Brentwood posts 3rd straight perfect regular season

 
By Steve Bowman
Editor, The Brentwood Spirit
Email: bowmansj@sbcglobal.net

There was a lot to feel good about after the Brentwood High School football team’s 57-0 victory at Cleveland NJROTC on Saturday. While walking to the bus afterward, junior running back Kaylon Jenkins, who has a knack for nicely summing up a game, said, “This was just a real feel-good game.”

Week of rest

It felt good for several reasons. First, it kept the Eagles the top seed in the Class 2 District 5 playoffs. That means they get to rest this weekend while the other six teams battle it out. On Oct. 30 they will host the winner of the Oct. 23 game between Trinity Catholic and Lutheran St. Charles.

“We’re gonna be the number one seed now, which we deserve,” coach Keith Herring told his players in their postgame huddle on the field. “We’re gonna get a week off, give guys time to recover.”

34 wins in a row

It also felt good because they’re 9-0, the third consecutive year they’ve gone undefeated in the regular season. The Brentwood football program hasn’t done that since the Beatles were hot — John Titus’s teams went 9-0, 8-0 and 9-0 in 1965, ’66 and ’67. But in the 68-year history of the program nobody can touch current coach Herring’s teams for consecutive regular season victories. He hasn’t lost one of those since Aug. 31, 2012, a string of 34 W’s.

Clay hits century mark

The third reason Saturday felt good was that senior running back Jacob Clay scored his 98th, 99th, 100th, and 101st career touchdowns. On the list of high school players who have scored the most touchdowns all-time in the St. Louis area, that moved him to No. 2, ahead of Ezekiel Elliott of John Burroughs and Rob Standard of Chaminade. Clay’s 101 now trails only Timberland’s Montee Ball, who has 107 TDs.

On the field after the game, Herring announced Clay’s accomplishment and handed him the ball he carried across the goal line those four times while rushing for 113 yards. Jacob’s mother, Beth, commented that her son could have whatever he wanted for dinner.

As usually happens when the spotlight hits him, Jacob didn’t have much to say about the TDs.

“Ah, you know, it’s good I guess,” he said. “I didn’t even know I had 100. Everyone said I had 100 and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”

Everyone played

Finally, it was a feel-good game because, as Herring said, every Eagle in a uniform got to play. That led to some interesting statistics. The No. 2 rusher in Brentwood’s 318-yard attack was freshman DeAndre Boykin, with 66 yards at 9.4 per carry. The last time he ran that much was last year for the Junior Eagles.

“After like four or five plays I started getting tired,” he said with a smile. “As soon as I’d get done with the play I’d get up and everybody would already be in the huddle. In middle school we never had this much running to do.”

Other season firsts included sophomore Daniel Neal scoring a touchdown and Skylar Sappington intercepting a pass. Brian Hutton played sparingly at defensive end and didn’t add to his St. Louis-leading 17 quarterback sacks.

“Coach wanted me to stay out until the playoffs,” said Hutton. “In the playoffs I won’t come out.”

Cleveland failed to take advantage of BHS’s second stringers, especially on offense, where the Commanders rushed 19 times for minus-17 yards. Joe Clay, Stephen Suntrup and Corey Carroll seemed to be in on every tackle, combining for 32. Clay is only a sophomore but leads the team in tackles/assists.

A blitzing cornerback, Carroll made numerous stops in the offensive backfield. He couldn’t help but recall the final game of the regular season last year, against Cleveland.

“Yeah I remember that game,” he said. “I only got in one play in the game, man. It was a kickoff and when I got in I got blindsided. I didn’t like that feeling.”

No more 1-1

Brentwood won the district title in 2011 but in each of the past three years has won in the first round and lost in the second. They want to make it 2-0 this year.

“Playoffs,” said Hutton. “Time for us to go hard and focus more. Time for us to get to the next level.”

“From now on,” said Herring, “every game means everything in the world to us.”

Final Class 2 District 5 seeding
1. Brentwood, 9-0, 54.02 points
2. Lutheran North, 5-4, 51.92
3. Hermann, 6-3, 48.17
4. Trinity Catholic, 6-3, 46
5. Lutheran St. Charles, 6-3, 44.09
6. Principia, 5-4, 33.13
7. Transportation and Law, 2-6, 31.78

Class 2 District 5 playoff schedule
Game 1, Oct. 23: Trinity Catholic vs. Lutheran St. Charles
Game 2, Oct. 23: Hermann vs. Principia
Game 3, Oct. 24: Lutheran North vs. Transportation and Law
Game 4, Oct. 30: Brentwood vs. Game 1 winner
Game 5, Oct. 30: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner
Game 6, Nov. 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner

Clay, Hutton, Sappington still lead St. Louis
BHS individuals lead all of St. Louis in scoring, quarterback sacks and passing efficiency. Jacob Clay has scored 226 points, 28 ahead of Cody Schrader of Lutheran South. Brian Hutton’s 17 sacks are tied with Donnell Sharp of Cardinal Ritter. Skylar Sappington’s passing efficiency of 208.8 is 47 points ahead of Blake Charlton of CBC.

