special. Our goal is to continue to get better, fix the mistakes that we’ve made and grow and move on.”

Coming off the loss to Stephenville, Burnett was not pleased with the ground game offensively, as well as a season-high three turnovers, and broken tackles in the secondary that led to long gains on pass plays – all correctable mistakes, according to the head coach.

“We’ve learned some good lessons from last week on how we can compete at a certain level when we put everything together and how we can’t compete at a certain level when we don’t put things together,” Burnett said. “There’s a lot of things that we drew from last week and we’re ready to move on and head into district and see if we can get a victory and get closer to that goal of winning a district championship.”

Big Spring enters Friday’s game having defeated Lubbock High (51-26), Monahans (24-20), Sweetwater (20-7) and Snyder (27-24), with losses to Pampa (27-20) in the season opener, and Seminole (63-28) last week.

With the Steers offense, the Lions will be facing the most pass happy unit it has seen to date. Big Spring is averaging 28 points and allowing 28 points per game, but the Steers have thrown for 327 of their 416 yards per game, while rushing for just 89.

Quarterback Gavin Padron has connected on 176 of 262 passes for 1,966 yards with 18 touchdowns and five interceptions, while leading receivers include Zeyire Franklin (34-546, 3 TDs), Derick Walleck (28-313, 2 TDs), Ricky Escovedo (26-281, 4 TDs), Kavien Ford (26-217, 2 TDs), Eli Cobos (23-281, TD) and Donavyn Hilario (19-228, 2 TDs). On the ground, Ford (446 rushing yards, 3 TDs) is the top rusher.

“They like to throw the ball a lot,” Burnett said. “They like to throw it sideways, too. They like to throw a lot of screens, they’ll throw plays off the screen, they have some tall kids on the outside and they have a lot of kids that rotate in. I haven’t figured out why they’re not committed to the run, but the quarterback gets the job done and puts up some numbers. We have to make sure we’re doing our job in the back end, but we’re not just going to sit back and let them throw the ball, we’re going to heat them up a little bit and see if we can bust up his timing.”

Brownwood’s defense, coming off its shakiest outing of the season, is still allowing just 22 points and 296 yards – 187 rushing and 109 passing – per game, with eight takeaways.

Tasked with slowing down Big Spring will be a unit led by linebacker Chance Jones (56 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 for loss, 1 punt block), lineman Quinten McCarty (53 tackles, 7 for loss, 1 punt block, 1 fumble recovery), linebacker Sam Kallman (50 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 for loss, 1 fumble recovery), linebacker Stevie Ramirez (39 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 for loss, 1 fumble recovery), lineman Cole Miller (37 tackles, 1 for loss, 2 sacks, 1 fumble recovery) defensive back Jake Jetton (36 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 fumble recovery TD), defensive back Hayden Noe (31 tackles, 1 PBU), defensive back Noah Barron (28 tackles), linebacker Jaylan Brown (20 tackles, 1 sack, 1 for loss), defensive back Jordyn Nickerson (20 tackles, 1 for loss), defensive back Case Markham (17 tackles, 1 PBU), lineman Davis Le (16 tackles), linebacker Hayden Deen (15 tackles), lineman Trent Loftin (14 tackles, 1 sack, 1 for loss), and defensive back Morsello Hooker (13 tackles, 1 for loss, 2 interception, 4 PBUs).

“We feel like we can play man coverage against them and bring a bit more pressure on the quarterback and not let him have an opportunity to sit in the pocket and throw the ball,” Burnett said. “What we can’t do is just sit in zones and give them all the time to throw. We want to make the quarterback uncomfortable. We think they could struggle running the ball, and that’s our goal. If we can eliminate that phase and make them throw it, we feel like we can be be successful. We’ll mix up our coverages enough that we’ll keep them off balance and heat up the quarterback at the same time.”

On the flip side of the ball, re-establishing the ground game will be among the keys for the Brownwood offense behind the front of Isaac Gray, Roan Aguinaga, Chris Robinson, Damian Sanchez and Slayde Espinoza.

“We feel like we can run the football against them and have the ability to dominate up front with our offensive line,” Burnett said. “The linemen were frustrated that things weren’t as successful last week and they’re holding each other accountable. They’re communicating with each other and being stern about what they’re doing. They take it seriously and feel like they didn’t play to their potential against Stephenville.”

Brownwood heads into the game averaging 34 points and 385 yards – 198 rushing and 187 passing – per game, with eight turnovers.

