ANDREWS – The 12-year drought is over as the Brownwood Lions clinched their first outright district championship since 2010 in resounding fashion, rolling past the 2-4A Division I rival Andrew Mustangs, 47-3, in Friday night’s regular season finale.
No. 10 Brownwood (8-2, 4-0) capped a dominant run through district as the Lions outscored their four foes 200-44 – an average of 50-11 per outing.
“It’s awesome, isn’t it?” Lions fifth-year head coach Sammy Burnett said following the conclusion of Friday’s contest. “Just watching our kids run around enjoying the fact that they’ve worked for five years and just got rewarded with a gold ball is special to me. You’ve got to get kids to believe in you, buy into what you’re doing, buy into the system, buy into the program. When I got here, these seniors were in the eighth grade. We changed the culture, we had leadership from years in the past they could follow and they just built off that with hours in the weight room, hours on the track and hours on the field. To see them be rewarded with a district championship is huge.”
Burnett credited a grueling six-game pre-district schedule – in which the Lions only lost to 5A Division II Abilene Wylie and reigning 4A Division I state champion Stephenville – in preparing Brownwood to unleash its district domination.
“It was a pretty tough pre-district schedule and we did that for a reason and that was to be dominant when we got to district and have confidence in who you are because you’ve played great people,” said Burnett, who now owns a 31-23 record coaching at his alma mater. “Also, down the line if you get through district and you get into the playoffs you’ve played great people so you expect to play at a certain level. Those two games that we lost were learning curves and they’ve grown, they’ve gelled together and they’re hungry. They want to be successful, they want to use the gifts they’ve been blessed with to go as far as they can. If they keep doing what they’re doing and stay focused on the prize I think they can go a long way.”
As has been the case in the previous three District 2-4A Division I outings, the Lions jumped out to an early advantage, scoring the first 24 points before surrendering a field goal to Andrews (5-4, 1-2) – which tied Glen Rose for the fewest points scored against Brownwood this season.
“They’re huge,” Burnett said of the recent quick starts. “Tonight we go down and score, hold them, get the ball back and go down and score again and all the sudden they’re like ‘oh, no.’ Then we just keep pouring it on and keep doing what we’re doing. If we have to punt the ball we do. Junior Martinez does a good job kicking the ball and reversing the field and our defense goes out there and does a good job. Being focused and making plays to take away someone’s momentum or the will to win and putting doubt in their mind has been huge and our kids have done that all year. It’s their focus, it’s their desire to be successful, they don’t take it for granted, they go out and earn it and that’s important, too.”
The Lions finished with 391 yards of total offense, with 319 coming in the first half, while allowing 213 yards, but just 95 yards over the first two quarters. Brownwood also forced three turnovers – all interceptions – and scored four times through the air as Burnett’s prediction earlier in the week regarding the Lions being able to use the passing game for both teams to their advantage proved true.
Offensively, Jason Jackson caught four passes – all touchdowns – totaling 86 yards from Ike Hall, who finished 7 of 13 for 133 yards through the air.
“It’s a different kid every week,” Burnett said. “We knew we were going to get single coverage on Jason Jackson and we just believe if you put someone one-on-one with that guy he’s going to win those battles. He won more battles tonight than he lost. Ike threw some great balls and Jason went and made some plays. But in the first round it could be Jordan Leach, it could be Brayden Daub, it could be Thad Hinds. To have those four weapons and to be able to throw it to the guy that’s going to have the best opportunity that night is important. And what’s more important than that is the other ones don’t get jealous and don’t get greedy and don’t fuss because they don’t get touches. They’re a family, they want to be successful and they don’t care how they do it. Tonight just happened to be Jason’s night.”
Defensively, Morsello Hooker recorded two more interceptions – bringing his season total to six – with one returned for a touchdown, while Jordyn Nickerson also picked off a pass.
“We’re growing in the back end,” Burnett said. “We had problems in the back end and I challenged those kids and I challenged our coaches and they’re responding and growing every week. We’ve been working for weeks to strengthen our back end and they responded, and three turnovers is huge.”
After Brownwood failed to score on its first possession, Junior Martinez pinned Andrews on its own 1 with a 55-yard punt downed by Jake Jetton. After an Andrews three-and-out, the Lions took over on the Mustang 35. Two plays later, Hall and Jackson connected for the first time on a 20-yard scoring toss to give the Lions a 7-0 lead at 6:38 of the first quarter.
Another three-and-out followed on Andrews’ second possession, and Brownwood started at its own 43. Four plays later, Hall and Jackson connected again on a 36-yard scoring toss to boost the lead to 14-0 at 3:14 of the opening stanza.
