Brooks rolls to season-opening win against Lauderdale County

KILLEN - After taking a slim 7-6 lead into the locker room at halftime, Brooks scored 33 unanswered points in the second half to claim a 40-6 victory over Lauderdale County in its season-opener.

Although the score ended up a little bit lopsided, Brooks coach Jerry Hill saw room for improvement.

"It's good to come out with a win, but we have to work to get better," he said. "Hopefully, we can get better each week."

The game was scoreless into the second quarter before Brooks finally got on the board.

Kenyatta Roach broke a scoreless tie with 5:01 remaining in the half when he broke free on a 31-yard run in the second quarter.

Lauderdale County answered with a nine-play, 70-yard drive that was capped by a 13-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Trey Nance.

Lauderdale County quarterback Joseph Patterson left the game in the first quarter with an injury and did not return.

The Tigers had five turnovers and lost starting quarterback Joseph Patterson. Nevertheless, coach Trent Patterson was pleased with Nance's effort in relief.

"I thought Trey played extremely well," he said. "He'll compete, and he gave us a chance. We've just gotta finish drives. We had an opportunity to finish drives tonight, and we didn't finish them."

Brooks struck quickly in the second half. On the second play from scrimmage, Alex Mitchell connected with Matthew Scott for a 57-yard score to extend the Lions' lead to 13-7.

Later in the third quarter, Roach made what seemed to be a costly blunder when he fumbled on third-and-goal from the Tigers' 5-yard line. However, the junior quickly redeemed himself when he intercepted a Nance pass and trotted into the end zone from 16 yards out on the very next play. Mitchell found Scott in the end zone for the two-point conversion to give the Lions a 21-6 lead.

Mitchell added a 23-yard touchdown run early in the fourth for a 27-6 lead.

Dylan Green scored the final two touchdowns on runs of eight and 71 yards, respectively.

Mitchell finished the game 12 of 23 in passing for199 yards and a touchdown. He rushed for 88 yards on 14 attempts with a touchdown. Roach rushed for 73 yards on eight attempts with a touchdown. Green rushed for 85 yards and two touchdowns on four attempts. The Lions had 540 yards of total offense.

"We have a lot of young players and that was probably the first varsity game they played the whole game," Hill said. "I thought our depth wore them down late in the game. It was a closer game than the score."