The Brentwood High cheerleaders and Bruin mascot do pushups after the team's first TD just before halftime.

BHS throws TD pass with 3.1 seconds left, but conversion fails

 By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Brentwood fought back from a 16-7 deficit to score two touchdowns in the final 5 minutes, but still came up a 2-point conversion short of forcing overtime against Smyrna.

The Bruins (1-1) lost 22-20 in the battle of 6A contenders on Friday after scoring a TD with 3.1 seconds left on a Clay Webber 10-yard strike to Tyson Ashcraft. But the Bruins fumbled the 2-point try after the host Bulldogs sniffed out the play.

BHS then failed on an onside kick, evening the Bruins' record heading into next week's first district game, at Independence.

"We had some kids that just battled and played with everything they literally had," Coach Ron Crawford said, in particular singling out Webber, Ashcraft and Josh Killett.

The Brentwood defense kept the Bruins in the game until the offense could get cranked up.

Coach Ron Crawford leads the BHS back onto the field for the second half, trailing 10-7.

Senior quarterback Clay Webber drops back to throw against Smyrna.

Brentwood trailed 16-7 after the Bruin defense held Smyrna (2-0) to Marshall Burkett's third field goal of the night, a 23-yarder, with 4:59 left.

Killett then broke loose with a return to the Smyrna 48 on the ensuing kickoff, and Webber hit Jason Springer on second down for a 37-yard catch and run. However, faced with a fourth-and-4 from the 15, Crawford opted to take a timeout with 3:32 and Webber found Ashcraft inside the 6-yard line.

"For the spectators it was a great football game. I'm disappointed for our kids," Crawford said." I feel like I cost us a little time down there trying to decide whether we were going to kick the thing. Our kicker's been banged up. And the kids really wanted to throw the slant route in there, and we were able to get that score."

Three plays later, Webber scored on the 6-yard keeper to pull within 16-14 and only 2:08 remaining. But Smyrna recovered the onside kick, then had an 11-yard gain by four-year Bulldog starter Jeremiah Bryson on first down.

After a flag on Smyrna, Bryson stumbled at the line of scrimmage before breaking free for a 45-yard TD on the next play. But, what appeared to put the game away 22-14 with 1:06 on the clock, actually helped the Bruins after BHS blocked the extra-point kick.

"Really when they scored, it was the best thing that could happen to us," Crawford said. "We had two timeouts left. We had to get a stop on first down and we didn't do it, and were going to have to call timeouts on the next two downs. At least that gave us more field.

"Our kids competed very hard, and I'm proud of the way they competed."

Brentwood quickly went to work on the 2-minute drill. After a long sidelines pass was incomplete, Webber hit Ethan Stanley for 13 yards to move the chains -- and stop the clock. Ian Walters had a 2-yard catch, and the Bruins took a timeout with 36.4 seconds to go.

The left-handed Webber then throw completions of 11 and 7 yards to Ashcroft, sandwiched around an incompletion. Ashcraft was ruled in-bounds at the 27, so the Bruins used their last timeout with 15.1 ticks left.

"We knew we had to get down there in a hurry because we ran out of time," Ashcraft said. "Coach (Dan) Winfree was putting together some good pass plays, and the plays were executed and everybody was running their routes good. We were just moving the ball down the field, trying to take it one play at a time."

On third-and-3 at the 27, Webber then hit Ashcraft for the third time on the drive with a 17-yard throw to make it first-and-goal at the 10. After a spike and 6.6 seconds showing, the third-year QB suggested the final play and found Ashcraft in the end zone to pull within 22-20.

"I made sure I got in the end zone on the route before he hit me on it," Ashcraft said.

But the 2-point conversion just wasn't to be, sending the Bruins back home with their first loss.

"They were ready for it," Ashcraft said. "They kinda knew what we were doing. We ran that play a few times last week out of the same formation, and they blitzed everybody. They brought a lot. Slick ball, stuff happens."

Said Crawford: "We got in one of our best goal-line plays, they adjusted well to it, and we just didn't have the seam in there to get anything and lost the ball. There were a lot of plays in the game and that was just one of them. We're proud of our effort and character.”

Brentwood was behind 10-0 in the first quarter and had no first downs until the final play. After holding Smyrna to a field goal at the 8-yard-line, the Bruins almost got an opportunity when Smyrna partially blocked a punt and then it appeared BHS recovered. But it was ruled the Bruins had downed the ball.

Bulldogs quarterback Steve Wilson scored on a 6-yard TD run with 56.3 seconds left in the opening quarter, and had a key 28-yard completion on the drive.

Webber threw for 2 TDs and ran for another.

Brentwood, however, pulled within 10-7 just 39.3 before halftime on a 13-play drive that ended with Webber's 11-yar touchdown pass to Chudi Echetebu.

In the third quarter, the Bruins defense stepped up after a 44-yard interception return by Kece Fleming to the 5, holding Smyrna to a FG to trail only 13-7.

Killett had a 27-yard return on the kickoff and Brentwood made it to the 9-yard line with the help of 27- and 18-yard pass plays to Springer. But penalties hurt the Bruins all night, including a hold that called back a pass to Echetebu. BHS ended up punting, and a 10-yard out-of-bounds shank left the Bulldogs in good position.

"The penalties were really big," Ashcraft said. "We felt like were shifting the momentum a little bit to our side and then we'd get a penalty and it kinda took the life out of us."  

Said Crawford: "We struggled in the first half offensively, our defense really battled and hung in the game for us. And we finally got something going. It was difficult to overcome all the penalties we had -- I think we had 7 in the first half and Smyrna 1. That made it difficult on us, and I've got to do a better job preparing us mentally to cut those down."

The coach said the team hast to "put this one behind one and forge on" heading into district competition. "We know we can compete with good team, a real good team, and we've got to have a good week next week and go down to Independence and see if we can get a district win, " Crawford said.

Ashcraft said despite the loss, the Bruins will benefit from the gut check at the end. "It will help us a lot because it showed us we can go down with no time on the clock, run our 2-minute drill, and we can move the ball down the field and score, and get ourselves back in the game."