MURFREESBORO – It’s easy to get jitters at the beginning of a new season. How one shakes those jitters says a lot.
In Brentwood’s case, those jitters steadily went away and the Bruins started to find their stride in the second and third quarter of a 38-14 victory at Blackman on Friday evening.
All three phases contributed to the cause, as senior Baylor Hayes threw two touchdown passes, classmate Trey Dorris rushed for two more and the special teams unit capitalized on a Blackman miscue to score a touchdown of its own. The Bruin defense also held Blackman scoreless for three quarters.
All of it led Bruin head coach Clint Finch to grade the proceedings with “a good B-plus.”
“I’ll be honest, I think we had too many penalties,” Finch said. “I think two turnovers and we’ve got to get better on that. And maybe I’m grading too hard, but I think it’s a good B-plus performance. The biggest thing was the first game out, and our kids handled that moment really, really well tonight. So many teams don’t – our kids played steady and solid, no panic from them.”
Hayes makes impact in first Brentwood start
Hayes’ first touchdown pass was an arching, 41-yard toss that found a falling Matthew Manning at the goal line.
“I saw single-high safety (coverage), he started off on the right hash, rolled to the middle of the field and I had press coverage with (Manning). Matthew Manning, he’s a speedster. He runs a 4.55 (40-yard dash) and he can take the top off a defense. Any time I see him one-on-one, I’m going to go to him.”
The second of Hayes’ scoring strikes was a 10-yard dart to Clayton Merrill in the final minute of the second quarter, putting Brentwood up 21-0 at halftime. It wasn’t all plusses for Hayes, as Blackman’s Trey McGaffee intercepted him twice.
“I think there’s some cobwebs, first game coming out,” Hayes said. “Obviously I’ve got to eliminate the turnovers. I’m glad I got those out of the way. I’ve just got to remain calm and not force things, just play to live another down. I think this team has extreme potential.”
Caden Perkins led the Blackman attack with 107 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries, with his scoring run coming early in the fourth quarter. Jabari Kemp added a short touchdown run with less than three minutes to play for the Blaze (0-1).
Brentwood (1-0) scored twice in 56 seconds late in the third quarter. Dorris broke through the Blaze defense for a 51-yard touchdown to put the Bruins up 31-0 and trigger the mercy rule running clock. Blackman muffed the ensuing kickoff, and Canon Kinder ending up with the loose ball in the end zone for the Bruins.
“Not what we wanted,” Blackman head coach Matt Kriesky said of the opening loss. “We’ve got to really hone in at practice and we as coaches have to pay attention to the small details and really correct everything in practice.
“It’s the little things. We miss a block here or there and it’s a big block. Defensively, we got tired and it showed when we got tired. Our technique lagged and it hurt. Early on, it was inexperience and youth, but later on you could tell we just weren’t finishing drives.”