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Brentwood High School, ranked in the state’s top 10 despite fielding almost a complete new lineup this year, opened the 2011 season on a successful note with a 21-7 victory at Cookeville on Thursday night.

Chudi Echetebu	Nicholas Coffey

Senior running back Chudi  Echetebu scored on two short touchdown runs, sandwiched around a 30-yard interception return by Adam Thetford on a tipped pass, as the Bruins built a 21-0 third-quarter lead.

"First thing, there was great pressure from the defensive line, Nick Coffey actually tipped the ball, and Adam make a great break, and it was just pretty clear sailing from there," Coach Ron Crawford said.

"It's great to score on defense. I don't believe we scored last year defensively so it was a great effort for us to do that. It kind of nullified the one touchdown we gave up."

Cookeville answered with their only touchdown of the game after BHS marched down the field on the opening drive after halftime. Brentwood’s Isaac Martinez had a 27-yard kickoff return to start off the third quarter, then on the seventh play Winfree broke free with a 20-yard run to the CHS 25 and Echetebu followed with a 20-yard run to the 5.

Winfree then kept for a 3-yard gain and Echetebu had a 2-yard scoring run for the three-touchdown lead. Echetebu carried a workmanlike 28 times for 98 yards.

"He is close to breaking several of them, there's no secret there," Crawford said. "We're going to ride him, going to give him a lot of carries. The more we can get the ball to other people and expand the offense on the edge, and our quarterback's become more of a runner, it's just going to open things up for him.

"It's the exactly the effort we expected out of him and I look forward to a bunch of big nights from him."

Sloppy mistakes, but game experience 

BHS was hampered by several flags including pass interference in the end zone two plays before giving up the 5-yard TD run by Austin Gamble with just under 3 minutes in the third quarter.  But Brentwood also got encouraging news about all the new faces on the field.

"A ton of 'em, I think we played four safeties. One of them -- Austin Sanders -- has played quite a bit of football for us, the other three haven't, and obviously one of those guys is even a sophomore," Crawford said.

"But Austin had a great effort in the first half, picked the ball off at the goal line and ran it 96 yards to the 4. That's just the kind of effort we want out of our kids."

Truett Harris

Crawford also cited Thetford, Carson O'Neal and Truett Harris' play at linebacker and said the D-line was active, too. Ryan Ault also did a good job on kickoffs and punts, changing field position, he said.

"It's a lot easier to build on this thing after a victory, that's for sure," the BHS coach said.

The Bruins didn’t ask junior quarterback Austin Winfree to throw the ball much in his first varsity start,  but he ran the spread option well including ripping off some first-down runs. He also read defenses well for the timely pitch, opening up some good runs in particular by Sanders.

Austin Winfree

"I thought he did a job executing our offense in the run game. The keepers he did a good job getting himself down the hill and getting some positive yardage," Crawford said. "We've just got to find him some things that he can do throwing the football, get him some confidence in that aspect of it."

BHS started out messy, with two defensive penalties on the Cavaliers’ possession to open the game including a personal foul after a stop. But Bruins outside linebacker Harris stopped Gamble on third down at the 24, and the Cavaliers had a broken play on fourth-and-2 to turn the ball over on downs.

"I thought in the first half on the first drive defensively we overcame a little adversity and got a good stop," Crawford said.

Although Brentwood went three-and-out on its first offensive series, the BHS defense then held Cookeville to three plays as well.

Offense gets going, defense seals the deal

The Bruins’ first scoring drive actually started off on a bad note, with the punt not fielded and rolling long to the Brentwood 18. But Cookeville was called for offsides, and on the second play Winfree ripped off an 18-yard keeper.

BHS managed to keep a steady drive going, with Echetebu even converting a fourth-and-1 on the ninth play of the drive with a 3-yard carry to the Cavs’ 28. Winfree completed the first pass he threw, and Sanders ran right on a third down for 14 yards to the 11 following a fake to Echetebu.

After a second-down pitch to John Buntin for a 6-yard run, Echetebu found the end zone for the first TD of the season, from 3 yards out at 11:03 in the second quarter. It was a 15-play, 82-yard drive by the Bruins.

"The offense put together a nice drive. We got a touchdown there finally," Crawford said.

Adam Thetford	Austin Sanders

The teams each swapped possessions twice before Thetford hauled in a tipped pass by senior defensive lineman Nicholas Coffey and returned it for a pick-6 and a 14-0 Bruins’ lead 2:50 before halftime. The play ended up turning the tide toward Brentwood.

BHS had another misstep with a fumbled punt at midfield 1½ minutes before intermission, but Demetrics Brown made a stop.

Then Sanders had an exciting return seconds later on his interception from the goal-line all the way to the Cookeville 4 before being tracked down on the second-quarter buzzer. The Bruins were flagged for a block in the back on the play, though, to end the half.

"We felt pretty comfortable at halftime about our effort and kind of the way we played really. I thought we played hard, and that's what our goal was going into it," Crawford said. "I think the second half, we lost a little bit of our sting."

Sanders also had a 22-yard run on a pitch called back for holding in the fourth quarter.

Crawford went with Winfree for most of the game, although he originally planned to start sophomore backup QB Aaron Maher on defense and get him some snaps in each half. Maher did get some experience running the offense in the final four minutes of the game.

Crawford said the players were awake but pretty quiet by 11 p.m. on the 90-mile bus ride back home.

"They've got to go to school tomorrow so they're winding down a bit,"  he said.

The Bruins now get an extra day to recover and prepare for a big early-season test next Friday night, Aug. 26, in the home opener against last year’s 6A state runner-up, Smyrna. Brentwood dropped a two-point loss at Smyrna in the regular-season and then got blown out against the Bulldogs in a first-round playoff game.

Brentwood 0 14  7 0 – 21
Cookeville  0   0  7 0 –   7

2nd quarter: Bw: Chudi Echetebu 3-yard run. Ryan Ault kick. 11:03. Bw: Adam Thetford 30-yard interception return. Ault kick. 2:50.

3rd quarter: Bw: Chudi Echtebu 2-yard run. Ault kick. 8:01. Cooke: Austin Gambill 5-yard run. Zelewski kick. 2:57.