At the 7:59 mark of the third quarter, the Brownwood Lions completed their opening possession of the second half with a 31-yard field goal by Junior Martinez for a 17-14 lead over the visiting La Vega Pirates. From that point forward, the Pirates gashed the Lions for 317 of their 413 rushing yards en route to a 49-33 victory in District 5-4A Division I action at Gordon Wood Stadium Friday night.
Led by freshman running back Bryson Roland’s 307 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries, La Vega (4-3, 1-1) compiled 623 total yards to overshadow one of the Lions’ (2-5, 0-2) best offensive outings of the season.
“I’m real proud of the way our kids are coming together and playing hard, that’s what we’ve asked them to do, but in a nutshell the difference in the ball game is weren’t able to get off the field and we were giving up big plays, and we just can’t have that,” said Lions’ fourth-year head coach Sammy Burnett. “All in all I thought we did a decent job offensively, we did a decent job special teams-wise, we shored up our extra points and field goals, but the big play is what got us.”
After rushing for 96 yards on 20 carries in the first half, La Vega tacked on 317 rushing yards on just 16 carries after halftime – an average of 19.8 yards per rush. Roland scored on sprints of 29, 52, 65 and 66 yards in the second half, while D’Eddrick Brawley tacked on a 32-yard carry to close out the scoring.
“I don’t know, we were trying to figure that out on the field,” Burnett said of the inability to spot the La Vega ground game in the second half. “That little back does a good job hitting the crease. They were just running zone on us and that’s what they do well. Why they had success on that in the second half when they didn’t have as much success in the first half, we’ll just have to go watch film and figure it out. During the game it’s hard to tell, but that’s what we have to figure out and what we have to fix.”
Brownwood, meanwhile, generated 504 yards of total offense behind the blocking of Ethan Pesina, Brandon Still, Damian Sanchez, Slayde Espinoza and Roan Aguinaga, including 344 yards on the ground on 65 carries. Quarterback Chance Jones rushed for a career-high 187 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries, while Konlyn Anderson added 151 yards and scored twice after toting the ball 33 times. Jones also completed 7 of 18 passes for 160 yards with a touchdown, as Jason Jackson grabbed four receptions for 127 yards and scored and Elias Huerta-Doud finished with three grabs for 33 yards.
“Chance is growing as a leader,” Burnett said. “I said before he’s faced some adversity on social media and instead of choosing to melt he chose to rise up and lead and he’s become a better football player because of it and I couldn’t be any more proud of him than I am for the way he came out and led us tonight. We had some adversity early, dropped some balls, but we were resilient and kept moving the chains and tried to make things happen. Toward the end it got a little crazy because we were just trying to make something happen.”
Brownwood ran 83 plays and averaged 6.1 yards per snap, while La Vega finished with 48 plays and produced 12.9 yards per snap.
The game was knotted at halftime as, after forcing a three-and-out to start the game, the Lions marched 50 yards in 10 plays and reached the end zone on a 5-yard carry by Anderson to grab a 7-0 lead with 6:19 left in the opening quarter. The touchdown marked just the second time the Lions scored first in a game all season.
Not scoring a point in the first quarter – as the Lions held the Pirates out the end zone despite advancing to the Brownwood 5 on their second drive – La Vega responded just 28 seconds into the second period on a 1-yard run by Brawley, the first of two straight scoring drives by the Pirates. Then, at the 9:19 mark of the second quarter, La Vega quarterback Robert Prescott connected with Stephon Nickerson on a 44-yard scoring strike as the Lions faced a 14-7 deficit.
The Lions fired back with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that culminated with a 7-yard run by Jones at the 5:46 mark of the second period. The touchdown was set up by a 31-yard pass from Jones to Jackson in which Jackson leaped over a La Vega defender to haul the ball in at the Pirate 3.
After Brownwood retook the lead on a 12-play, 61-yard trek early in the third period, Roland reeled off a 29-yard touchdown to push La Vega back in front, 21-17. The Lions then went three-and-out for one of the few times all night, and the Pirates responded with a two-play, 54-yard march that ended with a 52-yard run by Roland that put Brownwood in a 28-17 hole at the 4:24 juncture of the third.
