For the second time in as many home outings in 2021, the Brownwood Lions overcame an early double-digit deficit to emerge victorious – this time upending the Burnet Bulldogs, 31-26, Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium for a homecoming triumph.
“We still have a long way to go, we’re young but we grew up a little bit tonight,” said Lions fourth-year head coach Sammy Burnett, who improved to 21-16 at his alma mater. “And any time you get a win, you’ve got to celebrate it.”
The Lions (2-2) spotted Burnet (0-3) the first 10 points of the game and still trailed early in the third period, until an 83-yard kick return for a touchdown by Jordan Leach sparked a run of three Brownwood touchdowns in less than eight minutes.
Having knotted the score as time expired in the first half, the Lions immediately yielded a seven-play, 70-yard scoring drive to Burnet as Dash Denton’s 8-yard touchdown run at the 8:38 mark of the third quarter staked the Bulldogs to a 17-10 edge.
Burnet followed a with a short kickoff to Leach, who pin-balled his way through the kickoff coverage until finding an outside lane and breaking away for the 83-yard tying touchdown at the 8:21 juncture of the third.
“The hole was closing so I didn’t think I was going to score,” Leach said. “But I knew if I could get to the sideline I was gone, and it was a TD.”
With the game tied at 17, Burnet advanced to Brownwood’s 21 on its next possession, where the Lions defense stuffed Denton on a fourth-and-1 run to force a turnover on downs.
Quarterback keepers of 18 and 11 yards by Chance Jones helped move the ball to the Burnet 25, where Jones tossed a quick pass out to Thad Hinds, who broke a pair of Burnet tackles and raced to the end zone to give the Lions their first lead, 24-17, with 2:54 left in the third period.
“I didn’t really expect it, but the ball came to me and I knew it was my time to make a play so I executed the way I needed to,” Hinds said. “I feel like that really did change our momentum. We were down the whole game.”
On the ensuing kickoff, the Lions jarred the ball free and Jaylan Brown recovered at the Burnet 31.
Following a first down pass interference penalty against Burnet, the Lions needed just four snaps to reach the end zone as Konlyn Anderson – who rushed for 266 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries – scored for the second time on a 2-yard dive with 36 seconds left in the third period.
“As the game went on in the second half, their defense started getting tired so it was easier for us to run the ball, and the offensive line was just mashing them,” said Anderson, who has rushed for 823 yards through four games – an average of 206 yards per outing.
Burnet crept within 31-19 with 8:18 left on a poor snap to punter Junior Martinez, which resulted in a safety. Then, after the Lions failed to score from inside the Burnet 10 with less than 3 minutes left, the Bulldogs struck for an 80-yard touchdown pass from Grant Glidwell to Will Johnson to trim to deficit to 31-26 at the 2:07 mark.
The Bulldogs then attempted an onside kick, which Brownwood’s Noah Barron recovered after a deflection. After Anderson picked up a first down on the ground, the Lions were able to run out the clock.
“We prepare on Thursday for every phase of the ball game and we ask our kids to focus and we had several oddities tonight,” Burnett said. “The safety, the kickoff after a safety, a penalty after a touchdown that put us back, but our kids stayed calm, they stayed resilient because they’ve been through it before because we go through it on Thursdays, and they performed.”
The Lions finished with 353 yards of total offense – 300 on the ground and 53 through the air – with no turnovers for the second week in a row. Defensively, Brownwood surrendered 341 yards – 187 passing and 154 rushing – but created three turnovers that led to 10 points.
“We gave up a couple of big plays that kept them in the game, but for the most part I thought our defense did a good job,” Burnett said. “The turnovers were huge and we got one on defense and a couple on special teams. Any time you get an extra possession, one you’re not expecting, it’s huge. And if you can win the turnover battle you usually have a great opportunity to win the game.
“Offensively we sputtered in the first half, but we found a way to tie it up before the half. I thought they exploded a little bit more in the second half.”
