BRENHAM — Belton grabbed the early lead on its first offensive snap Friday, but the rest of its regular-season finale was carried by host Brenham, which used a balanced offense that garnered 495 yards to motor to a 49-28 victory in District 10-5A-II’s de facto second-place game at Cub Stadium.
The result sent the Tigers to No. 3 seed and put them on the road for next week’s playoff opener, which will take place at a date and time to be determined at Iowa Colony.
A pair of big plays on special teams gave the Cubs (9-1, 4-1) an initial jolt then they flipped two turnovers by the Tigers (5-5,3-2) into touchdowns and continued to cruise for the rest of the first half, when they built a 42-14 by the break.
Belton got a three-and-out then quarterback Will Shepard pulled his read and kept it up the middle for a 57-yard touchdown run to give his team a 7-0 lead with less than 2 minutes elapsed.
Brenham immediately answered, though, when CJ Glover returned the ensuing kick 55 yards to set up his 17-yard TD scurry on fourth-and-2 to knot the tally.
The Cubs’ Jase Mueller then blocked and recovered a Belton punt in the end zone to boost his team ahead for good at 14-7 with 6:37 showing in the first frame.
“It put us in a hole. They came through, blocked it, recovered it, so big play there. Then we were going into score on the 5-yard line, fumbled the ball, and that put us back. And we had a tipped pass interception that hurt us too when we were going into score,” said Belton head coach Brett Sniffin, whose team outscored Brenham 14-7 in the second half when it got a pair of TD passes from Shepard, the first on a 7-yard strike to Gino Zecca, who dived for the front-right pylon, then on a 77-yard connection to Evan Echipare when two Brenham defenders collided on the play.
The Tigers, who churned out 460 yards, got 248 yards passing and 115 rushing from Shepard, and Gavin Ross had his ninth game of the year with at least 100 yards receiving by grabbing seven catches for 107 yards.
But the early hole simply proved too much to overcome.
“We moved the ball all night. I imagine we got pretty good yards, but those turnovers and then shooting ourselves in the foot on a couple fourth downs, it hurt us,” Sniffin said.
Belton forced two Brenham punts in the opening period but the Cubs proved harder to stop as the half wore along, notching touchdowns on their final four possessions as the Tigers couldn’t find any answers.
Caleb Espinoza’s interception that was tipped at the line of scrimmage set up a 30-yard TD toss from Xyran Upshaw to Hagen Frank to stake Brenham to a 21-7 edge at the end of the first quarter.
Upshaw finished 15-of-17 passing for 234 yards and four TDs while Glover rushed for 176 yards and two scores on 21 carries.
The Cubs tacked on another 21 points in the second frame, starting when Owen Robinson’s fumble recovery sparked a 91-yard scoring drive after Belton had advanced to the Brenham 5-yard line while looking to trim the gap back down to one possession.
Instead, Brenham pumped the gap up to 28-7 when Upshaw found Chris Guidry with a 13-yard TD strike across the middle.
Belton responded to Guidry’s grab with a 75-yard drive that Zecca capped with a 20-yard TD scamper up the middle to get his team within 28-14 midway through the second period, but the Tigers had three other first-half drives that reached deep inside Brenham territory that produced no points.
Upshaw found Guidry again, this time for a 20-yard touchdown, to move the gap to 35-14, after which Belton was turned over on downs after getting to the Cubs 35.
Glover then tacked on his second score of the night with a 1-yard plunge with 12 seconds left before the break to move the margin to 42-14.
“They got after us offensively, and we couldn’t match it in the first half,” Sniffin said. “We played much better in the second half but at that point, it was too big of a hole.”
jbrooks@tdtnews.com
