Brennan 42, O’connor 23
Quick take: Quarterback Cayden Glass completed 11 of 17 passes for 173 yards and had three overall touchdowns in Brennan’s 42-23 win over O’connor on Thursday night at Dub Farris Sports Complex. The Bears (3-2, 2-1 29-6A) stay in fourth place in the District 29-6A standings with Thursday’s win.
“It’s been a tough season so far, so this feels really good,” Glass said. “Kudos to everybody, our O-line, the coaches. We bounced back this week.”
Highlights: Brennan junior running back Malik White scored the game’s first points with a 35-yard touchdown run.
O’connor (0-6, 0-3) answered with touchdowns on back-to-back possessions. Senior quarterback Ryder Dorn connected with senior receiver Luke Valdez for a 49-yard pass before Dorn ran in a 1-yarder to tie the game. Dorn found Valdez again on the Panthers’ next drive, when Valdez climbed over the top of a Bears defender to come down with the 28-yard pass. Dorn set up his 5-yard touchdown run with a 20-yard pass to senior tight end Will Locke.
Brennan responded quickly as Glass found senior back Ryan Love for a 40-yard pass. The duo reconnected two plays later for a 5-yard touchdown pass. The Bears’ game-tying touchdown took just 1:05.
“There’s no pressure,” Glass said. “We’ve been in worse situations before. … We just needed to fix our own mistakes and that’s what we did.”
Glass found senior tight end Lucious Lyman for a 20-yard pass in the third quarter, which set up an 11-yard touchdown run from Love. The Panthers then made the only field goal of the game — 49-yarder from Lane Rigby — on their first drive of the second half.
The Bears scored another touchdown on their second drive of the half. The Panthers blitzed Glass on a thirdand-long, forcing the quarterback to dump the ball off to sophomore back Micai Thompson, who ran the ball 63 yards to the end zone.
O’connor scored off a 6-yard pass from Dorn to Locke to cut the game to one score in the middle of the fourth quarter, but White responded for the Bears with a 49-yard touchdown run less than a minute later. Glass tacked on the game’s final touchdown with a 9-yard run to put the game away.
What it means:
Thursday night’s loss keeps O’connor winless over halfway through the
season. After losing 34-0 last week against Taft and falling to the Bears, the Panthers find themselves at the bottom of the 29-6A standings. Brennan, now with its second straight win, remains fourth in the district standings, keeping the Bears in the middle of the playoff race.
Quotable: “When you’re playing a district opponent, playoff opportunities are on the line,” Brennan coach Stephen Basore said. “Everybody wants to beat everybody. Everybody comes to play every week, so we’ve got to come and play every week and next week’s going to be the same.”
Game balls: Along with Glass’ 173 yards on 11 of 17 passing and three total touchdowns, White finished as the game’s leading rusher. The junior back finished with 131 yards on nine carries with two touchdowns.
Up next: Brennan will face Warren at 7:30 p.m. next Friday at Gustafson Stadium. O’connor has an open week next and also will play Warren in its next game Oct. 12 at Gustafson Stadium.