After a scoreless first quarter, the Lions fell behind 3-0 with 8:10 left in the first half on a 28-yard field goal by Burnet’s Angel Suazo. The Bulldogs had advanced to the Brownwood 1, but a penalty forced Burnet back to the 11. On third-and-goal, the Lions defense forced an incomplete pass at the goal line.
Brownwood failed to muster a first down on the ensuing drive and punted the ball back to Burnet, which Landon Christian fielded at the Bulldog 46 and raced 54 yards to the end zone to put the Lions in a 10-0 hole at the 6:38 mark of the second period.
The Lion offense – behind the blocking of Brandon Still, Ethan Pesina, Slayde Espinoza, Alex Reyna and Riley Soto – finally began to show signs of life with a three-play scoring drive on the next possession, as Anderson found the end zone on a 46-yard sprint.
“We started off a little slow but on the pop play, the offensive line did really good,” Anderson said. “There wasn’t really anybody there and we got that.”
Down 10-7 with 5:56 left in the first half, it appeared Brownwood would head into the locker room facing a halftime deficit. But an interception by Leach at the Bulldog 47 with 56 seconds left in the second period changed the outlook.
Aided by runs of 17 and 8 yards from Anderson, the Lions were able to move the ball to the Burnet 17. Then, on the final play of the half, Martinez nailed a 35-yard field goal to even the score at 10.
“Putting the last drive together, getting some rhythm on offense, moving the ball down the field and finishing the first half with a field goal was huge,” Burnett said. “We had the momentum going into the half at that point and I told them to fight hard in the second half, you’re a second-half team, you’re going to wear them down and we did and started to move the ball better.”
Next week, Brownwood ventures to Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie (1-3), which was pummeled by the Lions’ district rival and fifth-ranked Stephenville (4-0) by a 37-7 count Friday night.
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Brownwood 31, Burnet 26
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Burnet 0 10 7 9 – 26
Brownwood 0 10 21 0 – 31
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SCORING SUMMARY
Bur: Angel Suazo 28 FG, 8:10, 2nd – 0-3
Bur: Landon Christian 54 punt return (Suazo kick), 6:38, 2nd – 0-10
Bwd: Konlyn Anderson 46 run (Junior Martinez kick), 5:56, 3rd, – 7-10
Bwd: Martinez 35 FG, 0:00, 2nd – 10-10
Bur: Dash Denton 8 run (Suazo kick), 8:38, 3rd – 10-17
Bwd: Jordan Leach 83 kick return (Martinez kick), 8:21, 3rd – 17-17
Bwd: Thad Hinds 25 pass from Chance Jones (Martinez kick), 2:54, 3rd – 24-17
Bwd: Anderson 2 run (Martinez kick), 0:36, 3rd – 31-17
Bur: Safety (ball snapped over punter’s head, through end zone), 8:18, 4th – 31-19
Bur: Will Johnson 80 pass from Grant Glidwell (Suazo kick), 2:07, 4th – 31-26
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TEAM STATS
BUR BWD
First Downs 16 14
Total Offense 341 353
Rushes-Yards 40-154 39-300
Passing Yards 187 53
Comp-Att-Int 8-15-1 7-17-0
Punts 4-36.8 4-36.0
Fumbles Lost 2 0
Penalties-Yards 7-58 9-80
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PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: Burnet – Dash Denton 11-70, TD; Grant Glidewell 14-46; Nikko Rodriguez 7-16; Ethan Wolfe 5-16; Grant Jones 3-6. Brownwood – Konlyn Anderson 32-266, 2 TDs; Chance Jones 6-31; Jaylan Brown 1-3.
PASSING: Burnet – Glidewell 8-14-1-187, TD. Brownwood – Jones 7-17-0-53, TD.
RECEIVING: Burnet – Landon Christian 4-64; Will Johnson 2-88, TD; Denton 1-38; Jones 1-17. Brownwood – Jason Jackson 3-20; Thad Hinds 1-25, TD; Elias Huerta-Doud 1-4; Taylor Bessent 1-3; Anderson 1-1.
