By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

 

          Early on, it appeared Brentwood and Terrell might be in a football version of a tennis match, when Terrell answered Brentwood’s first-play score with one on its first possession.

          But Brentwood – with country music star Luke Bryan in War Eagle blue in the sidelines after being part of the coin toss - held serve a few times and the War Eagle defense kept Terrell from answering enough as the War Eagles beat the Eagles 37-28 Friday afternoon to win the GISA Class AA state championship at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

          Bert Brown was tired and relieved.

          “That was a wild and wooly game,” the veteran Brentwood boss said. “Every game since (the opener) has been a runaway game. Our starters didn’t play in the fourth quarter of a single game, not one single game.

          “So I was worried, especially after it turned warm the last couple days. I was concerned: could we play 48 minutes? Could our starters play 48 minutes?”

          He got the answer he hoped for en route to the first state title since 2003, and capping a three-year 30-7 run with a semifinal, final, and championship.

          Brentwood scored in every quarter, as did Terrell, but the War Eagles won two quarters by more. Five War Eagles scored, with Patrick Jackson running it in twice and throwing a touchdown pass.

          Brown noted that Terrell had a larger roster, and played probably a half-dozen or so more players. But the War Eagles rendered Brown’s worries moot.

          “Our guys hung in there,” he said. “We were able to finish.”

          Wells Muller’s 72-yard run on Brentwood’s first play for a touchdown was countered bya 19-yard TD pass from Lawrence Carpenter to Luke Addison – who made a highlight-reel one-handed catch - a few minutes later.

          Two-way workhorse Thomas Denton went 32 yards to put Brentwood up for good with 3:38 left in the first. Will Wright’s interception and Denton’s 33-yarder set up Jackson’s 8-yard keeper for a 20-7 lead.

          Terrell got back within a touchdown on Andy Alston’s 1-yard run with 2:19 left, and it was 20-14 at halftime.

          Will Wright got wide open down the middle, and Jackson connected with him for a 72-yard scoring pass with 7:29 to go in the third quarter, the lead returning to double digits at 26-14.

          But Terrell bounced back to make it a one-possession game again on a 15-yard touchdown pass.

          An interception by Drew Johnson set up Christian Rountree’s 27-yard field goal that eked in over the crossbar and next to the right upright for a nine-point lead with 3:30 left in the game.

          Denton picked off a pass only for the War Eagles to quickly give it right back.

          Then Brentwood’s defense shut the door. Terrell knocked on the door, with a first and goal situation that it couldn’t convert inside the final two minutes.

          And all of Brown’s concerns wafted away into the championship night air.

          “I just thought, all things considered, we had not played a complete 48-minute game all year,” he said. “I think our kids handled that about as well as one could expect. I really think were worried about being battle tested.

          “Our guys hung in there and were able to finish.”

 

Brentwood 37, Terrell 28

Terrell                  7        7        7        7        - 28

Brentwood          14      6       14      3       - 37

 

B – Wells Muller 72 run (Christian Rountree kick)

T – Luke Addison 19 pass from Lawrence Carpenter (Ryker Moye kick)

B – Thomas Denton 32 run (Rountree kick)

B—Robert Jackson 8 run (kick failed)

T – Andy Alston 1 run (Moye kick)

B - Will Wright 72 pass from Jackson (pass failed)

T—Alston 45 run (Moye kick)

B – Jackson 2 run (Jackson run)

T – Marquerious Mitchell 15 pass from Carpenter (Moye kick)

B – Rountree 27 field goal