The Brentwood Bruins battled the Oakland Patriots tonight for the 2020 Division I Class 6A State Championship. Brentwood beat Bartlett 24-14 last week to earn their spot in the final game tonight. These two teams faced off in the regular season and Oakland won that contest 37-0.
Brentwood played hard to the final snap, but in the end they came out on the losing end. Brentwood lost 56-33 to Oakland tonight.
Brentwood received the ball first to start the game. Brentwood was not able to do much with their first drive as they were forced to punt. They shifted their focus to stopping the Oakland offense.
Oakland drove down the field and scored a touchdown on the ground from three yards out. The Bruins trailed 7-0 early.
Brentwood responded with a quick touchdown of their own as Granzow connected with Walton from fifty-five yards out. They would miss the PAT though to make it 7-6 Oakland still on top.
Then Oakland had their opportunity to answer, and answer they did. Jordan James scampered in from eighty-one yards away to increase the Oakland lead. They also missed the PAT making it 13-6.
Oakland would get the ball back after forcing a turnover and quickly put up another touchdown. The Patriots also converted a two-point conversion to go up 21-6.
The Bruins dug themselves deeper into a hole as they turned it over again on the following drive and it turned into points for Oakland. The Bruins were down 28-6 as the first quarter came to a close.
The Bruins needed a touchdown to stay in the game and get their confidence level back up. They were unfortunately unable to get into scoring position and were forced to punt it back to Oakland.
The Bruin defense took a page from the Oakland defense as they intercepted a pass and returned it to the red zone. The Brentwood offense had great field position to start the drive to get a score and chip away at the deficit.
They did just that. Granzow connected with Walton, their second touchdown connection of the night, on the first play following the interception. The Bruins attempted a two-point conversion but came up short and the score was 28-12.
The momentum seemed to be with Brentwood, however it came to a halt when Oakland ran for a fifty-nine yard touchdown making it 35-12. Granzow had the Bruins driving, but threw an interception and the Bruin defense was back on the field.
Brentwood may have turned it over, but their defense forced a turnover on downs to get the ball back to their offense. There was under five minutes remaining in the first half and the Bruins were driving trying to add points to claw away at the deficit. The Bruins would not be able to add to the scoreboard and their defense took the field trying to get another first half stop.
Oakland would punch in one more first half touchdown and the Bruins trailed 42-12 heading into halftime and the Patriots would get the ball first in the second half.
In the second half, the Bruins defense stopped Oakland on the opening drive and forced a punt. The Bruin offense was not able to get going on their opening drive either and they are forced to punt the ball back to Oakland.
Brentwood would force a fumble and recover it. Following the turnover, Granzow connected with Walters for the first points in the second half. They went for a two-point conversion but failed to convert. The new score was 42-18.
Oakland responded with a touchdown drive of their own and the deficit was 49-18. The fourth quarter came about with the score still 49-18. The Bruins were driving trying to get a quick score, but they were stopped and turned the ball over on downs. There was just over eight minutes remaining and the Oakland Patriots were looking to milk the clock all the way down.
Both teams would score one more touchdown before the end of the game, a short run for Oakland and Davis White (the backup quarterback who took over for an injured Granzow late in the game) threw to Aaron Walton for a touchdown pass for Brentwood. The new score was 56-26 with just under three minutes remaining in the game.
Brentwood continued to fight and play hard as they did recover an onside kick. The Bruins would turn the recovery into points as well as they scored another touchdown making it 56-33. The ensuing onside kick was not recovered by Brentwood and Oakland took over with under a minute remaining. Oakland would run out the rest of the clock and the game came to a close.
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