Briarwood pulls away in third quarter to down Homewood and lock up three seed

Published 10:58 pm Friday, October 27, 2023

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By STEPHEN DAWKINS | Special to the Reporter

NORTH SHELBY – Briarwood Christian School earned a hard-fought 20-10 win over Homewood on Friday, Oct. 27, that clinches the No. 3 seed in the region for the Lions, improving their playoff positioning.

BCS still has one regular season game remaining, a non-region tilt at Fairhope on Friday, Nov. 3, and then the playoffs begin.

This week, Briarwood took the third out of the last four from Homewood by pulling away in the third quarter.

The Lions (5-4 overall, 4-2 in Class 6A, Region 3 play) opened the scoring with a touchdown run from Luke Reynolds of 5 yards that was set up by an interception from Brooks Travis. A 2-point conversion attempt was no good, leaving the score at 6-0, as Reynolds kickstarted a 220-yard, two touchdown night with the Lions’ first score.

Homewood (5-4, 4-2) answered with a field goal with 11 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The visiting Patriots snuffed out two Briarwood drives by blocking field goals, and the score remained 6-3 at halftime.

Briarwood came out of the locker room to start the second half determined, driving the opening possession down the field with a big touchdown run from Reynolds, who went 65 yards to the house after having one big run called back, giving the Lions a 13-3 advantage.

The Lions struck again shortly after when Josh Thompson got in on the rushing attack with a big run of 47 yards that put the team on top 20-3 late in the third quarter.

Homewood scored on a long pass play from Kaleb Karson to King Walker of 65 yards with 2:42 left in the third to cut the deficit to 20-10, which was the score at the end of the third quarter.

Briarwood’s defense put together a big final quarter, and while the Patriots added a field goal late in the fourth to make it 20-13, the Lions got the ball back after an onside kick attempt and cemented the win.

Briarwood will now take on Fairhope on the road to close out the regular season before traveling to Carver-Montgomery in the opening round of the playoffs. Carver finished the regular season 7-3.