The Brownwood Lions have one thing in their focus for Friday night’s game, beating the Gatesville Hornets and continuing their quest for the playoffs, which has been a Lion tradition for many years.
This week promises to be another nail biter as both teams need the victory to clinch their place in the playoffs.
“I expect it to be a hard fought game by two teams that are playing for a playoff spot,” said Brownwood High School Athletic Director and Head Coach Chuck Howard. “Gatesville is a good team that has lost two in a row, but at the same time, has been without starring running backs Jake Kee and Teriq Miller the past two games. Miller is a returning 1st team all district linebacker from last year and Kee has run for close to 800 yards in 6 games.”
According to Coach Howard, the Lions are in “pretty good shape” physically after a few players have suffered through some midseason injuries, but are ready to play.
Playing a home game will help the Lions’ spirit, as the home crowd has been strong this season, feeding energy onto the field in some hard fought games.
“It’s always good to play at home,” said Howard. He explained that along with the support of fans, the Lions will have to focus on a couple of things to get the win Friday night.“We have to continue to take care of the ball, be efficient and execute on offense and we need to put together a good defensive performance like we did against Burnet and Liberty Hill,” he explained. “That will require us to control the line of scrimmage and tackle an elusive Jake Kee in space.”
Howard stated that the Lions have continued to work and improve their tackling performance.
“I thought we had a great week of practice, now we have to perform on Friday,” he said.
As far as the playoffs go, much of it is up in the air due to four of the six district teams being 1-2 at this point of district play. Liberty Hill leads the district, being undefeated in district play, followed by Llano with a 2-1 record. Coach Howard doesn’t rely on statistics and has often said “I don’t get caught up in numbers other than those on the scoreboard at the end of the game.”
“The district is in such a quagmire at this point and there are many scenarios that could play out. What we have told our players is that we control our own destiny at this point,” Howard said. “We need to beat Gatesville Friday night as it is the most important game of the year. After that, we will focus on Llano.”
Friday’s game against Gatesville is the last home game of the season and is “Senior Night.” Several activities will take place during the game honoring BHS Seniors.
Coach Howard stated his senior players have been “tremendous” this season, but offered one message for Friday’s game, “at this point we need to be victorious.”
All Brownwood Lions fans are asked to come out and support the Lions as they face the Gatesville Hornets, looking for their next district win.
Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. at Gordon Wood Stadium in Brownwood.
