Collins Hill coach Drew Swick was soaking wet thanks to having been soaked by the contents of a giant water cooler only moments earlier. But Swick didn’t mind. That’s what you expect after earning your first victory as a head coach, especially when it comes at Brookwood.
The Eagles cleaned up some of the mistakes they made in losing the season opener against Milton and were able to control the ball and the clock on offense and come up with three key turnovers on defense to beat Brookwood 34-21 at Brookwood Community Stadium.
“We had one mission and that was to win this game,” Swick said. “We had to execute in all three phases of the game. We talked about running the ball to set up the pass and we did that and we were able to drain the clock. We had some breakdowns on defense, but we fixed them and our front seven did an unbelievable job.”
Collins Hill evened its record at 1-1. Brookwood dropped to 1-2.
Collins Hill scored on its first drive, a methodical march that ended when Deuce Geralds scored on a 41-yard run. The Eagles failed to score on their next possession when and turned it over on downs at the 20, giving Brookwood an opportunity. The Broncos drove to the 43 when Javyon Hatch jumped a route to intercept C.J. Franklin and return it for a 46-yard pick-six, giving the Eagles a 14-0 lead.
“That pick-six was huge,” Swick said. “He’s been working on it all week. He picked one off in practice that to get that one tonight, I’m proud of him. It was his first.”
Collins Hill stretched the lead to 21-0 on a 6-yard run by Jacari Thomas with 3:53 left in the half, only to have Brookwood answer with a touchdown. The Broncos scored when quarterback Matt Peavy threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Evan Gober with 59 seconds left.
Collins Hill tacked on a 28-yard field goal from Phillip Bonacci and ran nearly seven minutes off the clock on its next drive before Brookwood got its offense going.
The Broncos scored on a 34-yard field goal from Caitlyn Soroka and cut the margin to 24-17 on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Peavy to Lee Niles. After forcing Collins Hill to punt, the Broncos had a chance to tie the game, but those plans were derailed when Peevy endured a strip-sack that was recovered by Cam Bass.
“Cameron got ripped a lot in practice last week because he didn’t have the best game against Milton, but he took the hard coaching, faced the mistakes and ended up coming up with that play,” Swick said.
The Eagles took advantage of the turnover and scored on a 34-yard touchdown pass from T.J. Wilcox to Alijah Patillo, making the score 31-17. Any hopes Brookwood had were dashed when Ethan Campbell intercepted a pass that allowed the Eagles to run out the clock.
“T.J. Wilcox had a great game,” Swick said. “We don’t win without him today. That was a huge game that he was able to drive down the field, manage the clock, make all the checks.”
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