Philip Jones didn’t particularly care for the way his Brookwood team was finishing the first half or starting the second half. So he orchestrated practice on Wednesday to try and simulate the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half, complete with a halftime break.
He also put up the score of last year’s game: Grayson 58, Brookwood 17.
The Broncos got the message loud and clear. They finished the first half strong, scored two quick touchdowns to start the third quarter and rolled to a 35-14 win over No. 9-ranked Grayson in an important Region 4-7A game at Grayson Community Stadium.
“This is big deal,” Jones told his team. “This doesn’t happen every day in their backyard.”
Brookwood (6-2, 2-0) was led by Alexander Diggs, who rushed 15 times for 145 yards and three touchdowns and caught nine passes for 81 yards. Quarterback Dylan Lonergan completed 23 of 32 passes for 193 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, and rushed 12 times for 68 yards and one touchdown.
“This is definitely a statement game,” Diggs said. “This is a game where we didn’t have many questions. We knew what we were going to do. We just needed to make sure we did what we did.”
The Broncos got on the board after a scoreless first period, one play after a Grayson interception was wiped out because the defender was out of bounds. Brookwood struck on the next play when Diggs ran for a 35-yard score, giving the Broncos a 7-0 lead with 10:07 left in the half.
Grayson had a great opportunity to even the score after Brookwood’s Niles Prince fumbled a punt and Grayson’s Myles Woods recovered at the 14.
But the Rams suffered a procedure penalty on first down and on third down Rayne Fry had his pass intercepted in the end zone by Brookwood’s Patrick Campbell, who returned it down the near sideline to the Grayson 43.
Six plays later Brookwood cashed in the takeway for a touchdown. Lonergan threw a pinpoint pass to Prothro for 15-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left to give the Broncos a 14-0 halftime lead.
The Broncos put the game away with two quick scores to start the second half. They drove 66 yards after receiving the kickoff and scored on a 52-yard run by Diggs, who hit the line, spun completely around and was untouched.
“On that one, it was like I see the linebacker, I’ve got to make him miss,” Diggs said.
The second score came after Grayson’s fumbled exchange was recovered by Brookwood’s Princeton Brown at the 34. Diggs scored on a 5-yard run three plays later.
“The first thing our coach said was we were running the ball,” Diggs said. “No question. We’re running the ball. That was a big game-changer. I feel that really changed the type of game.”
Grayson scored on a nine-play drive, the first touchdown given up by the Brookwood defense in three games. Joseph Stone Jr., who started at quarterback, moved to running back and scored on a 23-yard run.
Stone finished the game with 46 yards on 11 carries, completed 3 of 11 passes for 15 yards and caught five passes for 10 yards.
Brookwood got inside the red zone on its next possession, but Lonergan was intercepted by Woods. The Broncos followed with a 16-play scoring drive kept alive by a roughing the passer penalty. It ended in Lonergan’s 1-yard run.
Grayson’s other points came on an 81-yard kickoff return. Mumu Bin-Wahad bobbled the ball, which seemed to through off the return coverage, and used his speed to break a couple of tackles en route to the end zone.
Brookwood sealed the game when Myles Mayhorn intercepted a pass with 2:02 left.
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