LAMPASAS – Opportunities presented themselves but critical mistakes, both of the physical and mental variety, prevented the Brownwood Lions from extending their win streak to three games as the Lampasas Badgers emerged with a 30-20 victory Friday night in the District 4-4A Division I opener for both teams.
Vying for a third straight district championship I 2024, the Lions (3-3, 0-1) snapped the ball just 33 times on offense Friday night compared to the 72 plays run by the Badgers (6-1, 1-0). In the second half, Lampasas ran 37 plays to Brownwood’s 14 as the Badgers wore down the Lions after intermission, which led to a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns that decided the contest.
“They controlled our defensive line and we gave up too many chunk plays,” said Lions seventh-year head coach Sammy Burnett. “Our kids fought, they did a lot of good things, but we had some mistakes. We had opportunities to put some points on the board and didn’t. We lost the game tonight and I tip our hat to them, they outplayed us in the second half and won the ball game. No excuses, we should have won the game, but we have to grow and move on. We’ll be fine if we learn from this, grow, move on and bounce back.”
Despite hardly touching the ball in the second half, the Lions still trailed by only a field goal, 23-20, midway through the final period when an unforced error proved to seal Brownwood’s fate.
Lampasas faced a third-and-25 from its own 20 after losing 21 yard two plays prior on a snap that sailed over the head of quarterback Reed Jerome. On the third down play, Jerome scrambled to the line of scrimmage but no further, where he was hit near the sideline by Robert Trowbridge and an unnecessary roughness penalty was called.
Inside of punting the ball back to Brownwood with with just over six minutes left, the Badgers were awarded a first down on the penalty and went on to cap the drive with a 24-yard touchdown run by KJ Reed that put the Lions in a 30-20 hole with 3:35 to go.
“The was a big play right there,” Burnett said. “We stop them there, we get the ball back and we’re in good shape. That would have been a big momentum swing for us. But the play wasn’t anything done on purpose. It’s a short field with a short fence and it’s hard to tell where the line is sometimes. Robert was continuing to play, he’s not a kid that’s going to do something dirty, he just continued to play and he was out of bounds and they threw the flag. It wasn’t malicious or anything, it was just a kid hustling a little bit too much. But it was a time when were about to get off the field on fourth and 20.”
Back in the first half with the Lions trailing 17-13, Brownwood marched 40 yards in 13 plays and forced a fourth-and-two at the Lampasas 6 with 2:03 left before intermission. Faced with a chance to grab the lead before halftime, the Lions instead were stuffed by the Badgers, turning the ball over on downs.
“We could have kicked a field goal, but hindsight’s 20-20,” Burnett said. “I thought about it hard but our kids believed they could do it, they wanted to do it, our coaches wanted to do it and I wanted to have an opportunity to instill in our kids that we believed in them, we just didn’t get it done.”
After the play an altercation between Lampasas and Brownwood took place on the field, which led to the ejection of Lion running back Trey Mosley – who at that has rushed for 58 yards and a touchdown on just six carries.
“We have to talk about some character issues we have with a couple of our kids,” Burnett said after the contest.
Trailing 17-13 at halftime, the Lions started the second half with a flourish to take their first and only lead of the night. Devin Eanes first returned the third-quarter kickoff 45 yards to the Badger 35.
“We’ve stressed the importance of special teams in practice and they’ve put us in good positions all year to have short fields,” Burnett said. “I appreciate their efforts for that.”
Eanes then caught a 28-yard pass from Brownwood quarterback Judson Coalson, then Coalson scored on a 7-yard scamper the next play to push the Lions in front, 20-17, just 37 seconds into the second half.
From that point on, however, the Lions struggled to piece anything together on offense as Lampasas shifted its focus to pressuring Coalson with Brownwood’s top rusher out of the game.
“We just stumped our toe a couple of times offensively and found ways to stop drives when we shouldn’t have,” Burnett said. “Lampasas executed better than we did.”
Brownwood still maintained a three-point edge into the fourth quarter, but after going three-and-out on a drive that started at their 11, the Lions punted the ball back to Lampasas, where a 58-yard, 13-play scoring drive followed that ended with an 8-yard touchdown carry by Haegen Ockner on third-and-seven, which pushed the Badgers back in front, 23-20, with 11:14 remaining.
The Lions’ ensuing drive stalled at the their own 47 where a punt ensued and Lampasas’ game-clinching 67-yard, 12-play drive followed.
