Brookwood pulls away from Terrell Academy for 26-13 win

DAWSON — Friday marked a pivotal matchup for Terrell Academy and Brookwood as they’ll face region leader Valwood in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately for the home crowd, Brookwood came to play, jumping out all over the Eagles en route to a 26-13 victory at Don Beard Field.

“I thought our kids played hard,” Terrell County coach Bill Murdock said. “Their defense was extremely good, their offense hit us with a couple big pass plays. We had a couple missed assignments in the secondary, and that hurt us. They just outplayed us.”

After both teams went three-and-out to start the game, Brookwood senior Cale Deese found junior receiver Jud Jones streaking down the seam for a 39-yard strike, giving the Warriors a 6-0 lead. The next two Eagle drives stalled and Brookwood took advantage yet again.

This time, junior Alphonso Spencer faked a handoff and sprinted 75 yards virtually untouched to give the visitors a 12-0 lead.

The Eagles were at a disadvantage from the start, with key contributors fighting illnesses over the week, including starting center Seth Bentley. Bentley’s backup struggled to snap the ball all night, leading to several losses of yardage.

“We had a couple of guys sick, they missed practice,” Murdock said. “We’re going to find out who can get it done next week. Seth did a good job snapping towards the end. He’s missed about a week and a half with a concussion. We didn’t want to play him a lot because we were scared about his condition, but he did well at the end.”

After yet another stop by the Warrior defense, Bradley Jones caught a bomb from Deese and took it the distance. The 71-yard touchdown gave Brookwood a 19-0 lead going into the locker room.

Terrell Academy’s defense did as much as they could but the offense couldn’t sustain drives and the game got out of hand early. The Eagles went three-for-nine on third downs in the first half, gaining just 74 total yards.

With the two best teams in the region left on the schedule, coach Murdock knows his boys will have their hands full.

“It’s going to be tough,” Murdock said. “We’re going to keep fighting. We had so many injuries last year, we didn’t have a fighting chance at times, but I like these kids’ hearts and how they play. If we keep working, we’ll get better every week.”

Cole Marshall and Cody Lewis scored touchdowns on runs of 26 and 2 yards respectively in the fourth quarter to put the Eagles on the board. Hunter Mathis led the Eagles with 58 yards on eight carries.

Brookwood moves to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in GISA Region 3-AAA play with the win. Terrell Academy fell to 6-3 overall and 1-2 in region. The Eagles travel to Valdosta to face Valwood next Friday, while the Warriors travel to Chula to face Tiftarea.