Bracken Wins Feverishly over Emery-Weiner, 51-19
Eli Achilles changes uniform colors during game in win over Emery-Weiner, 51-19
After a two hour rain delay, Bracken Christian ran a fever over the Jags from Houston Emery-Weiner last Saturday, 51-19.
With some players coming out after some sickness, time was not offered as a remedy as the Warriors went to work on a rainy afternoon.
Eli Achilles had 26 yards after his first four carries which for most contests would of been a recipe for over 50 yards and two touchdowns. All Achilles had to show for those four carries was sweat and knowing this would be a different opponent.
Emery-Weiner is an independent private school that has enough players to be classified as an 11-man team, but since they play 6-man instead then are relegated to playing without a District to compete in.
Hence, Bracken’s worst fears wear realized when this game went four quarters and a difference of playing styles.
E-W would have a defensive and offensive team. Coaches would be able to teach and instruct what needed to be done before that particular unit would re-enter the game.
Conversely, BCS would look at several of their offensive or defensive players and tell them to stay out on the field simply because they do not have that luxury for substitutions.
After stalling on their first drive, Bracken’s defense, also allowed just one first down before the Jaguars ran out of downs on the Warriors 35 yard line.
The second time was a charm as four more running plays for 23 yards and one pass to Preston Koch for 22 yards payed off for a Bracken lead, 6-0.
With the first quarter coming to a close, BCS had just 49 yards rushing and those 22 yards of passing offense.
There had not been a quarter with that low of an output for this season.
Bracken, however would score on five consecutive possessions after their first drive and enjoyed a, 32-19 lead at the break.
BCS would also have two running backs with over 100 yards rushing. Preston Koch with his all time best of 145 yards and Achilles finishing with 212 on the ground.
Koch would not be a person you would want to go bowling with. This young man is a human bowling ball as he rumbles down the field waiting to hit over the Pins (opposing players).
“My first thought is to just not cut and just go straight,” Koch threw a strike. “My second thought is that he (defender) better move.”
“We might have overestimated them,” Koch stated after commenting on how tough E-W was. “They were better than we thought, but this game would make us sure we were in shape.”
In that second quarter, Emery-Weiner had 160 yards passing with much of that damage coming at the hands of Jacob Silva, the Jaguar’s split end. This quarter alone, Silva had three touchdowns and 146 yards receiving.
“We just switched to a 2-3-1 and we knew that the dump passes were not going to kill us,” Head Coach Lloyd Fields said. “This was a good game shape contest, you can’t simulate games like this in practice.”
Right before the half, Bracken switched from man to a zone and the difference was felt right away. With time running out, E-W had a few seconds to score and with two passes, Bracken doubled Silva for an incompletion and then Achilles intercepted the next pass that ended the second quarter.
The second half had E-W with only 76 yards passing after accumulating 191 in the first stanza.
That difference was a result in changing a defensive plan which had the Jaguars competing dump passes instead of their vertical game which caused all that damage.
“We had to drop back on pass defense and I played centerfield,” Achilles defended.
Those 19 points in the second quarter would be all the scoring for the home team.
Look at this contrast of passing plays for E-W.
Completions Attempts Yards Ave per Attempt Ave per Completion First Half 9 18 191 10.6 21.2 Second Half 9 13 76 5.8 8.4
With the rush defense for Bracken in lock-down mode you effectively had taken E-W offense away from them.
This Jaguar had a couple of flat tires averaging less than 3 yards per carry in this game.
After holding E-W without a first down on their first possession of the second half, BCS also was left short on their series of downs.
Achilles caught another fever or interception on E-W’s next passing play and the Warriors went to work for a 19 point lead after Koch had a seven yard reception for the score.
A successful onside kick then had a play that had a feverish pitch come over to Bracken’s favor.
Achilles found Coy Zunker all alone in the end zone for a 29 yard touchdown and 44-19 lead.
“He (the defender) just shot in,” Zunker started. “So I just cut up the field.”
“I just looked at the ball and said I just have to catch it,” Zunker commented after getting questioned on what he was thinking as he waited on the ball.
Bracken scored on three of their five possessions in the second half with the last series of downs having two plays covering 30 yards and running out the clock.
This hard fought game gave Bracken a good barometer on how their training has been working out (pardon the pun), with a four quarter game and 47 plays on offense and 46 plays on defense.
On how Achilles felt after being sick during the week, “Hopefully, I was going to make it through and once I got my adrenaline going, I felt ok.”
Hopefully the Doctors orders came through as it seemed this sickness can be sweated out and then add some adrenaline and you will have a happy team that can start their trek back to the Hill Country and prepare for one more game against Kerrville OLH next Friday night.
1 2 3 4 Final Bracken Warriors 6 26 12 7 51 Emery-Weiner 0 19 0 0 19 Scoring Summary: BCS-Eli Achilles 10 yard run (run failed), 1:29, 1st BCS-Eli Achilles 24 yard run (run failed), 6:24, 2nd E-W-Jacob Silva 53 yard pass from Alex Niefield (pass failed), 6:10, 2nd BCS-Mason Anthony 15 yard run (Preston Koch run), 5:11, 2nd E-W-Jacob Silva 48 yard pass from Alex Niefield (pass failed), 4:07, 2nd BCS-Eli Achilles 7 yard run (run failed), 3:18, 2nd E-W-Jacob Silva 5 yard pass from Alex Niefield (Robinson pass), 1:07, 2nd BCS-Eli Achilles 10 yard run (Mason Anthony run), 0:22, 2nd BCS-Preston Koch 7 pass from Eli Achilles (run failed), 1:37, 3rd BCS-Coy Zunker 29 yard pass from Eli Achilles (pass failed), 1:25, 3rd BCS-Preston Koch 1 yard run (Mason Anthony run), 5:39, 4th
Team Stats Warriors Jaguars Total Yards 495 321 First Downs 15 8 Rushes/Yards 35/374 15/44 Comp/Att/Int 9/12/0 18/31/2 Passing Yards 121 277 Punts/Ave 0/0 0/0 Fumbles/Lost 0/0 0/0 Penalties-Yards 4-25 3-15
Passing Comp Att Pct. Yards TD Int Eli Achilles 9 12 .750 121 2 0
Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Eli Achilles 21 212 10.2 36 4 Preston Koch 12 145 12.1 27 1 Mason Anthony 2 14 7.0 15 1
Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Davis Scott 5 57 11.4 15 0 Preston Koch 3 35 12.6 22 1 Coy Zunker 1 29 29.0 29 1
