Brahmas stampede past Rattlers

The Brahma stampede was too much for Navasota in the state-ranked matchup Friday, Sept. 9, as Bellville defeated Navasota 35-0 at Rattler Stadium.

After Connor Gaines picked off a Rattler pass at the 10-yard line, on the second- play of the game, Belville capitalized with a 3-yard run by Sam Hranicky to take an early 7-0 lead. Bellville (3-0) forced Navasota (2-1) to punt on the ensuing possession. The Brahmas fumbled on a run, but the loose ball was picked up by Reid McCann, who advanced 10-yards for the score. Bellville missed consecutive fieldgoal opportunities before halftime to keep the score 14-0.

“When you play against a team like Bellville and give them a short field with the stuff they do offensively, that is a lot to ask for the defense to hold up,” explained Navasota Head Coach Casey Dacus. “I thought our effort was good and I told our players – we love them, and we aren’t mad at them. This is going to be a great teaching tape for all the ways we messed up tonight.”

Dacus said his team messed up on about a third of their offensive plays whether it was missing blocking assignments, wrong route or wrong read by the quarterback. “When you mess up on a third of your plays, that is not a good sign,” explained Dacus. “We have to go back and make sure we have laser- focus, because I didn’t see that same focus at practice this week that I saw the first two weeks.We have to go back to the drawing board, back to fundamentals and correct the mistakes so we can get back to where we were.” Bellville extended its lead to 21-0, on a DD Murray 50-yard run with 3:34 remaining in the third quarter. The Brahmas added a pair of late fourth quarter scores, a 2-yard run by Hranicky with a little over six minutes remaining and a hard-fought 1-yard run under two minutes, to finalize the score.

Key performers for the Rattlers were Deontray Scott with 12-carries for 75 yards and two receptions 25 yards. Devin Nuñez also caught three passes for 16 yards. Defensively, Chris Hickmon had an interception. Navasota travels to face the Huffman-Hargerve Falcons (2-1) Friday, Sept. 16, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m.

Nicolas Castañeda tries to wrangle a Brahma ball carrier in the Rattlers 35-0 loss to Bellville.

Examiner photo by Matthew Ybarra