Bracken Steps On Austin Hill Country, 60-42
Bracken Warriors (11-0) took their first step on their journey to Moody, Texas where the State Championship will be played in two weeks. BCS outscored the Knights 44-28 in the second half willing a victory over the third place team in State.
The first half, however was a different story as both team’s defense controlled the other team’s offense.
“We looked like a football team that came off an open date and had to play the number three team in State,” Head Coach Lloyd Fields said.
Bracken’s offense had 186 yards at the half, with 84 yards passing and rushing which was the least amount this season.
The Warriors actually had a chance to have 24 points that were denied based on penalties that called each of the three touchdowns back.
Senior Ty Zunker was the first victim when he intercepted and returned the pass 69 yards and all he got was winded as the Warriors set up shop deep in their own territory.
Austin Wilkinson intercepted and returned a pass for a touchdown and had the same fate as Zunker. Wilkinson return was 78 yards and would of been the final play of the half.
Finally in the second half, Grady Achilles returned a kickoff that was called back for a so called illegal block.
The bout had Austin Hill Country scoring on their fourth possession while the Warriors did not hit paydirt until their fifth time with the ball. In fact, BCS punted on three of those possessions which were their first punts this season.
Bracken Christian controlled the game starting in the second half, scoring on six consecutive possessions not allowing the Knights to ever threaten the rest of the game.
“We wanted to go get five yards at a whack,” Coach Fields said when commenting on what was said for adjustments at halftime. “We also wanted Eli (Achilles) to carry the ball more and then we wanted to run the spread (offense) and run the football.”
Vintage Bracken football was discovered as their scoring machine tendencies continued to tire out Austin Hill Country.
“We could not cut back on our runs and even though we had played a crappy first half, we were still winning by two points,” Quarterback Eli Achilles surmised.
Case and point was a play from Ehren Jacobson running straight up the middle for 23 yards up the gut leaving a lot of rusted Knights in his wake. The play increased the lead 52-28 with five minutes left in the game.
“Coaches said run the clock and I was not trying to score,” the Battering Ram Jacobson said. “I just kept my legs churning and I was surprised when I was open.”
Eli Achilles (the Beast) did the same type of run for the next score from 26 yards increasing the lead back to 24 points, 60-36. This run for Eli allowed him to inflict pain taking joy in running over several Knights.
Most runners try to run to daylight, while this Junior Quarterback seems on wanting to find opposing players and dishing as much pain as he possibly can.
“I like to wait and see how they are going to try and hit me high, so I just hit them and that is too fun,” Junior Eli Achilles said.
Other players stepped up in the game defensively and offensively.
Preston Koch was playing in just his third game and first four quarter game of the year while making plays all over the field.
“It is always fun and it is good being back,” Sophomore Koch said with a smile. “I’m not where I need to be and hopefully I will get better.”
Peter Corey caught three passes keeping drives alive while Connor Simmons played defensive end and keeping the dump pass to a minimum for AHC.
“We came out slow in the first half,” Sophomore Simmons said. “Coach (Fields) gave us a different defense to play them this time
Bracken can win games when Senior Grady Achilles is having a pedestrian game by his standards.
“Luckily they forgot about Eli (Achilles),” Grady Achilles optioned. “We started playing our game, on the first play of the second half I could look and see that they were done and we had them.”
Grady Achilles rushed for 112 yards and had 33 yards receiving. Achilles also was three for five as a quarterback, finding Austin Wilkinson on a 65 yard pass play.
Grady Achilles also played more defense than he had for the season.
Head Coach Lloyd Fields talked about getting a stop per quarter in order to win the game.
Bracken Christian had stops two times in the first quarter, two times in the second, two times in the third, and one time in the final quarter.
Austin Hill Country had center and nose guard Cash Barker who had to be the largest man on the gridiron for the game.
“He is not little,” Center Davis Scott said being opposite the big man. “We had to step it up and I tried to get to the opposite side of where he was standing.”
Defensive end Peter Corey on a fourth and two for first AHC held on for dear life as the Knights runner was held short gaining just one yard that set BCS just 23 yards from another score, which Jacobson did the honors on the first offensive play.
“Started out rough,” Senior Corey said. “We needed to go out there and win…We played good as a team and our defensive team came together.”
Bracken will now set sails for Abilene Christian next Saturday and take their next step to the ultimate prize.
Abilene Christian is rated #1 and Bracken will hopefully make their footprint on some Panthers as they continue their trek.
“We are going to do our best and hope our best is better than their best,” Connor Simmons said it best.
1 2 3 4 Final BCS Warriors 0 16 22 22 60 AHC Knights 0 14 6 22 42 Scoring Summary: AHC-Bland 17 yard pass from Pappas (pat failed), 7:00, 2nd BCS-Ehren Jacobson 3 yard run (Kevin Knapick kick), 3:20, 2nd AHC-Barker 10 yard pass from Pappas (Monteiro kick), 1:43, 2nd BCS-Eli Achilles 22 yard run (Kevin Knapick kick), 0:44, 2nd BCS-Eli Achilles 6 yard run (pat failed), 8:11, 3rd BCS-Grady Achilles 17 yard run (Kevin Knapick kick), 3:28, 3rd AHC-Pappas 20 yard run (pat failed), 2:08, 3rd BCS-Grady Achilles 5 yard run (Kevin Knapick kick), 0:00 3rd AHC-Jasek 12 yard pass from Simpson (Monteiro kick), 7:07, 4th BCS-Wilkinson 65 yard pass from Grady Achilles (Knapick kick), 6:40, 4th BCS-Ehren Jacobson 23 yard run (kick blocked), 4:57, 4th AHC-Barker 17 yard pass from Pappas (Monteiro kick), 2:59, 4th BCS-Eli Achilles 26 yard run (Kevin Knapick kick), 1:28, 4th AHC-Pappas 14 yard run (pat failed), 1:13, 4th Warriors Knights Total Yards 461 463 First Downs 15 18 Rushes/Yards 39/275 43/307 Comp/Att/Int 11/18/0 12/18/2 Passing Yards 186 156 Fumbles/Lost 1/0 0/0 Punts/Ave 3/37.3 1/37.0 Penalties-Yards 8-85 3-25 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds TD Int Eli Achilles 8 13 .615 84 0 0 Grady Achilles 3 5 .600 102 1 0 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Grady Achilles 21 106 5.0 17 2 Eli Achilles 6 95 15.8 26 3 Ehren Jacobson 8 60 7.5 23 2 Austin Wilkinson 4 14 3.5 7 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Austin Wilkinson 3 81 27.0 65 1 Peter Corey 3 37 12.3 14 0 Grady Achilles 2 33 16.5 18 0 Eli Achilles 1 25 25.0 25 0 Jordon McDaniel 2 10 5.0 7 0
