Burnet football loses to Amarillo Randall
CAPTION: Two steady contributors to the Burnet football team’s success this season are junior quarterback and linebacker Bryan Johnson (7) and senior receiver and defensive back Cohen Jorpeland. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School football team lost to Amarillo Randall 24-14 Nov. 21 in the Class 4A Division I playoffs to end its season.
The Bulldogs (4-8, 1-3) finish the season with a bi-district championship and fourth in District 4-4A Division I.
“We hadn’t been playing badly or just terrible,” head coach Ben Speer said. “There had been some things here and there, some drops that really hurt us. They did a good job on defense. They played physical and they were loading up the box and forced us to do other things that made it more difficult on us. It can be a combination of stuff. You can always look at things and say, ‘Well, I wish we called a different defense there and a different offense there.’ And then you have one guy miss a block and hits our quarterback in the mouth, and then it causes a bad ball and everybody blames it on the quarterback or we have a receiver that runs the wrong route when the quarterback’s timing route and then he has to eat it and scramble and gets hit. Some of that is the inexperience and some of it is you’re playing second round playoff football with a team (that) force(s) you to make mistakes. It’s not gonna be just ‘we didn’t get it done.'”
Randall took a 7-0 lead in the opening stanza when junior quarterback Braylen Preciado hit junior receiver Phoenix Sherwood on a 25-yard touchdown pass for a 6-0 lead. Junior Drayden Ray took the direct snap 59 yards to pay dirt for the 14-0 half-time lead.
Then in the third quarter, senior Brekken Ireland returned an interception 64 yards for a touchdown to build a 21-0 lead.
Speer said the Bulldogs had a chance to score on that drive. But the Raiders brought “heavy pressure” and caught an interception in the red zone. Randall took a calculated risk by bringing pressure that allowed Ireland to step in front of the pass and return it for a touchdown.
“That was costly,” he said. “So that kind of robbed you possibly of some momentum. They were waiting for a quick pass with the pressure they were sending and we fed it right to them. They intercepted and ran it back.”
After the Raiders returned an interception for a touchdown, Burnet answered thanks to a nine-yard touchdown by senior running back Josiah Coronado to trim the deficit to 21-7 in the third quarter.
Then junior quarterback Bryan Johnson ended another drive with a two-yard run to cut the deficit to 21-14 with about nine minutes remaining.
Both scores happened in about three minutes.
“Coming out of the second half, we were rolling a little bit,” Speer said. “I just challenged the kids at halftime – ‘Hey, we’re not out of this one. Let’s get back in it. We’ll fight back and take it a play at a time.'”
It also helped that the Burnet defense was forcing the Raiders to give up the ball.
“We had a lot of confidence in the fourth quarter,” the coach said.
Randall began moving the ball and decided to go for it on a fourth down. Burnet was called for pass interference that allowed the drive to continue. When the Bulldogs were called for pass interference again, that was tough.
That drive ended with the Randall junior kicker Jacob Avalos connecting on a 31-yard field goal for the 24-14 advantage with about four minutes remaining.
“We go around the kid, knock the ball down and they call interference,” Speer said. “It’s just gut wrenching because the kids are competing their tails off and you feel the momentum swing coming. And we get them on third and long, and we go over and bat it down, and they throw a flag and that just kind of really deflated the defense. But then they put them in a long situation again and then we get another one. It’s questionable just because our corner is running with the receiver. And it’s a bad ball. The ball is thrown behind both of them. The receiver tries to turn around and tries to catch it and runs into my guy.”
The Bulldogs got the ball and began to answer and then turned the ball over on downs.
Burnet had 273 yards of total offense with 193 coming on the rushing attack from 41 carries. Coronado had 28 rushes for 160 yards and a score and two catches for 17 yards, while Johnson had eight carries for 15 yards and a touchdown and three catches for 22 yards, and senior Peyton Lopez had a five-yard carry.
Sophomore quarterback fisher Powell completed 11 of 22 passes for 80 yards and an interception. Senior receiver Cohen Jorpeland had three receptions for 25 yards, while senior tight end Demetrius Taliaferro had a 10-yard catch, senior running back Riley Howell had a four-yard reception and junior receiver Calan Syphrett had a two-yard catch.
Burnet senior defensive back Lyndon Harycki caught an interception.
Randall had 171 yards of total offense with 111 yards coming from the ground on 30 carries.
Speer credited the Raiders for alternating what they were doing to get any edge they could.
“They did a good job, and they changed up their defensive look of what they were normally doing,” the coach said. “It took us a little bit to adjust to it. The kids adjusted well coming out of half, and we had a good plan for it, and we were able to put up two more touchdowns. I’m proud of the defense actually. Just proud of their willingness to fight and fight hard and never quit.”