The Lions stretched their lead to 21-0 by the end of the first period as Konlyn Anderson – who rushed for a game-high 123 yards – scored on a 4-yard carry with 53 seconds left in the frame. The touchdown was set up by Anderson’s 57-yard scamper to the Andrews 11.
Brownwood scored for the third possession in a row as Martinez booted a 27-yard field goal with 7:32 left before halftime to stretch the advantage to 24-0.
Andrews answered with its only points on a 41-yard field goal by Julian Mancillas with 4:27 left in the first half.
The Lions tacked on another touchdown before the half to stretch their lead to 31-3 as Hall again found Jackson for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 1:20 to go in the second quarter.
Andrews began the second half with the ball, but on the second snap Hooker stepped in front of an attempted bubble screen by Mustang quarterback Ashton Galvan and returned the interception 29 yards for a touchdown and 38-3 lead just 30 seconds into the third period.
“No. 1 that was a great call by (Assistant) Coach (David) Jones,” Burnett said. “We had a trap called, we thought they were going to run it and sure enough they did and Morsello picks it and takes it to the house to start the third quarter, so it just took the momentum.”
The Lions scored their final touchdown with 5:09 remaining in the third quarter on a 19-yard strike from Hall to Jackson, padding the cushion to 45-3.
Brownwood also tacked on a safety with 10:59 left in the game as – after a lengthy debate by Burnett with the officials – Andrews was ruled to have fumbled after a fielding a punt and recovered the loose ball in the end zone.
Next week, the Lions have their long-awaited bye week. Brownwood is tentatively slated to open the playoffs at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10 against District 1 fourth place El Paso Irvin (2-7) – a 22-12 winner over San Elizario Friday night – at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa.
“We’re going to rest next week,” Burnett said in regard to the bye week. “We’re going to get healthy, we’re going to be healthier than we’ve been all year. We’re going to hit the weights, we’re going to run and stay in shape. I’m going to give them a break from the football field and let them recover, let them recharge their batteries. We’ll get film and get an opportunity to start breaking down whoever we play and we’ll get back to work with a fresh start for those guys. But we finally made it to the break and having that break now is a blessing.”
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Lions 47, Andrews 3
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 21 | 10 | 14 | 2 | – 47 |
| Andrews | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – 3 |
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SCORING SUMMARY
B: Jason Jackson 20 pass from Ike Hall (Junior Martinez kick), 6:38, 1st
B: Jackson 36 pass from Hall (Martinez kick), 3:14, 1st
B: Konlyn Anderson 4 run (Martinez kick), 0:53, 1st
B: Martinez 27 FG, 7:32, 2nd
A: Julian Mancillas 41 FG, 4:27, 2nd
B: Jackson 11 pass from Hall (Martinez kick), 1:20, 2nd
B: Morsello Hooker 29 interception return (Martinez kick), 11:30, 3rd
B: Jackson 19 pass from Hall (Martinez kick), 5:09, 3rd
B: Safety (punt returner fumbled ball into the end zone and recovered), 10:59, 4th
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| TEAM STATS | B | A |
| First Downs | 20 | 11 |
| Total Offense | 391 | 213 |
| Rushes-Yards | 40-258 | 28-150 |
| Passing Yards | 133 | 63 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 7-13-0 | 9-22-3 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Punts-Average | 5-43.2 | 7-34.5 |
| Penalties-Yards | 9-70 | 4-40 |
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PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Brownwood – Konlyn Anderson 18-123, TD; Ike Hall 12-74; Jason Jackson 1-26; Logan McKibben 6-22; Jordan Leach 1-10; Jaylan Brown 1-2; Case Markham 1-1. Andrews – Noah Tellez 13-94; Ashton Galvan 11-47; Jaxon Lawdermilk 2-6; Indiana Taylor 2-3.
PASSING: Brownwood – Hall 7-13-0-133, 4 TDs. Andrews – Galvan 6-12-2-39; E.J. Lopez 3-10-2-24.
RECEIVING: Brownwood – Jason Jackson 4-86, 4 TDs; Thad Hinds 2-19; Taylor Bessent 1-28. Andrews – Bubba Hernandez 2-25; Lawdermilk 2-16; Taylor 2-9; Tellez 1-7; Shawn Parker 1-4; Anthony Trevino 1-2.
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KICKING – Brownwood – Junior Martinez 1 of 2 FGs, long of 27, missed from 36.
6 of 6 PATs.
5 punts, 216 yards, 43.2 average.
