BROWNWOOD— The then 3-2 Stephenville Yellowjackets emerged victorious over the undefeated Brownwood Lions 27-17 in the latest edition of the Battle of 377. The historic Gordon Wood Stadium in Brownwood, Texas was the battlefield for the fight between the Lions and Yellowjackets. Brownwood was undefeated, coming off two big wins over the Glen Rose Tigers 46-34 and the Waco Connally Cadets 31-28. The Yellowjackets had dropped the Abilene Wylie game 41-32 but won their matchup against the Rider Raiders 21-20.
Brownwood kicked off to Stephenville and on their first drive went three-and-out. After punting the ball to the Lions, they struck quickly with quarterback Ike Hall finding Aaron Edmonds for a 34 yards touchdown. Junior Martinez kicked the point after and with 8:01 left in the first quarter, the Brownwood Lions were on the board first, 7-0.
The ball switched teams back and forth and on the next Yellowjacket drive, Lion’s defensive back Morsello Hooker was called for pass interference to move Stephenville in close. With the ‘Jackets threatening, Lion defenders Zakk Zabecki and Weston Wolf chased down Stephenville’s quarterback Ryan Gafford for a big-time tackle to bring up fourth down. But on fourth down, the Yellowjackets decided to go for it and their risk paid off when Gafford scampered his way for a 19-yard rushing touchdown. The Jackets made the point after and the Battle of 377 was tied up, 7-7 with 3:13 left in the first quarter.
On the first play after the Yellowjacket’s score, Hall found Levi Pearson on a flare route where he went up and over the defender before going down. Then, with just over a minute left in the first quarter, disaster almost struck twice when Hall was nearly picked by Briar Floyd and Willis Jackson on a pass intended for Hooker, then a fumble by Levi Pearson but the Lions were quick to pounce on.
Those two bad things were followed up by a good thing when Hall found Carson Noe deep down the field for a 69-yard touchdown. Martinez nailed the extra point and the Lions found themselves up again, 14-7 with 18 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
On the last play of the first quarter, Ethan Trowbridge chased down Gafford after he manages to get two yards.
On the first play of the second quarter, Brownwood’s Jake Jetton drug down Gafford on a one-yard loss to make it fourth down. Hall had a good run to move the chains after the Yellowjacket’s punt. On the same drive, on third down, Hall threw a pass intended for Edmonds that was snatched away by Stephenville’s Hyson Foreman, who took it back across midfield with about 9:12 left in the first half.
The Yellowjackets tried to pull off some trickery when Gafford threw it backwards to Tristian Gentry who loaded it up and threw the ball downfield to Jayden Lujan. Luckily for the Lions, the ball was underthrown, which brought up fourth down and three yards with 8:20 before the half. Here, Stephenville risked it again and on fourth down, Gafford found Noah Bullion for a first down. The Jackets chewed about two minutes of clock then, the worst chain of events happened. With 6:04 left in the second quarter and Stephenville on the six-yard line, Gafford ran out to the left about to score a touchdown. Morsello Hooker was not about to give up a score. Gafford was at about the two-yard line when Hooker tackles him, the quarterback went over the defender and, upon making impact with the turf, injured his shoulder on the play.
In went backup quarterback Jack Butchee, who handed the ball to Bryson Powell. Powell bashed the ball across the goal line to make the score 14-14. Brownwood wasn’t able to move the ball and sent the punt team onto the field. Stephenville blocked the punt and had the ball on the 12-yard line with about four minutes left in the half.
Here, the backup quarterback was injured so in came third string quarterback Hudson Butchee who also plays middle linebacker. Brownwood had two good defensive plays where defensive backs knocked down passes. The Yellowjackets were forced to kick a field goal and Diego Chavarria did just that and made the score 17-14 with 3:09 remaining before halftime.
One the Lion’s drive, Hall was sacked by a swarm of Yellowjackets led by Kolton Dearth. The next play was a quick pass out to Noe who was tackled shortly after catching the ball. After a punt, Brownwood had a little luck as Butchee was unable to handle the snap. It was only a little luck as the Yellowjackets recovered the fumble. Luck had nothing to do with the next play which Butchee had to take off and was pulled down by Zebecki and Sam Kallman to end the half.
The third quarter was pretty uneventful except for one play. The Yellowjackets had driven down the field and were stopped near the goal line. With about three minutes to go in the third quarter, Stephenville lined up for a field goal, the holder fumbled the snap, and the Lions took over on the fourth down kick attempt.
The Lions were able to move the ball before the fourth quarter but ended up having to punt again. The Jackets were pinned down near the goal and had to punt it right back to Brownwood. Stephenville punted out of the back of the endzone and only managed to get the ball to about the incoming 35. Here, Hall ducked around the pocket and just barely had his arm moving forward as the ball was knocked out. Jacket fans wanted a fumble called but the refs disagreed, and the Lions kept the ball.
The Lions ended up attempting to kick a 48-yard field goal with about 10 minutes left. The plan worked like a charm as Martinez booted the ball to tie the game up at 17-17.
The ball changed hands a couple of times and with just over six minutes left, Butchee found Gentry for a 65-yard touchdown pass and moved the Yellowjackets to 24-17.
Hall and the Lion’s offense had difficulty moving the ball and ended up punting back to the Yellowjackets. Stephenville’s Tate Maruska took over at running back and a fresh set of legs did a lot of damage to the Lion’s defense. It wasn’t enough damage to add another seven points to Stephenville’s score, but Chavarria did kick a long 39-yard field goal and made the score 27-17 with about two minutes left.
Time was not on their side and the Lions had to act fast. Brownwood did get a pass interference call on the drive. Everything came to a grinding halt when Hall threw a pass for Hooker and Yellowjacket defender Brighton DeVivo just tipped the ball enough to throw it off course on its way to Hooker, who wasn’t able to come up with it and the ball ended up in Willis Jackson’s hands for an interception. After a few kneel downs, the Stephenville Yellowjackets claimed victory over the Brownwood Lions 27-17 in the Battle of 377.
Stephenville Yellowjacket Head Coach Sterling Doty had this to say after the game.
The now 5-1 Brownwood Lions travel to Big Spring next week to take on the Big Spring Steers in their first district matchup while the 4-2 Stephenville Yellowjackets get their bye week.
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