The ground game is led by Konlyn Anderson with 615 yards and eight touchdowns, quarterback Ike Hall with 401 yards and six scores, and Logan McKibben with 158 yards and three trips to the end zone.

Through the air, Hall has connected on 72 of 126 passes for 1,121 yards with seven touchdowns and four interceptions, while leading receivers include Thad Hinds (22-442, 4 TDs), Jordan Leach (22-307, 1 TD), Anderson (8-56), Brayden Daub (7-118), Jason Jackson (6-141, 2 TDs) and Taylor Bessent (4-29.)

Like Brownwood, Big Spring is coming off its worst outing of the season defensively as the Steers yielded 553 yards – 406 passing and 147 rushing – and surrendered nine touchdowns.

“Seminole aired it out a lot and has a good offensive line and a really good quarterback,” Burnett said. “They were able to have some big plays, but Big Spring has some big kids on the d-line and their linebackers are big. They have some good cover guys that can cover well, so they’re a balanced football team. They’ve won some ball games and have looked pretty good at times. I compare them to a Burnet style football team so we’re going to have to get out there and make sure we know what we’re doing and execute.”

The Lions were hoping to be at full strength for Friday night’s game, but Burnett stated that will not be the case.

According to Harris Ratings Weekly, Brownwood is a 35-point favorite.

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Brownwood Lions 2022 Football Season Stats

Through 6 Games (4-2)

TEAM OFFENSE

33.7 points per game (202)

385.3 yards per game (2,312)

198.5 rushing yards per game (1,191)

186.8 passing yards per game (1,121)

57.1 completion percentage (72 of 126)

PASSING

* Ike Hall

72 of 126 for 1,121 yards, 7 TDs, 4 INTs

RUSHING

* Konlyn Anderson

615 yards on 130 carries, 8 TDs

* Ike Hall

401 yards on 67 carries, 6 TDs

* Logan McKibben

158 yards on 31 carries, 3 TDs

* Case Markham

18 yards on 2 carries

RECEIVING

* Thad Hinds

22 catches, 442 yards, 4 TDs

* Jordan Leach

22 catches, 307 yards, 1 TD

* Konlyn Anderson

8 catches, 56 yards

* Brayden Daub

7 catches, 118 yards

* Jason Jackson

6 catches, 141 yards, 2 TDs

* Taylor Bessent

4 catches, 29 yards

* Morsello Hooker

2 catches, 8 yards

* Hayden Noe

1 catch, 10 yards

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TEAM DEFENSE

22.0 points per game (132)

296.1 yards per game (1,777)

187.3 rushing yards per game (1,124)

108.8 passing yards per game (653)

55.3 opponents completion percentage (52 of 94)

TACKLES

* Chance Jones

56 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 for loss, 1 punt block

* Quinten McCarty

53 tackles, 7 for loss, 1 punt block, 1 fumble recovery

* Sam Kallman

50 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 for loss, 1 fumble recovery

* Stevie Ramirez

39 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 for loss, 1 fumble recovery

* Cole Miller

37 tackles, 1 for loss, 2 sacks, 1 fumble recovery

* Jake Jetton

36 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 fumble recovery TD

* Hayden Noe

31 tackles, 1 PBU

* Noah Barron

28 tackles

* Jaylan Brown

20 tackles, 1 sack, 1 for loss

* Jordyn Nickerson

20 tackles, 1 for loss

* Case Markham

17 tackles, 1 PBU

* Davis Le

16 tackles

* Hayden Deen

15 tackles

* Trent Loftin

14 tackles, 1 sack, 1 for loss

* Morsello Hooker

13 tackles, 1 for loss, 2 interception, 4 PBUs

* Azariah Dillard

9 tackles

* Logan McKibben

9 tackles

* Colton McMillian

7 tackles

* Jordan Leach

5 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, 1 PBU

* Xavier Zepada

5 tackles

* Logan Knight

4 tackles

* Brayden Daub

5 tackles

* Bryan Osbourn

2 tackles

* Tristan Salinas

2 tackles

* Dryden Anderson

1 tackle

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KICKING

* Junior Martinez

6 of 7 FGs – long of 45

26 of 26 PATs

44 points

12 punts, 476 yards, 39.7 average – long of 58

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TURNOVER MARGIN (0)

* Brownwood: 8 (4 fumbles, 4 interceptions)

* Opponents: 8 (6 fumbles, 2 interceptions)

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PENALTIES

* Brownwood: 46 for 454 yards (7.7 for 75.7 per game)

* Opponents: 44 for 368 yards (7.3 for 61.3 per game)