One week of practice is in the books, and the regular season opener for the reigning District 2-4A Division I champion Brownwood Lions is just 20 days away following Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage at Gordon Wood Stadium.
“We came out with good attitudes and a willingness to work and get better at what we do,” said Lions sixth-year head coach Sammy Burnett in assessing the first week of practice. “We’ve got a lot of kids playing the same positions, but we want them to become masters at that position, whatever it may be. We’ve also got some other guys learning new positions and what I see is leadership and guys communicating, guys talking, guys sifting things out. I’ve seen phenomenal leadership, even through the scrimmage today.”
As for Saturday’s scrimmage, Burnett said, “I saw a lot of positives, but the most important thing I saw was a group of guys fighting together. They celebrated the successes, with the failures they communicated and talked and tried to figured out things among themselves and I thought that was huge. We got a chance to get some people on film, we got a chance for the younger guys to see the speed and physicality of the game, and the guys who are playing new positions got to sharpen their tools a little bit more.”
Among the varsity highlights of Saturday’s action, quarterback Ike Hall completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Morsello Hooker, who shook off a defender and ran the final 10 yards to the end zone.
Jaylan Brown and Logan McKibben reeled off runs of 12 and 10 yards, respectively, on third-and-4 calls, while Jake Jetton broke loose for a 37-yard scamper that set up an 11-yard touchdown carry by Noah Gonzalez.
Carson Noe hauled in an 18-yard grab from Hall on a third-and-17 in which Hall scrambled free, and Noe also alluded a tackle. Xavier Zepeda also pulled down a 16-yard reception from Hall on an out pattern to extend a drive.
The longest play of the day belonged to Levi Pearson, who sliced through the Brownwood defense for an 80-yard touchdown run on a second-and-10 call.
Defensively, Cole Miller would have been credited with a sack of Hall at one point in the action.
The Lions defense also created a fumbled hand-off exchange.
Just as crucial as the performance of the players Saturday, no Lions suffered any significant injuries during the 2-hour plus session.
“That’s really the most important thing,” Burnett said.
Brownwood returns to the practice field next week with morning workouts Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, along with one Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re going to continue installing our playbook, making sure we’re right with that, which we’ve done a good job of,” Burnett said. “We’ll continue to make sure we’re in game speed shape, and we’ll also start to implement special teams next week and work on that phase of the game.”
The Lions will conclude their second week of workouts with a scrimmage at defending Region I-4A Division I champion and 5th-ranked Decatur at 5 p.m. Friday. Brownwood and Decatur are projected to match up in the Region I final, according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
“Decatur is a top 5 team in the state so we’ll get a chance to test our mettle and measure where we’re at right now,” Burnett said.
The season opener is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 at 5A Division II Abilene Wylie.
