BIG SPRING – The Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Class 4A Division I No. 10 Brownwood Lions accomplished the first step in their goal of repeating as District 2 champions with a resounding a 56-7 thrashing of the Big Spring Steers Friday night in the league opener for both teams.
“Any time you can get a win, especially after that bad taste we had in our mouths all week, for our kids to come out and do what we asked them to do and dominate, I was really pleased with them,” said Lions sixth-year head coach Sammy Burnett, whose team defeated Big Spring 41-10 in the 2022 district opener en route to Brownwood’s first league title since 2010.
Behind the front line of Quinten McCarty, Cole Miller, Davis Le, Aidan Packheiser, Logan Knight and others, Brownwood (6-1, 1-0) churned out 543 yards of total offense – its second-highest total of the season – behind 363 rushing yards on 34 carries, an average of 10.6 yards per tote.
“Any time we aren’t forced to throw the ball I’m happy,” Burnett said. “We’ll run the ball all night long if we can. But if you have to throw and you can do it, that’s a good thing, too. We had some opportunities there, but we just kept pounding the rock which is our M.O.”
Levi Pearson rushed for a career-high 151 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries and caught a pair of passes for 65 yards and another score for the Lions. Quarterback Ike Hall chipped in 110 rushing yards and two trips to the end zone on just six carries, while connecting on 11 of 14 passes for 139 yards and two more scores.
Xavier Zepeda tacked on 90 rushing yards and a touchdown on just two carries, while Carson Noe led team with three catches for 32 yards, Morsello Hooker added two receptions for 26 yards and a touchdown and Hall scored on a 41-yard pass from Braeden Stacks.
“We told them we want 450 and we didn’t get it, but we’ll take 360,” Burnett said of the ground game. “Levi run the ball extremely well, and ran it hard. Xavier is a kid that’s getting more reps and has great lateral movement and you saw a couple of plays where he could have been bottled in and made a lateral cut and accelerated. That was nice to see and it was nice to see him get some confidence and believe in himself.”
Defensively, the Lions yielded 347 yards of total offense – 230 through the air and 117 on the ground – to Big Spring (1-6, 0-1), but the majority of those yards came well after the outcome had been decided. Noah Gonzalez and Zakk Zabecki led the way with 12 tackles each followed by nine from Stevie Ramirez and eight apiece from Sam Kallman and Julius Lara. Brownwood also finished with five tackles for loss and three sacks.
Kavien Ford led the Steers with 125 rushing yards and a 5-yard touchdown on 23 carries, while the rest of the Big Spring offense mustered -8 rushing yards on nine rushes.
Quarterback Gavin Padron completed 24 of 37 passes for 230 yards as Keyshaun Woodruff led the Steers with nine grabs for 105 yards, Jose Munoz caught eight passes for 84 yards and Zeyire Franklin finished with five receptions for 44 yards.
“Other than a couple of hiccups in the first half on the back end and giving them a big play where we lost a little discipline on the backside, other than that we played well,” Burnett said. “We came out in the second half and got our next-up guys in and they kept them out of the end zone twice and I thought that showed a lot of a character. It was an opportunity to gain confidence, and there’s no better way to do that than to get out there and do it. We had some kids out there playing positions they never played before and they did well. Jamariea Harlmon is one that comes to mind that made some big plays the last couple of drives to stymie them.”
The Lions jumped out to a 42-7 lead by halftime, scoring two touchdowns in the first period and pulling away with four scores in the second period.
Brownwood raced out to a 7-0 lead a little less than halfway through the first period as Pearson capped a six-play, 47-yard drive – that started with a Stevie Ramirez fourth-down sack of Padron – with a 2-yard touchdown plunge.
“This week felt a lot better,” said Pearson, as the Lions were coming off a season-low 71 rushing yards against Stephenville. “Last week wasn’t the best week, but this week the O-line did their job and I did mine.”
The Lions coughed up the ball on their second possession – the eighth turnover of the season – but Big Spring was stuffed at the Brownwood 31 on its ensuing drive.
Four plays later, Hall connected with Pearson on a check down, and Pearson maneuvered through the defense and raced down to the sideline for a 48-yard score to boost the Lions’ lead to 14-0 with 1:54 left in the opening stanza.
Big Spring’s next possession ended with a punt from its own 3 that Jordyn Nickerson returned 20-plys yards to the Steer 15. Three plays later, Hall scored on a 5-yard carry as Brownwood’s lead stood at 21-0 with 10:31 left in the first half.
