For the Brentwood High School football team, Friday night's playoff victory was a full-scale display of the team's "next-man-up" mentality.
Despite an injury to senior quarterback Cade Granzow and the absence of more than 30 players due to COVID-19 protocols and procedures, the No. 7-ranked Bruins zoomed past Cane Ridge, 45-13, in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs.
Granzow, the team's three-year starter who has compiled monster numbers this season, suffered a knee injury on Brentwood's first offensive series. He was replaced by junior Davis White, who responded by putting together an incredible performance — completing 17-of-19 passes for 247 yards and five touchdowns — while guiding Brentwood (8-3), the three-time defending Region 6-6A champs, past the No. 4-seeded Ravens (3-4) from Region 5.
Walker Merrill, Luke Walters, Mac Hirshman, Scott Collins and a host of other Brentwood players also had huge roles in helping the shorthanded Bruins earn the convincing win. Merrill finished with 10 catches for 114 yards, including a pair of TDs, and Walters ran for a team-high 91 yards on 24 attempts. Hirshman had two catches, both of which were touchdowns, and finished with 84 receiving yards.
"We get an A-plus for handling adversity tonight," said Brentwood coach Ron Crawford. "But you know what? Our guys have a done a pretty good job of handling it all year. It's kind of been our M.O. this season. But still, I don't think anyone could have ever imagined the circumstances we had tonight — with us having 34 kids out due to contact tracing, including multiple starters, and then our starting quarterback goes down on the third play of the game. But wow, the kids stepped up. And what a story for these kids to be able to tell down the road."
The victory sends Brentwood into a second-round matchup against region rival Independence next week. Indy advanced with a 49-14 win at LaVergne on Friday night. Next week's contest will mark the third consecutive year that Brentwood and Indy have faced off in the second round.
Crawford said he hopes Granzow will be able to return to practice this week. Granzow entered Friday's game having thrown for 1,824 yards, 16 touchdowns and just three interceptions this season.
"(Granzow) will go in on Monday for more evaluation," said Crawford. "From what we've seen so far, it looks good, as far as the sideline diagnosis. So, we will see what happens."
Crawford said the fact that his team gets to play another week — presumably with a much deeper roster — was a sweet reward for his players.
"I think our guys wanted to win tonight so badly because they knew we are going to get a bunch of our guys back next week, and they wanted to give those guys, especially the seniors, a chance to finish together," said Crawford.
Brentwood's victory came at the end of a challenging week for the Brentwood students and faculty. The school suspended its on-campus classes this week — and moved to a virtual classroom setting — after an outbreak of COVID cases. Students were not allowed to attend Friday's game unless they were with their parents.
On the field, the Bruins played Friday's game without the services of six starters on defense and several more on offense. Those missing players — coupled with the injury to Granzow — put Brentwood in a difficult situation, but the team showcased its depth and delivered an impressive performance despite a slow start.
After trailing 6-0 at the end the first quarter, the Bruins turned the game around by reeling off 28 unanswered points in the second quarter and they sailed home from there.
White fueled the victory by smoothly taking over the QB duties. He directed four scoring drives in the second quarter as Brentwood took control.
"Davis was ready tonight, and he's a great athlete," said Crawford. "Our staff does a great job of preparing our kids. And you know, Davis shows up every day and works hard. He has confidence in his abilities and he knows our system. He started for us tonight at receiver before we had to move him to QB. We only have two quarterbacks on the roster, so Davis kind of got stuck with it tonight, but he did a great job."
It was a rocky first quarter for the Bruins. In addition to losing Granzow to the knee injury on their opening drive, the first quarter also featured the Brentwood defense surrendering an early touchdown and the Bruins' offense missing out on a golden scoring opportunity after moving inside the Cane Ridge 10-yard line. (The drive ended with a missed field goal).
However, the Bruins responded in a big way in the second quarter to take command. The scoring flurry was propelled by Brentwood's special teams, which recovered a pair of "pooch" kicks following Bruin touchdowns. Both of the recovered kicks ultimately set up touchdowns for Brentwood.
"Let me tell you about the genius of coaching," Crawford said with a laugh. "That whole thing (the two recovered kicks) was about us not wanting us to kick the ball to their No. 6 (Ty'Rold Good). All we really did was just a 'sky-kick' — it wasn't an onside kick — but both times they failed to field it, and we were able to jump on it."
The Bruins, who lost at Cane Ridge in the second round of the 2017 playoffs, eventually carried a 28-13 lead into the half, and then removed all doubt with a pair of TDs in the third quarter and late field goal from Thomas Day.
"I was really proud of how the team preformed," said Crawford. "It was pretty remarkable — and they did it against a team that wasn't a true No. 4 seed."
The Bruins took their first lead of the night early in the second quarter on a TD pass from White to Mathew Manning, followed by Day's extra point. White hooked up with Merrill on a one-yard TD pass moments later, giving Brentwood a 14-6 lead.
On Cane Ridge's next possession, the Ravens were guilty of another special-teams miscue when an errant snap sailed over the head of the Cane Ridge punter. The Bruins took possession at the 10-yard line and quickly converted the mistake into points with a touchdown pass from White to Hirschman.
After recovering another pooch kick, the Bruins extended their lead to 28-6 on a short touchdown run by Scotty Collins — who took a direct snap from the Wildcat formation — with 5:16 remaining in the first half. Brentwood stayed firmly in control from there.
"It was a great win for our team, our program," said Crawford. "I'm very proud of the kids."
Source: Williamson Herald, David Dawson