Better execution and more players stepping up in new roles were the goals Brownwood sixth-year head coach Sammy Burnett wanted to see in the second and final scrimmage against the Lampasas Badgers Thursday night at Gordon Wood Stadium, and the Lions didn’t disappoint.
After being held scoreless by preseason Top 5 and reigning Class 4A Division I Region I champion Decatur a week ago, the Lions reached the end zone three times against Lampasas – a 6-5 playoff team in 2022 – while the Brownwood defense – which yielded just one touchdown last week – tossed a shutout in its second outing.
“We saw progress from this week compared to last week,” Burnett said. “I thought we did what we wanted to do defensively. Offensively, we had a couple of struggles but we did a better job up front, moved the ball better and threw and caught the ball better.”
Another objective Thursday was to establish depth, and all three touchdowns were scored by players who were not offensive contributors in 2022 – Xavier Zepeda, Aaron Edmonds and Levi Pearson.
“We’ve been working really hard to get as one-sided on the ball as we can,” Burnett said, reiterating his desire to play as few players both ways as possible. “I think we’re getting closer to that and we had an opportunity to put some different people out there.”
In the controlled portion of the scrimmage, the Lions broke a deadlock on their final series of plays as quarterback Braeden Stacks connected with Zepeda on a fourth-down, 11-yard bubble screen to the left side that resulted in a touchdown. The scoring play was set up by a 39-yard toss from Stacks to Morsello Hooker, who made a leaping grab at the Lampasas 16.
During the 15-minute live quarter, Brownwood scored on both its possessions.
The first touchdown came just three plays and 1:40 into the action as quarterback Ike Hall lofted a pass to a wide open Edmonds on a wheel route, who raced 65 yards down the sideline and into the end zone for a touchdown.
“We did a better job up front, we had fewer breakdowns, we were getting bodies on bodies and controlling the line of scrimmage,” Burnett said of the offense. “We have the athletic ability, we just have to gel and I think we got a little bit closer to that tonight.”
Lampasas answered by moving the ball to the Lions’ 45 before having to punt the ball away on a fourth-and-13.
Brownwood then methodically marched 65 yards down the field as Hall connected with Stone Ratliff, Hayden Noe and Weston Wolf on passes to move the ball to the Badger 18. Hall then appeared to score on an 18-yard quarterback keeper, but the touchdown was negated due to a holding call. Pearson then took over with runs of 13 yards and 11 yards to set up his 1-yard score with 38 seconds left on the clock.
“I gave Levi all the reps with the ones except for a couple and I think he’s shown me he may be our dude on Friday nights,” Burnett said. “He ran extremely hard. He’s still got some things to learn and pick up so we have to make sure we are doing things that are conducive for him and his ability right now as only a sophomore, but he showed a lot of people tonight he can tote the ball as good as anybody we have.”
Junior Martinez then booted his second extra point for the 14-0 cushion.
Lampasas took three more snaps before the scrimmage ended with a Hayden Noe interception at the Brownwood 25 concluding the contest.
“They threw the ball a lot more than we thought they would and we adjusted to that,” Burnett said. “The bend but don’t break mentality is our mentality and I thought we did a good job. They had a couple of catches, but our deal is to keep them out of the end zone and we did that. We saw some things we hadn’t seen so far this year and for them to get out there and adjust to that I thought was big. And they threw the ball so much because they felt like they couldn’t run it against us and when they did we hit them in the mouth. We were able to limit them to one phase, throwing the ball, and we did a good job getting off the field.”
Next up for the Lions is the 2023 season opener at Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie, which advanced to its regional championship game a year ago. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 in Abilene.
“We’re not where we want to be for district or anything like that, but we have to get ready for Week 1 the best that we can and we have more days to grow,” Burnett said. “We have to have great preparation by coaches this weekend, we have to have a great Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the kids have to come out and be motivated to get better every day. We can’t be where we’re at today and go play Wylie and beat them. We have to get better every day and every week. As long as we’re taking the next step on that ladder every week, we’ll get to where we want to be.”
