“All in all tonight was a good start. I’m really pleased with the way we looked defensively, that was a fear of mine, and offensively we’ll get there,” said third year head Coach Sammy Burnett.  He said defensive play was better than he expected saying a young Brownwood defense played very fast and physical during the annual maroon and white scrimmage played Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.

Between the Maroon and White defenses combined, just one touchdown was surrendered while one pass was intercepted. There were also a handful of tackles for loss and a couple of quarterback sacks.

Among the standout plays, Jason Jackson picked off a pass in the end zone, Hunter Day tallied a sack, and Kris Hobbs recorded a 9-yard tackle loss after blowing past the offensive line. Another Brownwood sack was negated by a facemask call.

Offensively, most of the line returns – anchored by Ethan Pesina, Jimi Brown and Brad Robinson—but the majority of the skill position players are new and at times it showed.

“We moved the ball on the ground well enough when we wanted to, but we were trying to spread the ball around and give kids opportunities,” Burnett said. “We had some kids that didn’t know what they were doing at times which will kill you offensively. We had some busted routes and a couple of busted blocking assignments up front, but that’s to be expected when you’re splitting your offensive line that’s used to playing together.”

In the quarterback battle, Baylor Tidwell saw the most snaps of the three contenders and accounted for the lone touchdown of the scrimmage with an 11-yard strike to Malachi Revada on a fourth-and-six slant. Blaize Espinoza churned out yardage on the ground while Chance Jones completed a pair of passes, and two more were dropped.

The longest pass play was a 30-yard connection between Tidwell and Day on a flag route, while Royshad Henderson ripped off a 30-yard gain on the ground. Henderson, Cade Jetton and Dryden Anderson shouldered the load out the backfield.

The No. 15 Lions will be back at Gordon Wood Stadium Thursday night as they welcome Godley in their lone scrimmage prior to the Friday, Aug. 28 season opener at No. 3 Lampasas.