The Brownwood Lions handled their business in the home finale at Gordon Wood Stadium Friday night in a convincing 49-13 victory over the Waxahachie Life Mustangs, then received the help needed from District 5-4A Division I rival La Vega’s win over Alvarado to guarantee a 13th consecutive postseason appearance.
“It was a great night, and even more so on Senior Night,” said Lions fourth-year head coach Sammy Burnett. “It was a great team win. I thought the first half our defense played well. We did a good job with special teams and other than a couple of penalties that put us behind the chains, I thought our offense was clicking. Our game plan was to run the ball and run it a lot, and I thought we did a good job of that in both halves. All in all it’s good output by all three phases of the game, and I felt like we got a little better tonight.”
Brownwood (4-5, 2-2) put forth its best defensive outing of the season in limiting Waxahachie Life (1-8, 0-4) to 271 total yards – including a mere 76 yards and no points in the first half. The Lions also caused a pair of turnovers – both interceptions by Case Markham – bringing their takeaway total for the season to 15.
“Zaiden Lopez played well, Quentin McCarty has done a solid job as a sophomore at nose, he really plugs up the inside and falls back and makes some big plays,” Burnett said. “Case did a good job on the back end, he stayed back and made a couple of interceptions. Other than the long play late in the fourth that was against a bunch of guys that hadn’t played much, all in all I thought it was a good night.”
Offensively, the Lions did most of their damage on the ground, rushing for 438 of their 463 total yards. Behind the line of Ethan Pesina, Slayde Espinoza, Damian Sanchez, Brandon Still, Roan Aguinaga and Alex Reyna, Brownwood churned out 28 first downs and averaged 7.9 yards per snap.
Konlyn Anderson, one of seven Lions to tote the ball Friday night, led the ground attack with 213 yards and four more touchdowns. Quarterback Chance Jones added 66 yards followed by Jaylan Brown with 63 yards and his first touchdown of the season, Markham with 61 yards, Azariah Dillard with 23, Uriah King with 10 and Pesina with 2 yards and a touchdown on the lone carry of his high school career.
“The offensive line did a great job as usual,” Burnett said. “They played well because the defense did a lot of things we hadn’t seen on film. They stunted a lot and our kids picked it up and we got to the second level and were able to make plays. Chance managed the game extremely well and Konlyn did a great job. We had a couple of busted assignments with receivers but I thought Chance scrambled well and turned nothing into something.”
The Lions struck first on their initial possession of the game Friday, which followed a Life march inside the Brownwood 20 that stalled due to a holding penalty. The Lions traveled 79 yards in eight plays as Jones connected with Christian Chambers for a 4-yard scoring toss and the first points of the game at the 4:11 mark of the first period.
Brownwood’s second possession began at the Life 27 after a failed fake punt attempt, and five plays later Anderson – who stands at 1,685 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns on the season – found the end zone for the first time from 3 yards out to boost the lead to 14-0 with 46 seconds left in the opening stanza.
The Lions hit an offensive lull as the next two possession ended in punts, but a failed fourth-and-1 attempt by Life from its own 39 reinvigorated Brownwood. Six snaps later, Brown finished off the short drive with his first trip to the end zone from 9 yards out, stretching the Lions’ lead to 21-0 with 3:08 left before halftime.
Three plays into the next Life drive Markham recorded his first interception of Mustang quarterback Kaden Mayfield at the Waxahachie 40. The very next snap resulted in a 40-yard gallop to the end zone for Anderson and a 28-0 cushion with 2:06 left before intermission.
To start the second half, the Lions received the opening kick and quickly ventured 57 yards as the drive was capped by a 28-yard Anderson scoring sprint just 2:28 into the third period, extending the advantage to 35-0.
Life broke up the shutout bid with 5:32 left in the third period on a 4-yard touchdown run by Jeremy Brantley.
Brownwood fired back in just 67 seconds as Anderson rumbled into the end zone from 13 yards out to put the Lions in front 42-6 with 4:25 left in the third period.
With a sizable lead in the fourth period, Burnett was able to make numerous adjusts to the lineup, including moving Pesina into the backfield for the final Lion touchdown with 5:38 remaining.
“I’ve talked with Ethan throughout the year and he said ‘coach, just let me run it one time,’” Burnett said. “Ethan is a three-year starter for us, he’s the backbone of our team and exemplifies what it means to be a Brownwood Lion. I just thought it would be an awesome opportunity for him to be rewarded for three years of great loyalty to the program and his coaches and the team. It was exciting to see how excited they got when he scored that touchdown. The kids were celebrating and he’s the leader of that bunch. It was a dream come true for him to go score that touchdown. I had some tears in my eyes, too, it was pretty special.”
Life produced the final points of the game on a 71-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to Zion Smith with 4:46 left – a play that accounted for 26 percent of the Mustangs’ yardage for the game.
Next week, the Lions visit District 5-4A Division I champion and second-ranked Stephenville (9-0, 4-0) – a 38-27 winner over Midlothian Heritage (7-2, 2-2) Friday night – for the 80th Battle of the 377.
“Stephenville is a team you’re not going to keep off the scoreboard, they’re going to score their points, Burnett said. “For us, we’re going to do everything we can to not give them the big play. We’re going have to respond with our offense and it’s going to have to be clicking. We know they’re going to be a battle for our defense but we’ll rise to the occasion. Our kids will play hard every time we play Stephenville. We’ll go over there, put a great game plan together, let the chips fall where they may and see if we can play with great passion and come up with a win.”
***
Brownwood 49, Waxahachie Life 13
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Wax. Life | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | -13 |
| Brownwood | 14 | 14 | 14 | 7 | -49 |
SCORING SUMMARY
B: Christian Chambers 4 pass from Chance Jones (Junior Martinez kick), 4:11, 1st, 7-0
B: Konlyn Anderson 3 run (Martinez kick), 0:46, 1st, 14-0
B: Jaylan Brown 9 run (Martinez kick), 3:08, 2nd, 21-0
B: Anderson 40 run (Martinez kick), 2:06, 2nd, 28-0
B: Anderson 28 run (Martinez kick) 9:38, 3rd, 35-0
L: Jeremy Brantley 4 run (kick failed), 5:32, 3rd, 35-6
B: Anderson 13 run (Martinez kick), 4:25, 3rd, 42-6
B: Ethan Pesina 2 run (Martinez kick), 5:38, 4th, 49-6
L: Zion Smith 71 pass from Kaden Mayfield (Elijah Arevalo kick), 4:46, 4th, 49-13
***
| TEAM STATS | WL | B |
| First Downs | 12 | 28 |
| Total Offense | 271 | 463 |
| Rushes-Yards | 37-175 | 51-438 |
| Passing Yards | 96 | 25 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 6-16-2 | 3-7-0 |
| Punts | 3-28.3 | 2-31.0 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 1 |
| Penalties-Yards | 5-50 | 5-40 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Life – Zion Smith 12-70; Jeremy Brantley 12-60, TD; Kaden Mayfield 8-36; Kordell Berry 5-16. Brownwood – Konlyn Anderson 19-213, 4 TDs; Chance Jones 7-66; Jaylan Brown 8-63, TD; Case Markham 5-61; Azariah Dillard 6-23; Uriah King 5-10; Ethan Pesina 1-2, TD.
PASSING: Life – Mayfield 6-16-2-96, TD. Brownwood – Jones 3-7-0-25, TD
RECEIVING: Life – Smith 4-92, TD; Brantley 2-4. Brownwood – Elias Huerta-Doud 1-13; Jason Jackson 1-8; Christian Chambers 1-4, TD.
