The Brownwood Lions’ roller coaster ride through their pre-district schedule concluded Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium with a performance few – if any – saw coming.
Fresh off their best offensive outing of the season, in front of a homecoming crowd and facing an opponent that had yet to play a game this season, it was the Lions – particularly on offense – who looked as if they were taking the field for the first time.
Six turnovers, 10 plays that resulted in negative yardage – including five sacks – an average of less than 1 yard per rush attempt and no points on offense for the first time in five years resulted in a 28-7 loss to the Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie Bulldogs.
The last time Brownwood did not score an offensive touchdown occurred on Oct. 16, 2015 in Gordon Wood Stadium – a 7-3 loss to then-district rival Wylie, who later defeated the Lions 14-7 in the playoffs.
“All we did on offense was sort of throw up on ourselves,” said Lions third-year head coach Sammy Burnett. “It was absolutely poor execution on our part. We had at least five turnovers, we couldn’t get out of our own way. I take the blame for that, that’s on us as an offensive staff and an offensive unit. We just came out here and couldn’t execute, bottom line. We couldn’t run the ball, we couldn’t through the ball, couldn’t keep the ball in our hands, dropped it every time we had an opportunity.”
The Lions (2-3) finished with 173 yards of total offense – 88 in the first half and 85 in the second, with three turnovers in each half. Brownwood rushed for just 30 yards on 25 carries. Royshad Henderson, coming off a 253-yard, three-touchdown effort in a 36-22 come-from-behind win over Burnet last week, was limited to a season-low 59 yards. Quarterback Chance Jones was harassed all night and ended up losing 37 yards on his 10 carries, half of which were sacks.
Jones did complete 14 of 19 passes for 148 yards, but two balls were picked off included one that was returned 50 yards for a touchdown by Jazhair George, who put Wylie (1-0) up by 21 points with 3:16 left following his pick six.
“I don’t know why all the sudden we started spitting the ball up,” Burnett said. “Our demeanor was fine at halftime, I thought we made some pretty good adjustments, I’ll just have to go back and watch the film but I’m still disheartened by the fact that we can’t move the ball on the ground consistently like we should be able to. When you can’t run the ball and they’re going to set up and cover the pass, what do you do? With the pressure on our quarterback he’s not able to set his feet and get rid of the ball, it’s just poor execution and if we don’t take that personal then shame on us. The only way to fix that is to fix us and that’s what we’ve got to do.”
Defensively, the Lions yielded 286 yards – 150 through the air and 136 on the ground – and created two takeaways. At halftime, Brownwood had limited Wylie to just 86 total yards and the score was tied at 7.
After a 40-yard touchdown pass for Wylie was negated by penalty on its first possession of the second half, Bulldog quarterback Balin Valentine answered with a 55-yard scoring toss to Creed Cooper that put Wylie in front for good, 14-7, with 5:54 left in the third period.
Brownwood took just 23 of its 49 offensive snaps in the second half. Wylie ran 66 offensive plays and rushed the ball 42 times.
“I thought the defense played a great ball game but you can’t play 22 minutes in the second half on defense and not expect a team like that to put points on the board,” Burnett said. “I tip my hat to them, I thought they played with a lions’ heart, but our offense just let us down.”
Wylie essentially put the game out of reach with 4:17 left in the contest as the Bulldogs completed a 12-play, 81-touchdown drive that began with an interception of a Jones desperation downfield heave. Gomez then scored from 7 yards out to cap the 5:04 march and push Wylie’s lead to 21-7.
Brownwood’s next drive ended after four plays with a deflected pass returned to the end zone for a three-touchdown Wylie cushion.
And then, the Lions’ most productive play of the day – a 45-yard toss from Jones to Jason Jackson – became the third straight possession to end with a turnover as the Brownwood sophomore receiver was stripped of the ball at the Wylie 11.
The Lions actually owned the lead at the conclusion of the first period, as Brownwood’s only points of the night were the result of Khyren Deal’s 21-yard interception return of a Valentine pass. Junior Martinez’s PAT gave the Lions a 7-0 edge with 1:37 left in the first period.
But the Lions, who the fumbled ball away on the first possession, later muffed a punt that Wylie recovered, then gave the ball right back to Wylie after it muffed a punt at the Bulldog 26.
Brownwood will begin its District 5-4A Division I slate at home next week against Stephenville after the league coaches voted to move the Week 11 games to Week 6, just in case a COVID-19 outbreak results in a postponement.
Stephenville (2-3), fresh off a 46-33 victory over No. 3 Dumas Thursday night, was the furthest thing from Burnett’s mind Friday night, however.
“We better get better,” Burnett said. “We better not worry about Stephenville, we better worry about the Brownwood Lions right now.”
Abilene Wylie 28, Brownwood 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Wylie 0 7 7 14 – 28
Brownwood 7 0 0 0 – 7
SCORING SUMMARY
B: Khyren Deal 21 interception return (Junior Martinez kick), 1:43, 1st
W: Balin Valentine 1 run (Grayson Bearden kick), 6:32, 2nd
W: Creed Cooper 55 pass from Valentine (Bearden kick), 5:54, 3rd
W: Trey Gomez 7 run (Bearden kick), 4:13, 4th
W: Jahzair George 50 interception return (Bearden kick), 3:16, 4th
TEAM STATS
Wylie Brownwood
First Downs 18 11
Total Offense 286 173
Rushes-Yards 42-136 30-25
Passing Yards 150 148
Comp-Att-Int 11-24-1 14-19-2
Punts 4-32.5 3-47.3
Fumbles Lost 1 4
Penalties-Yards 7-72 2-22
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Wylie – Noah Beach 22-69, Balin Valentine 14-42, Trey Gomez 5-27, Jazhair George 1-(-2). Brownwood – Royshad Henderson 17-59, Blaize Espinoza 2-5, Dane Johnson 1-(-2), Chance Jones 10-(-37).
PASSING: Wylie – Valentine 11-24-1-150. Brownwood – Jones 14-19-2-148.
RECEIVING: Wylie – Creed Cooper 3-85, Reed Hughes 3-39, George 2-11, Landon Bailey 2-10, Gomez 1-5. Brownwood – Jason Jackson 5-68, Dane Johnson5-42, Elias Huerta 2-25, Malachi Revada 1-15, Henderson 1-(-2).
