Brentwood Offense Clicks in Win Over Wesclin

After a quiet two weeks to start the season, the Brentwood offense came alive to top Wesclin 26-20 on Friday night.

Brentwood's three-headed rushing attack—Rekardo* Owens, Danny Lynch and Tyler Jones—combined to carry the ball 46 times for 347 yards. Running the ball effectively allowed the Eagles to set the game's tempo: Brentwood (1-2) controlled the clock for 24 minutes of the game to the Warriors' (1-2) 16.

"We want to eat the clock," Brentwood coach Keith Herring said. "If we keep pounding it like that, it wears them down and gives us more and more energy."

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"We made the blocks that needed to be made, we made good tackles," Lynch said. "We executed a lot better this week." Lynch had 15 carries for 135 yards on the night.

The Eagles received the opening kickoff but didn't do much with the ball to start. Brentwood began the game with two possessions in the red zone but failed to score any points.

With 3:17 left in the first quarter, Wesclin scored first on a 5-yard run from sophomore Austin Schultz. He scored two touchdowns on four carries for 13 yards. The play was set up by a breakaway run from junior running back Justin Lovelace. Lovelace had nine carries for 91 yards.

Brentwood responded on the following possession. After taking a touchback on the kickoff, Eagles junior quarterback Jordan Groth connected with Lynch for a 17-yard pass.

Owens, a junior, followed with a 50-yard rush up the right sideline to the Wesclin 13-yard line. On the next play, Jones rumbled to the 1-yard line. It took one more carry before Jones crossed the end zone line for Brentwood's first score. The score was 8-7 with 2:22 left in the first quarter.

"Our line was blocking hard and opened up the holes for our running backs," Jones said.

A big play expanded the Wesclin lead on the following drive. Wesclin junior quarterback Keith Haselhorst connected with senior wide receiver Alek Sopiars for a 69-yard pass and touchdown. Sopiars had three catches for 93 yards on the night. Haselhorst finished 9-for-21 with 141 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed 12 times for 26 yards.

Down 14-7, Brentwood fought back again. Facing a third-and-long, Groth threw a screen pass in the flat to Lynch, who ran down the field for a long gain and a first down. From Wesclin's 24-yard line, Owens broke free for a 10-yard gain. Groth followed with a play-action, 14-yard pass to an open Jake Caragher in the end zone with 8:38 remaining in the half.

Groth passed for 36 yards and a TD, and also ran five times for 33 yards.

After a missed extra point, Brentwood trailed 14-13.

The Brentwood defense started the second half by forcing two consecutive three-and-out drives from Wesclin. Sandwiched between those drives, the Eagles' stellar running game led to another score.

On their own 42-yard line, the Eagles used a balanced rushing attack from Lynch, Owens and Jones to steadily move down the field. Finally, on a fourth-and-one play on the 1-yard line, Owens crossed the line for Brentwood's third score with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter. Brentwood led 19-14.

Owens finished the night with 14 carries for 135 yards and one touchdown.

The next drive was even worse for Wesclin.

Facing a second-and-21 on his own 8-yard line, Haselhorst fumbled a snap that was easily scooped up by middlebacker Jones, who jogged into the end zone for a defensive score. Jones finished with 17 carries for 77 yards and one rushing touchdown.

Lovelace responded with a clutch kickoff return to the Brentwood 18-yard line. After a couple runs, Schultz crossed the line for his second score. Brentwood blocked the extra point and held a 26-20 lead with 10:58 remaining in the game.

From there, it was simply a waiting game for Brentwood. The Eagles tried to eat as much time from the clock as they could. Wesclin had an opportunity to score with less than a minute remaining, but the Eagles defense repeatedly penetrated the backfield.

Brentwood senior linebacker Mykell Hudspeth tallied a key sack with only a couple of seconds remaining, which all but sealed Wesclin's fate. Hudpseth led the team with five tackles, one assist and a sack on the night. 

Lynch, a senior, said a tough week of practice prepared the Eagles for the game.

"We were more intense, and we were executing everything," Lynch said. " - we finally figured it out.

"This week we practiced our butts off," Jones said. "We went in this week thinking it's a war, so we trained for battle all week. It paid off."

"Now we finally got our win and we can build off of it," Jones said.

Brentwood hosts Missouri Military Academy (0-3) at 7 p.m. next Friday at home. MMA has lost three straight games to Hallsville, Winfield and St. Vincent while failing to score a point on the season.

*Correction: Maplewood-Brentwood Patch previously misspelled Rekardo Owens' name, as it was misspelled in the team guide on Friday. We are sorry for the error.