The Steers responded with their only touchdown of the game as a 70-yard shovel pass from Padron to Woodruff set up Ford’s 5-yard score, which trimmed Brownwood’s lead to 21-7 at 9:59 of the second quarter.
Nickerson answered with an 81-yard kickoff return for the Lions down to the Big Spring 9, and on the next play Pearson scored his second rushing touchdown to push Brownwood in front, 28-7, with 9:33 left before halftime.
“Special teams is real important,” Nickerson said. “Coach Burnett goes over it a lot to make sure we know it’s important. I saw those balls, caught them and never saw holes that open in my life so I just hit it. We had great blocking on the kick return and punt return.”
Brownwood’s next touchdown was the result of a new wrinkle as reserve quarterback Braeden Stacks lined up behind center and tossed a flare pass to Hall, lined up in the backfield, who galloped 41 yards to the end zone for a 35-7 Lion advantage at 4:56 of the second quarter.
The Lions’ final first-half touchdown came with 1:33 left as Hall connected with Hooker on a 13-yard out pattern to put the finishing touches on a six-play, 61-yard trek, boosting the lead to 42-7.
“We need to make a statement if we’re trying to defend our title from last year,” said starting offensive and defensive lineman Quinten McCarty. “We executed and did our job and it’s on to the next.”
Just two plays and 28 seconds into the second half, the Lions stretched the advantage to 49-7 as Hall patiently followed his blocks then sprinted 68 yards to the end zone.
With 1:37 to go in the third period, the Lions tacked on their final touchdown on an 11-yard carry from Zepeda, who in the fourth quarter added a 79-yard scamper from the Brownwood 3 to the Big Spring 18.
Next week, the Lions host San Angelo Lake View (1-6, 0-1) – which is coming off a 63-7 loss to Andrews (4-3, 1-0) Friday – for homecoming. The District 2-4A Division I contest will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday at Gordon Wood Stadium.
“It’s going to be one of those games where we have to play to our level,” Burnett said of Lake View. “If we want to be a Top 10 team let’s play as a Top 10 team every week. We’re going to go work and not give them an opportunity to be in the ball game, that will be our goal. We’re going to try and dominate from the start, take over the game and give those other kids the opportunity to get in another game to play.”
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Lions 56, Big Spring 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 14 | 28 | 14 | 0 | – 56 |
| Big Spring | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | – 7 |
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SCORING SUMMARY
Bwd: Levi Pearson 2 run (Junior Martinez kick), 6:54, 1st
Bwd: Pearson 48 pass from Ike Hall (Martinez kick), 1:54, 1st
Bwd: Hall 5 run (Martinez kick), 10:31, 2nd
BS: Kavien Ford 5 run (Jeremy Minter kick), 9:59, 2nd
Bwd: Pearson 9 run (Martinez kick), 9:53, 2nd
Bwd: Hall 41 pass from Braeden Stacks (Martinez kick), 4:56, 2nd
Bwd: Morsello Hooker 13 pass from Hall (Martinez kick), 1:33, 2nd
Bwd: Hall 68 run (Martinez kick), 11:32, 3rd
Bwd: Xavier Zepeda 11 run (Martinez kick), 1:37, 3rd
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| TEAM STATS | Bwd | BS |
| First Downs | 26 | 16 |
| Total Offense | 543 | 347 |
| Rushes-Yards | 34-363 | 32-117 |
| Passing Yards | 180 | 230 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 12-16-0 | 24-37-0 |
| Fumbles Lost | 1 | 0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 3-30 | 4-25 |
| Punts-Average | 0-0.0 | 5-33.4 |
***
PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Bwd – Levi Pearson 21-151, 2 TDs; Ike Hall 6-110, 2 TDs; Xavier Zepeda 2-90, TD; Logan McKibben 4-19; Team 1-(-7). BS – Kavien Ford 23-125, TD; Gavin Padron 5-0; Jose Munoz 3-0; Team 1-(-8).
PASSING: Bwd – Hall 11-14-0-139, 2 TDs; Braeden Stacks 1-2-0-41, TD. BS – Padron 24-37-0-230.Keyshaun Woodruff 9-105; Munoz 8-84; Zeyire Franklin 5-44
RECEIVING: Bwd – Carson Noe 3-32; Pearson 2-65, TD; Morsello Hooker 2-26, TD; Hall 1-41, TD; Stone Ratliff 1-11; Jordyn Nickerson 1-5; Aaron Edmonds 1-2; Zepeda 1-(-2). BS – ; Ford 2-(-3).
KICKING: Bwd – Junior Martinez 8 of 8 PATs. 0 of 1 FG, missed from 40 yards.
No punts.
