Lions suffocate Russellville on way to quarterfinals
Briarwood Christian School looked like a team prepared from the opening whistle and never let up, suffocating Russellville, 33-13, in a Class 5A second-round playoff game on Friday night at Lions Pride Stadium.
“We just couldn’t come out here and make a bunch of mistakes and survive,” said Briarwood head coach Fred Yancey, whose team picked up its 11th straight victory. “They’re too explosive for that. I was real proud of our boys.”
Briarwood (11-1) forced a three-and-out on the first drive of the game and the offense immediately went to work.
A nine-play drive was capped off by the first of William Gray’s three touchdown passes on the evening. Gray found Luke Miskelley for the 8-yard score. A completion to Kolby Kwarcinski on the two-point attempt made it 8-0 Lions, and they never looked back.
The Lions made it 16-0 on the first play of the second quarter after Gray connected with Barrett Tindall on a bootleg for a 20-yard score. They extended the lead to 23-0 on J.R. Tran-Reno’s 36-yard burst. Tran-Reno got the Lions offense clicking early, and finished the night with 112 yards on 17 carries.
Russellville (8-4) put together its first extended drive on the following possession, capped off by quarterback Payton Nichols’ 3-yard run to make it 23-7.
After that drive, the Lions were all but done allowing the Golden Tigers chances. Late in the first half, Champ Stewart chased down Nichols for the second of his three big sacks on the night.
“Champ’s a terrific player and of course the other kids are playing right at his same level,” Yancey said. “That was real important that they not let up because I’m telling you, those guys that they had are capable of scoring 30-something points themselves.”
Stewart however, was none too eager to talk about his individual performance.
“We just wanted to focus on unity tonight and that’s what we did,” he said. “We executed and it went really well for us.”
As for how prepared Briarwood appeared to be, “that’s just the coaches,” Stewart said.
Noah Nall had two field goals blocked late in the second quarter, the second coming after time expired in the first half. The Lions were awarded an untimed down after a Russellville defender committed a personal foul on a punt return. Nall wasn’t fazed and drilled a 22-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
Briarwood was able to milk the clock in the second half and put the final points on the board with a Gray touchdown pass to Caleb Daniels late in the game. Gray finished the game with 83 yards rushing and completed 11-of-14 throws for 93 yards.
Russellville’s Xavier Boyd cut the deficit to 10 points in the third quarter with his 47-yard touchdown run. He finished the night with 102 yards on 12 totes.
Briarwood will hit the road to play Mortimer Jordan in the Class 5A quarterfinals next week, in a rematch of an early-season game that the Lions won 23-14. Briarwood is into the quarterfinal round for the first time since 2012.
“It hadn’t been that hard for these first two rounds,” Yancey said of keeping the team focused in the playoffs. “But I’ve been through this enough to know that the third round is really a tough round because the playoffs aren’t so brand new.
“It is difficult, but if you’re going to make it to round four, you better not mess around in round three.”
As for how the Lions will take on that task, the answer is simple.
“We just got to focus on next week,” Stewart said. “One step at a time.”