“Stephenville is the top of the mountain in 4A until someone knocks them off,” Brixey said. “They’re an excellent football program and their coaches do an outstanding jobs with those kids. They work year-round, they’re strong, and they’re confident in what they do. You can’t find any fault in what they’re dong right now. They have a system they believe in and they work hard on it and they’re tough to beat.”

While the Lions used a clutch defensive effort to upend Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie, 13-7, in last week’s season opener, the Yellow Jackets are coming off a 44-21 season-opening victory over 5A Division II Midlothian Heritage in which they scored the final 30 points.

Stephenville finished with 471 total yards, 378 passing and 93 rushing, as quarterback Trot Jordan completed 18 of 28 passes for 378 yards with three touchdowns, and also rushed for 43 yards, including a 32-yard score. Receiver Caden Monk hauled in 11 receptions for 242 yards with a trip to end zone, while Austin Jergins grabbed four passes for 78 yards and scored twice. On the ground, Zyler McClendon rushed for 50 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.

“Their offense is going to air bomb the ball all over the place,” Brixey said. “Their quarterback is the same kid from last year and he’s extremely talented and a good runner. The back is the same kid, he’s a bit of a glider and then he’ll see daylight and stick a foot in the ground and he’ll be gone. They have three offensive linemen back and they’re spearheaded by (Cooper) Doty at center, the coach’s son. We’re going to have to do a good job defensively of executing and being in the gaps we’re supposed to be in and causing confusion on their part. Hopefully we’ll get some takeaways and some stops, which will give us a chance to compete.”

The Lions yielded 300 total yards to Wylie – 174 through the air and 126 on the ground – but denied the Bulldogs a single point on four trips inside the red zone, with a fumble recovery and blocked field goal among the standout plays.

Leading the charge for the Brownwood defense were safety Wyatt Wolf (12 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 sack, 1 blocked FG), linebackers Hudson Fry (10 tackles, 1 for loss) and Isaac Gonzales (7.5 tackles), end Christian Gray (6.5 tackles, 1 for loss), safety Sirr Beam (5 tackles), linebacker Hudson Deen (4 tackles) and safety Hutton Malone (3 tackles, 1 fumble recovery).

“I’m really encouraged about the way we played on the defensive side of the ball for sure,” Brixey said. “We have a lot of team goals and one of them is to have a 50 percent red zone success rate and we had 100 percent. Their one touchdown came from outside that. We had just enough pressure at the end of the game to make the kid rush into a bad throw. There was a lot of upside, but the real upside to it is, when you talk to our defensive staff, they didn’t feel like we played very well, so there’s a lot of things we can do a whole lot better.”

The Stephenville defense in the win over Heritage yielded 371 yards, 204 passing and 167 rushing, but recorded three takeaways, notched five sacks and blocked a punt that was returned for a touchdown.

Carter VanZandt (13 tackles, 3 for loss, 2 sacks), Xavier Gonzalez (11 tackles), Cooper Rudd (8 tackles, 2 for loss), Kolston Tomlinson (5 tackles, 1 fumble recovery), Jackson Richmond (2 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries) and Nick Griswold (2 tackles, 2 sacks) were among the leaders.

“Defensively, they’re not complex,” Brixey said. “I’m not saying they’re simple, but they’ve got good enough players and they know what they’re doing. They line up in a 4-2-5 and slant like crazy and do some other stuff that’ll cause you fits. They’re going to be where they’re supposed to be, they’re going to know what they’re doing. You don’t catch them out of alignment, so from our offense’s standpoint we’re going to have to execute and be physical for 48 minutes. Last year we were physical for 24 minutes and then it caved in on us.”

Behind the front of Rylan Martin, Jackson Rainey, Bowen Slack, Layton Greer and Judah Lee, the Lions produced 258 yards against Wylie – 132 through the air and 126 on the ground. Trent Buffington rushed for 114 yards and a 4-yard touchdown, Riggs Gray completed 7 of 14 passes for 132 yards, Conner Cornelius nabbed three receptions for 66 yards, and Jack Bauchman caught three passes for 56 yards.

“Our offensive line, it was almost like going back to the Alvarado scrimmage,” Brixey said. “We got up to the line of scrimmage and grew up a little bit. You can wear a defense down when you just start pounding at them. We’re so far ahead of where we were a year ago, we’ve got some kids growing up. Riggs was pressing a little bit and overthrew some passes we would consider layups in the first half. He came out and had a really good second half in the way he threw the ball, and some good reads. We had one incredible catch by the freshman tight end Jack Bauchman, he elevated about 3 feet to catch that, and Conner Cornelius had a good night.”

According to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, the Lions are 21-point underdogs.

“We have to be physical, run the football, and hit plays in the play action pass. That’s what we do,” Brixey said. “We have to make them play the run with nine. Last year they played the run with six with a seventh guy coming in. If we don’t run the ball well enough to make people involve their safeties, we’re going to struggle.”