Brownwood dug itself out of an early hole as Lampasas raced out to a 14-0 lead just 6:31 in the contest. A nine-play, 75-yard game-opening drive ended with a 1-yard plunge to the end zone by Jerome, as the Lions were behind 7-0 with 7:15 left in the initial stanza.
The Lions mustered one first down on their initial possession before punting away the ball. On the very next snap, Oncken galloped 79 yards down the right sideline for a 14-0 Badgers’ edge.
The second drive for Brownwood started at the Lampasas 49 and lasted just one play, as Mosley rumbled into the end zone to cut the deficit to 14-7 at the 5:09 mark of the first period.
Then, after forcing a Lampasas punt, the Lions traveled 50 yards in just three plays as Coalson – who passed for 116 yards and rushed for 54 more – scored on a 21-yard quarterback keeper, set up by a 28-yard toss from Coalson to Carson Noe, who led Brownwood with four catches for 60 yards. The extra point was no good, however, leaving the Lions down 14-13 with 20 seconds left in the first quarter.
The only points of the second quarter came from Lampasas on a 28-yard field goal by Josiah Toeaina.
“We had opportunities to execute, but we stayed behind chains more than I wanted,” Burnett said. “We needed second and shorts and we had way too many third and longs.”
Brownwood finished with just 237 yards – 116 through the air and 121 on the ground – while Lampasas mustered 278 rushing yards on 49 carries to go along with 158 passing, for a total of 436 yards.
Coalson connected on 8 of 16 passes for the Lions and also rushed for 54 yards and two scores. Eanes finished with two catches for 38 yards and Grant Gray caught one ball for 16 yards and rushed for 6 yards.
On the flip side, Oncken led Lampasas with 123 rushing yards and two scores, Jerome racked up 158 passing yards and Oncken also collected a team-high six grabs for 80 yards.
Next week, Brownwood has its bye then resumes 4-4A Division I action at Gordon Wood Stadium Friday, Oct. 25 with the homecoming game against the Burnet Bulldogs (5-2, 1-0), who knocked off the Marble Falls Mustangs (2-5, 0-1) by a 43-7 count in their league opener Friday.
“We need the break, we’re really banged up,” Burnett said “We’re putting everybody we can in the game to find success. We’re fighting our tails off and we’re going to try to get healthy, rejuvenate our souls, and recharge before we face Burnet. If we beat them that will give us a great opportunity to have a spot in the playoffs.”
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Lampasas 30, Brownwood 20
SCORE BY QUARTERS
| Brownwood | 13 | 0 | 7 | 0 | – 20 |
| Lampasas | 14 | 3 | 0 | 13 | – 30 |
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SCORING SUMMARY
L: Reed Jerome 1 run (Josiah Toeaina kick), 7:15, 1st
L: Haegan Oncken 79 run (Toeaina kick), 5:29, 1st
B: Trey Mosley 49 run (Rory McNeese kick), 5:09, 1st
B: Judson Coalson 21 run (kick failed), 0:20, 1st
L: Toeaina 28 FG (6:58), 2nd
B: Coalson 7 run (McNeese kick), 11:23, 3rd
L: Oncken 8 run (kick failed), 11:14, 4th
L: KJ Reed 24 run (Toeaina kick), 3:35, 4th
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| TEAM STATS | Brownwood | Lampasas |
| First Downs | 10 | 26 |
| Total Offense | 237 | 436 |
| Rushes-Yards | 17-121 | 49-278 |
| Passing Yards | 116 | 158 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 8-16-0 | 18-23-0 |
| Fumbles Lost | 0 | 0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 6-60 | 5-28 |
| Punts-Average | 3-34.0 | 2-27.5 |
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PLAYER STATS
RUSHING: B – Trey Mosley 6-58, TD; Judson Coalson 8-54, 2 TDs; Grant Gray 1-6; Noah Gonzalez 2-3. L – Haegan Oncken 7-123, 2 TDs; KJ Reed 10-59, TD; Daemian Rivas 10-59; Reed Jerome 20-51, TD; Bryson Roberts 1-9; Team 1-(-21).
PASSING: B – Coalson 8-16-0-116. L – Jerome 18-23-0-158.
RECEIVING: B – Carson Noe 4-60, Devin Eanes 2-38, Gray 1-16, Gonzalez 1-2. L – Oncken 6-80; Ty Johnson 5-60; Roberts 4-16; Jaden McElwain 1-5; Reed 1-1; Rivas 1-(-4).
KICKING: B – Rory McNeese 0 of 0 FGs. 2 of 3 PATs.
Eli Valenciano – 3 punts for 102 yards,34.0 average – 0 inside 20.