Scoring Summary
Brentwood (9-0): 31-20-00-06 — 57
Cleveland (1-8) : 00-00-00-00 — 00

First-quarter scoring, key plays

Brentwood: Kaylon Jenkins 19-yard run; Demetrius Graves run
Score: 8-0, 10:14
Key play: Jacob Clay’s 13-yard run.

Brentwood: Jacob Clay 13-yard run; Graves run
Score: 16-0, 7:42
Key plays: On Cleveland’s previous possession, Corey Carroll’s back-to-back tackles for minus-19 yards; Jacob Clay’s 32-yard run.

Brentwood: Jacob Clay 3-yard run; Skylar Sappington run
Score: 24-0, 6:03
Key plays: On Cleveland’s previous possession, Carroll’s tackle for a 17-yard loss and Skylar Sappington’s fumble recovery on the Cleveland 3.

Brentwood: Jacob Clay 4-yard run; Rob Bax kick
Score: 31-0, 3:01
Key plays: Runs of 16 yards by Jacob Clay and 13 yards by DeAndre Boykin.

Second-quarter scoring, key plays

Brentwood: Justice Harris 17-yard pass from Sappington; Bax kick
Score: 38-0, 10:13
Key plays: On Cleveland’s previous possession, Joe Clay’s tackle for an 11-yard loss; Kaylon Jenkins’s 18-yard reception from Sappington.
Harris: “I [ran the pass route], turned around and I thought Skylar might not throw it to me because he’s trying to give everyone a chance to catch the ball. But I was wide open and he put it over the defender’s head and I caught it.”

Brentwood: Jacob Clay 1-yard run; kick failed
Score: 44-0, 7:17
Key plays: DeAndre Boykin’s 17-yard run.

Brentwood: Daniel Neal 9-yard run; Bax kick
Score: 51-0, 4:59
Key plays: On Cleveland’s previous possession, Stephen Suntrup’s tackle that forced a fumble and a 14-yard loss; Joe Clay’s punt block that was recovered by Carroll at the Cleveland 25; Boykin’s 16-yard run.
Suntrup: “It was a bad snap by the center. I ran after the quarterback thinking he’d try to break away because everyone was coming at him and he broke free of a tackle and was right there. I guess it was just a good hit.”

Fourth-quarter scoring, key plays

Brentwood: Tayveon Brown 1-yard run; kick failed
Score: 57-0, 5:27
Key plays: On Cleveland’s previous possession, Suntrup’s tackle at the Cleveland 21 on fourth down; Courtland Hill’s 11-yard run and Brown’s 10-yard run.

Brentwood statistical leaders vs. Cleveland
Rushing: Jacob Clay 13-119, DeAndre Boykin 7-66, Rob Bax 7-52, Kaylon Jenkins 3-30, Tayveon Brown 4-24.
Passing: Skylar Sappington 2 for 3, 33 yards, 1 TD, no interceptions.
Receiving: Justice Harris 1-17, Kaylon Jenkins 1-16.
Kickoff returns: Kaylon Jenkins 1-38.
Interceptions: Sappington.
Fumble recoveries: Brown 2, Kaylon Jenkins, Rob Bax.
Sacks: Corey Carroll, Demetrius Graves, Stephen Suntrup Jr., Luke Tilton.
Tackles/assists: Joe Clay 14, Suntrup 10, Corey Carroll 8, Brian Hutton 7, Harris 6, Sappington 6, Courtland Hill 4, Daniel Neal 4, Brown 4, Bax 4, Luke Tilton 4, DeAndre Boykin 3, Demetrius Graves 3, Ricky McQuay 3, Jordon Tate 2, Kaylon Jenkins 2, Jacob Clay 1.

Cleveland statistical leaders vs. Brentwood
Rushing: Katron Franklin 1-8.
Passing: Dorian Hampton 6 for 20, 76 yards, 1 interception.
Receiving: Antonio Norman 2-56.

Brentwood’s St. Louis area stat leaders as of Oct. 19
From http://www.stlhighschoolsports.com
Jacob Clay: 1st, scoring; 4th, rushing yards; 5th, total yards
Skylar Sappington: 1st, passing efficiency; 13th, fumble recoveries; 20th, punting average
Brian Hutton: 1st, QB sacks; 2nd, fumble recoveries
Kaylon Jenkins: 5th, kickoff return average; 6th, interceptions; 12th, punt return average
Justice Harris: 6th, interceptions; 10th, return yards; 13th, fumble recoveries; 18th, kickoff return average
Joe Clay: 14th, assists; 17th, total tackles/assists
Demetrius Graves: 13th, fumble recoveries

Brentwood’s 2015 schedule (9-0)
Beat Crystal City 58-6
Beat JFK 54-18
Beat Sumner 55-6
Beat Orchard Farm 39-7
Beat Cuba 53-0
Beat Principia 52-0
Beat Lift for Life 60-12
Beat Liberty-Wentzville 53-8
Beat Cleveland NJROTC 57-0
Class 2, District 5 semifinal
Oct. 30, 7 p.m., BHS vs. Trinity Catholic or Lutheran St. Charles