In a clash of District 4-4A Division I co-leaders, the four-game win streak for the Brownwood Lions came to an end with a 49-0 loss to the Harris Ratings Class 4A Division I No. 1 Stephenville Yellow Jackets Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
The current six-game win streak for the Yellow Jackets (9-0, 4-0) is their longest in the 85-game history of the Battle of 377. Brownwood (5-4, 3-1) – which was blanked for the second year in a row – last upended Stephenville in 2019 by a 38-22 count, but still leads the series all-time, 47-36-2.
Despite the loss, Brownwood – which came into Friday’s Senior Night contest ranked No. 12 in Class 4A Division I by Harris Ratings Weekly – still controls its destiny in terms of the second playoff seed from the district heading into the final week of the regular season.
Against Stephenville, however, the Lions turned over the ball three times, mustered just 46 yards of total offense and was limited to -8 rushing yards on 30 carries. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets compiled 403 yards behind a balanced attack of 204 the through the air and 199 on the ground, with just one turnover.
“I felt going into this game we were going to find out about ourselves and the first half we played well really defensively and even into the third quarter, but we just wore out a little bit,” said Lions first-year head coach Jeryl Brixey. “We were not physical up front and looking at it at halftime, we didn’t execute very well. I felt like going into halftime we just got out-physicaled, but then we started watching the video and we were just not executing. I felt like for the first time this year we stepped backward tonight in some of the stuff that we did. We just have to be better.”
Brownwood trailed just 14-0 at halftime as, after Stephenville scored on its first two possessions, the Yellow Jackets did not reach the end zone again until the third quarter, and finished with 145 yards of total offense during the first two periods with a fumble that was recovered by Durham Brown. The Lions, however, tallied only 11 total yards in the opening half.
Brixey said of being down 14 at halftime, “It’s not a one-half football game. We’re not in this for moral victories. We don’t want to say we were close at the half with Stephenville and be happy about it, that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about winning football games.”
The Yellow Jackets reached the end zone on their second play from scrimmage, a 57-yard strike from Trot Jordan to Brighton DeVivo. Then at the 5:25 mark of the opening stanza, Jordan connected with Caden Monk for an 18-yard touchdown – the final points of the first half.
Just 1:42 into the second half, Lion safety Caven Webster – the team’s leading tackler heading into the contest – was ejected after a targeting call against DeVivo, who was helped off the field following a hit on an incomplete pass.
“It was a horrible call,” Brixey said. “A targeting call being an ejection in high school, they get it wrong as often as they get it right because it’s a flash-bang play. They see it out of the corner of their eye and think they see what they saw, and they didn’t. He hit him square in the chest with his shoulder, there’s no head and neck area contact, and we know that because we can see the video upstairs. It’s not right for the kid, he has to sit out, and that’s the problem with there being an ejection in the high school game. In college and the pros, they can review it. We end up losing a kid that’s a great player for us.”
Stephenville later tacked on second-half touchdowns on carries of 8, 2 and 10 yards by Zyler McClendon, who finished with a game-high 133 yards on the ground. Jordan and Monk hooked up again as well on a 20-yard scoring strike, and Carter VanDandt added a 2-yard touchdown plunge.
Among the rare offensive highlights for the Lions, Trent Buffington rushed for 53 yards on nine carries. Judson Coalson passed for 54 yards, but completed just 7 of 20 attempts, was picked off three times and sacked on six occasions. Daylyn Ansons was the leading receiver with two grabs for 11 years, one of six Brownwood players to catch a pass.
On the injury front, the Lions lost center Gustavo Gonzalez to a knee injury in the first half, and he did not return to the contest. Aviud Gomez moved over to the center position while Omari McNeil filled the vacancy on the offensive front.
Next week, the playoff-bound Lions wrap up the regular season with a trip to Marble Falls (3-5, 0-2) – which will face Lampasas (7-2, 1-2) at noon Saturday as light failure Friday night forced a postponement – before shifting their attention to the playoffs.
“Now we focus on Marble Falls,” Brixey said. “We want to close out the regular season on a positive note and start moving forward again. I do feel like we took a step back tonight and part of that was because we were playing a very good football team, but we aspire to be a very good football team so we need to step up. We’re going back to work, we’ll get better. This is another week to improve and get ourselves in the best position we can for the playoffs.”