For the first time since Sept. 9, 2011, the Brownwood Lions did not register a point in a football game, as they were dealt a 43-0 non-district home defeat by the Waco La Vega Pirates Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
After a 66-0 loss in Week 3 at Stephenville 13 years ago, the Lions went on to finish that season with an 8-5 record and advanced to the third round of the playoffs – the type of turnaround seventh-year head coach Sammy Burnett hopes is ahead of the 2024 Brownwood squad.
“We just have to get better,” Burnett said. “We’ve got two more games to get to where we need to be. That’s what I just shared with the players. We have to come to work with an attitude that says we will work, and get better. La Vega’s a good football and right now we’re not very good. We have two weeks to get better, because after that when we get to Lampasas it all counts.”
The Lions (1-2) were limited to just 139 yards of total offense and eight first downs by a La Vega (2-2) defense that allowed 33 points per game on average, as Brownwood rushed 26 times for just 45 yards – an average of 1.7 yards per carry. Through the air, Brownwood connected on just 7 of 21 passes – 33 percent – for 92 yards, with an interception that was returned for a touchdown.
Levi Pearson led the ground game with 47 yards on 24 carries as leading rusher Trey Mosley missed the contest, Grant Gray caught three passes for 48 yards and Carson Noe grabbed three receptions for 45 yards, and Judson Coalson handled all the passing duties.
“We had opportunities in the passing game to make plays and we had some drops, some sloppy routes and some poor technique coming out of routes,” said Burnett, whose team is averaging 11 points and 210 yards per game thus far in 2024. “I thought we did a bad job of taking advantage of some things that we had. Run game wise, we still have a lot of work to do and we have to take ownership. Our offensive line, it has to hurt them to know we’re not running the ball on the ground like we should. It doesn’t matter what running back we put in the backfield, we have to create holes for him to run through. We’re busting too many assignments on plays we run over and over. To me, it’s a mental focus. But we have to take ownership from the coaching staff to the players, all of us. We have to find a way to get better and we can. It’s not like we’re not athletic, we just have to figure it out and find it.”
Defensively, the Lions surrendered 436 yards – 238 on the ground and 198 through the air – and did not create a turnover as La Vega produced 7.9 yards per play on its 55 snaps.
Bryson Roland rushed for 142 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries, Jayven Hernandez passed for 130 yards and a touchdown, and Jabarie Thornton hauled down five receptions for 110 yards to pace the Pirates’ offensive push.
“Defensively, we have to make tackles and not give up the big play,” said Burnett, whose team is yielding 31 points and 351 yards per outing, with only one takeaway. “Same thing in the back end. Some of the techniques that we’re playing, the way we’re playing that technique, instead of playing the technique that we need to we’re getting sloppy in the way that we play which is allowing them to get open and us to not come out of breaks like we should. And again, when we get to ball carriers we have to make tackles, we can’t miss tackles.”
After stopping La Vega on its first drive near midfield, the Lions forced a punt, but gave the ball back after just three snaps. The Pirates’ second drive – which covered just 42 yards – ended with a 32-yard gallop to the end zone by Roland for a 6-0 lead with 4:23 left in the first period.
Roland’s second touchdown came on the final snap of the first quarter, a 10-yard carry that put the Lions in a 13-0 hole.
Brownwood responded with its best drive of the game, moving 56 yards down to the La Vega 13. There, the drive stalled after a misfire to end zone on third-and-7, and Rory McNeese’s 30-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right at the 8:11 mark of the second quarter.
La Vega then traveled 70 yards and countered with a successful 32-yard field goal by Giovanni Esqueda, boosting the Pirates’ advantage to 16-0 with 5:01 left before halftime.
The Lions, who produced 84 yards in the first half, mustered one first down before again punting the ball away – one seven on the night – to La Vega, which scored with 41 seconds left before halftime on a 10-yard Roland carry for a 22-0 advantage at intermission.
The Pirates tacked on a trio of third-quarter touchdowns on a 5-yard run by Thornton, a 14-yard scoring toss from Hernandez to James Degrate, and a 35-yard interception return of Coalson by Amir Gibson.
Brownwood’s best scoring opportunity came on its final drive of the game, which began with Devin Eanes returning a La Vega punt 45 yards to midfield, where 15 more yards were tacked on due to a Pirates personal foul – one of 10 penalties for 95 yards on La Vega.
Starting at the Pirate 35, the Lions marched 29 yards down to the La Vega 6, where the eight-play, 3:28 possession ended as Coalson’s fourth-and-goal pass attempt to Noe was broken up shy of the goal line.
Regarding bright spots in Friday night’s contest, Burnett said, “The positive I saw tonight was kids stepping up in the face of adversity and trying to lead their teammates and not surrender, and that is a plus because last week we didn’t do that as well. But no excuses, we have to find a way to get better and that’s the bottom line.”
Next week, the Lions begin a string of three straight games away from home as they visit the China Spring Cougars (1-3), who are coming off a 28-23 loss to Springtown – a team Brownwood bounced from the playoffs a year ago.
“They have a quarterback that’s a lot like Major Bowden and they’re going to run the option a lot and he’s going to run the ball a lot,” Burnett said of China Spring. “Defensively they’re good up front with their d-line, so we have to be able to throw the football, but there’s opportunities there to do that, we just have to execute and run crisp routes. But we also can’t just sit back and throw the football, we have set up the pass with the run and do a better job up front.”
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Waco La Vega 43, Brownwood 0
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| La Vega | 13 | 9 | 21 | 0 | – 0 |
| Brownwood | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – 0 |
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SCORING SUMMARY
L: Bryson Roland 32 run (kick failed), 4:23, 1st
L: Roland 10 run (Giovanni Esqueda kick), 0:00, 1st
L: Esqueda 32 FG, 5:01, 2nd
L: Roland 6 run (Esqueda kick), 0:41, 2nd
L: James Degrate 14 pass from Jayven Hernandez (kick failed), 8:51, 3rd
L: Jabarie Thornton 5 run (Esqueda kick), 4:01, 3rd
L: Amir Gibson 35 interception return (Esqueda kick), 0:21, 3rd
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| TEAM STATS | La Vega | Brownwood |
| First Downs | 20 | 8 |
| Total Offense | 436 | 137 |
| Rushes-Yards | 36-238 | 26-45 |
| Passing Yards | 198 | 92 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 11-19-0 | 7-21-1 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 10-95 | 6-45 |
| Punts-Average | 3-36.0 | 7-32.3 |
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PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: L – Bryson Roland 16-142, 3 TDs; Ray’Quan Kennedy 12-83; Johnny Hammond 2-5; Jabarie Thornton 1-5, TD; Kourtney Parr 4-2; Daylon Pullen 1-1. B – Levi Pearson 24-47; Judson Coalson 2-(-2).
PASSING: L – Jayven Hernandez 7-10-0-130, TD; Parr 4-9-0-68. B – Coalson 7-21-1-92.
RECEIVING: L – Thornton 5-110; Marqwae Willis 1-21; Marcus Jackson 1-21; James Degrate 1-14, TD; Roland 1-13; Brydrick Scott 1-13; Elbert Jones 1-7. B – Grant Gray 3-48; Carson Noe 3-45; Pearson 1-(-1).
KICKING: B – Rory McNeese 0 of 1 FGs.
Eli Valenciano – 7 punts for 226 yards, 32.3 average – 1 inside 20.