Lions down Homewood on road
HOMEWOOD – There was a small Homewood football reunion at Waldrop Stadium on Friday night, except it was in the visiting stands.
“My dad and my two uncles, they all played here,” said Briarwood Christian School junior running back Luke Reebals, acknowledging there were no mixed loyalties among the Reebals clan.
“They love it. He (dad Eric Reebals) wanted us to kill ’em,” the younger Reebals said. “That’s just how he is.”
Father and uncles enjoyed their return to their high school home field as their son and nephew led the way to a 28-6 Briarwood victory. He had 16 carries for 123 yards and two touchdowns and eight receptions for 132 yards.
“When we’re clicking like that, we’re clicking,” Reebals said of his offensive unit. “Sometimes we have miscommunications but when we’ve got it going, we can be like that every night. It’s been like that for some games, some games we’ve made mistakes. If we don’t make mistakes, that’s how it should be.”
Reebals got help from Nic Dicen, Brooks Donnelly and quarterback Christopher Vizzina. Dicen and Vizzina combined for the biggest play of the game as the signal-caller hit the junior wideout with a long pass and, after he shed a would-be tackler, scored on an 87-yard play.
“I was standing there hoping he didn’t tackled so I didn’t have to run all the way down there,” Reebals said. “I was glad he wriggled out of it.”
Briarwood coach Matthew Forester said the win was big because it changes region seeding.
“We’re now the two seed so we get to host a first-round playoff game, which we enjoy doing at Briarwood and we’ve done for a long time,” he said.
Patriots quarterback Woods Ray said the home team was “great from the 20 to 20 but when we got to the red zone, we couldn’t execute. It was very tough to move the ball in the red zone. Our first drive’s always great, then we kind of ease into it. We just need to keep capitalizing after the first drive and be a better second-half team.”
Homewood coach Ben Berguson said his team has had a tough stretch of games.
“And it doesn’t get any easier,” he said. “Pelham will be 8-1 when we go down there. It’s been the story the last few weeks. We put together some great drives (but) we just can’t score. Six points isn’t going to beat a team like that, kicking field goals.
“But congratulations to Briarwood,” Berguson continued. “The Reebals boy is unbelievable. They’ve got a good football team but we’ve got to figure out how to score.”
Click here to view and purchase photos from the game.