The Lions continued to show the fight they displayed during last week’s 43-25 defeat at the hands of Midlothian Heritage as a 14-play, 75-yard trek ended with a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Anderson to trim the deficit to 28-24 with 10 seconds left in the third period. Jones rushed for 21, 12 and 12 yards on consecutive carries to help spark the drive.
La Vega answered the Lions’ third touchdown with a one-play scoring sprint from Roland as a 65-yard burst of the final play of the third quarter dug Brownwood’s hole to 35-24.
Brownwood produced the first points of the fourth period on a 31-yard field goal by Junior Martinez, as the Lions moved 67 yards before the drive stalled at the La Vega 13 on a fourth-and-2.
The Pirates again struck quickly, needing just three plays before Roland reeled off a 66-yard touchdown run that boosted the advantage to 42-27 with 6:10 to go.
The Lions reached the end zone of the last time with 5:07 left as, after Anderson plowed over multiple La Vega defenders on a 44-yard run, Jones connected with Jackson who made a diving 31-yard grab and landed in the end zone to close the gap to 42-33. The two-point run by Anderson came up short with 5:02 on the clock.
Just 19 seconds later, La Vega gashed the Lions for the last time on a 32-yard carry by Brawley which resulted in the final 16-point margin.
Brownwood faces an essential must-win situation next week at Alvarado (2-5, 1-1) – which was hammered by Stephenville (7-0, 2-0) by a 56-0 count Friday – in its effort to reach the postseason for a 13th consecutive year.
“It’s a huge game, we have to win if we want to go to the playoffs and it starts with Alvarado,” Burnett said. “We have to win at least two of the next three, I don’t care which two they are, hopefully we can win them all, but if not we better win two of the three or we won’t get in.”
***
La Vega 49, Brownwood 33
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| La Vega | 0 | 14 | 21 | 14 | -49 |
| Brownwood | 7 | 7 | 10 | 9 | -33 |
SCORING SUMMARY
B: Konlyn Anderson 5 run (Junior Martinez kick), 6:19, 1st, 7-0
L: D’Eddrick Brawley 1 run (Pavel Ramirez kick), 11:32, 2nd, 7-7
L: Stephon Nickerson 44 pass from Robert Prescott (Ramirez kick), 9:19, 2nd, 7-14
B: Chance Jones 7 run (Martinez kick), 5:46, 2nd, 14-14
B: Martinez 31 FG, 7:59, 3rd, 17-14
L: Bryson Roland 29 run (Ramirez kick), 6:51, 3rd, 17-21
L: Roland 52 run (Ramirez kick), 4:24, 3rd, 17-28
B: Anderson 1 run (Martinez kick), 0:10, 3rd, 24-28
L: Roland 65 run (Ramirez kick), 0:00, 3rd, 24-35
B: Martinez 30 FG, 8:08, 4th, 27-35
L: Roland 66 run (Ramirez kick), 6:10, 4th, 27-42
B: Jason Jackson 31 pass from Jones (run failed), 5:02, 4th, 33-42
L: Brawley 32 run (Ramirez kick), 4:43, 4th, 33-49
***
| TEAM STATS | LV | B |
| First Downs | 20 | 28 |
| Total Offense | 623 | 504 |
| Rushes-Yards | 36-413 | 65-344 |
| Passing Yards | 210 | 160 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 7-12-0 | 7-18-0 |
| Punts | 1-32.0 | 4-31.5 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 6-40 | 5-38 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: La Vega – Bryson Roland 20-307, 4 TDs; D’Eddrick Rawley 11-107, 2 TDs; Naje Drakes 1-7; Nikzavyer Rice 1-4; Robert Prescott 1-(-4), Brandon Allen 2-(-12). Brownwood – Chance Jones 30-187, TD; Konlyn Anderson 33-151, 2 TDs; Jaylan Brown 2-6.
PASSING: La Vega – Prescott 7-12-0-210, 1 TD. Brownwood – Jones 7-18-0-160, TD.
RECEIVING: La Vega – Stephon Nickerson 4-98, TD; Brawley 2-45; Roland 1-67. Brownwood – Jason Jackson 4-127, TD; Elias Huerta-Doud 3-33.
