After a convincing win over Memphis Northside, the MUS varsity football team lost to a very talented Brentwood Academy team, 31-14, in Nashville as the Eagles overpowered the Owls, outgaining the visitors 261-51 on the ground.
Brentwood Academy (5-1, 2-1) looked strong from the start.
After having forced the Owls (3-4, 1-2) to punt on the opening possession, BA put together a 54-yard drive on eight plays, capped off by a Chris Jordan 14-yard scoring run. Tyler Baker’s PAT was good to give the Eagles a 7-0 early lead.
After the score, both teams traded punt until MUS finally responded.
Starting an impressive drive from their own 28-yard line, the Owls used a strong rushing attack of Michael Park, Walt Wepfer, and Chase Moore to move the ball to the 7-yard line. From there, on the seventeenth play of the possession, Park connected on a screen pass with Drew Alston for the score. Zach Scott added the PAT to even the score and end the 6:10 drive in the second quarter.
However,the Eagles responded before the half.
With Jordan on the sideline with a knee injury, backup RB Tyree Ford came in and showed the BA depth. From midfield, Ford outran several MUS defenders and scored on just his second carry of the game, giving the lead back to the Eagles with 2:48 remaining in the half. With the PAT, the Eagles led, 14-7, heading into halftime.
After having showed signs of consistently good play in the first half, MUS hoped to build on their some of their success in the second half and defeat the Eagles for the fourth straight.
MUS caught the first break of the half as they forced two early turnovers, both fumbles by WR Bill Kottas. While they could not take advantage of the first, they did make BA pay on the second, a muffed Alston punt.
Taking over at the Eagle 16-yard line following Sisco Larson's recovery, Park would score four plays later on a sneak to tie the game following Scott’s extra-point.
But the Owls had no answer for Ford.
After Ford had reeled off another huge scoring run of 49 yards to give the Eagles the lead with 6:03 remaining in the third quarter, Brentwood controlled the ball and limited their mistakes the rest of the game to ensure the win.
The Eagles added a 20-yard field goal by Baker and 2-yard touchdown run by Ryan White in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach as MUS again dropped below .500.
The Owls return to action this week as they face arch-rival Christian Brothers on the Brothers’ new field turf. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m.