By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
All Stephen Lian wants at this point in the season is more time around his football team.
“Sectional finals is obviously a goal of ours, but these kids are so special,” Lian remarked. “I’ve been saying it to anybody who will listen: 22 seasons [of coaching], I’ve never been around a group like this. I just want to stay with them as long as we possibly can, and to me, whether it’s going to the sectional finals or whatever the case may be, I’m just so happy that we get to have more time together.”
The Brighton Bruins fulfilled Lian’s wish on Friday night, extending their season another week as they defeated Webster Thomas 20-8 in the Section V Class A1 semifinal round. Brighton, the tournament’s top seed, will meet University Prep in the title game at Eastridge High School next weekend.
Brighton knew that against a talented Thomas offense, led by senior running back Marley English, its defense would abide by a “bend but don’t break” philosophy. The Titans, who entered Brighton High winners of three straight contests, tested that philosophy almost immediately with a 14-play opening drive that melted 7:50 off the clock. Not only did the Bruins not break, however, Thomas missed a 22-yard field goal and walked to the sideline with nothing.
“We knew they were gonna get yards, and they possessed the football a long time,” Lian acknowledged. “But when our guys needed to, they were resilient; they got the stops they needed to. Hats off to Thomas, I mean they’re an unbelievable football team. They pushed us to the brink twice this season, but again, our guys are just mentally tough and resilient. They’ve been in these situations before and when they needed to get stops, they did.”
That empty trip loomed especially large when Thomas, which trailed 14-0 at halftime, cut the lead to one possession on Eli Adams’s 14-yard quarterback keeper with 9:01 remaining. The Titans were stopped at the one-yard line with a minute remaining in the third quarter but managed to reverse momentum with a safety, their first points of the game, and score a touchdown after the safety punt. Thomas still had time to overcome its miscues, including Adams’s lost fumble to set up Brennan Clasgens’s second rushing tally near the end of the first half.
Clasgens, who scored on five and eight-yard keepers previously, answered the Titans’ run by breaking the big play, the dagger- a 58-yard burst with 8:05 remaining that all but sealed Brighton’s victory.
“We always have a lot of confidence in all our kids, and especially Brennan,” Lian noted. “When we need a play made, all season long, his whole career, he’s made one for us.
“And we knew, this kind of weather, we’re obviously not a ‘sling-it-around-the-yard’ kind of football team. When we saw the forecast, when we knew it was gonna be this way, our kids were excited. This is Brighton football weather.”
A glance at the seven-day forecast doesn’t portend more Brighton football weather next weekend just yet, but the 9-0 Bruins certainly aren’t reliant on miserable conditions to run the ball.
“Part of it’s luck,” Lian said. “To get this far, to win this many games, you’ve gotta have a little luck on your side; we certainly did. If the ball bounces one way or the other it changes the momentum, and we were lucky the ball bounced our way more than it didn’t.”
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