After reaching the championship for the first time since 2002, the Brentwood High School football team ran into Oakland for a second time this season and the Patriots showed why they are the state's top-ranked team. Oakland completed a perfect season, claiming the Class 6A BlueCross Bowl championship in the process, with a 56-33 victory over the Bruins Saturday night at Tucker Field on the campus of Tennessee Tech University. Brentwood was hoping to change the outcome after suffering a 37-0 loss to the Patriots in a hastily scheduled early October contest and looked like it could be a spoiler early. Oakland scored on its first possession when game MVP Jordan James scooted over from the 3-yard line mid-way through the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead. The Bruins answered in just 2 1/2 minutes when Cade Granzow found Aaron Walton for the first of three touchdown tosses for the junior receiver – this one covering 51 yards. The touchdowns was just the second Oakland has allowed all season in the first quarter. A missed extra point left Oakland ahead 7-6 with 3:39 left in the first stanza. Then the wheels fell off and James exploded for five first-half touchdowns, including three in the opening quarter. After the Brentwood kickoff, James raced 81 yards for a touchdown on the Patriots first play from scrimmage to put Oakland up 13-6. Brentwood fumbled on the ensuing kick-off and Oakland’s Antonio Patterson raced 31 yards for a score. Before the Bruins could take a deep breath, a Granzow pass was tipped high into the air and picked off by Isaiah Horton at the Bruins’ 37 and returned to the 13. Four straight James rushes, the final a 4-yard attempt, led to another quick score, leaving Brentwood down 28-6 with time left in the first quarter. “That three-minute run from 7-6 just devastated us,” said Bruins head coach Ron Crawford. “Let’s be honest, we didn’t stop them in the first half, we just didn’t. The size advantage they had on both sides of the line of scrimmage just really showed and Jordan James is just an incredible football player.” James ended the game with 230 yards rushing on 23 carries and tied a state championship game record with six touchdown runs. Patterson added another 176 yards and two scores as the Oakland ground game out-gained the Bruins 468-55. Brentwood closed the deficit and regained some life when Jake Brock picked off an Ian Schlacter pass, returning it to the Oakland 11-yard line. Granzow and Walton hooked up on the next play for a score. An attempt at 2-point try failed, leaving Brentwood down 28-12 and with potential momentum. “Oakland is a good team and they have great athletes at every position,” said Brock, who added seven tackles. “We had a great game plan coming in, but at the end of the day they just ran it on us and punched us in the mouth and we didn’t expect that.” After the Bruin score, Oakland recovered an on-side kick at their own 41 and two plays later James picked up his fourth touchdown on a 59-yard run and added a fifth on a two-yard run with less than a minute left in the first half. Down 42-16 at the half, the Bruins, like every other opponent Oakland faced this year, could have folded. They didn’t. “They are a great team with great players,” said Walton, who closed with six catches for 164 yards and three TDs. “There is a board in the coaches’ office and there are three words that never get erased – Don’t stop fighting. And that was our identity this year. That’s what we are all about.” Granzow led the Bruins on a six-play, 44-yard drive that ended when he found Luke Walters from 14 yards out mid-way of the third quarter, but another 2-point attempt failed. After James picked up his record-tying sixth score to close out the third quarter, Granzow had the Bruins on the march before not getting up after a 14-yard scramble. The three-year starter and senior quarterback, headed to Auburn to play baseball, left the game with an apparent injury to his non-throwing arm after completing 20-of-32 passes for 186 yards and three TDs and gaining 43 yards on six carries. Davis White replaced Granzow and picked up where his mentor left off. White threw for 124 yards, hitting 5-of-9 attempts, over the last 11 minutes of the game, including touchdown passes of 52 yards to Walton and an 8-yard toss to Mac Hirschman. Brentwood's Spencer Rich covered up an Oakland fumble in the late surge where three of their final four drives ended with touchdowns. The Bruins also recovered an onside kick late as the Bruins managed to score the most points against an Oakland team since Siegel shutout the Patriots in September of 2012. Oakland last allowed more than 30 points when they fell to Maryville 31-28 in the 2017 semifinals. “We played a great football team, and we came up short,” said Crawford. “I’d rather be here than not be here, regardless of the score. “You’ve got to remember the journey, it’s never the destination for any of us. It’s the journey, the process, it’s how you go about getting there." That journey included the constant work amidst a global pandemic, uncertainty of a season before it started, overcoming a depleted team due to COVID-19 to even open the playoffs and the recent loss of Brentwood football matriarch Pat Crawford – Ron's mom and assistant Tom Crawford's wife. “We made it to the final game," Crawford continued. "Who knew we’d even get a final game? 2020 has been rough on all of us. It is a shining light for our kids to come through all the adversity the team has faced, to continue to believe and fight is a true tribute to our parents and the type of kids we have.” As Crawford finished media interviews in near freezing temperatures and with the victors’ grandstands empty, more than one hundred Brentwood fans still crowded the rails of Tucker Stadium, encouraging the Bruins team as they transition from the playing field to the locker room one last time this season to prepare for the bus ride back to Williamson County. “Our students support our athletes, in all sports," Crawford said. "They’ve known a lot about our journey. I tip my cap to them and we’re so grateful for their support.”
Source: Williamson Herald
