A large homecoming crowd gathered at Cougar Field Friday nightas Brookhaven Academy welcomed the Bowling Green Buccaneers for anon-district matchup. Brookhaven Academy coach Bo Milton and histeam made sure that the large, partisan crowd wouldn’t go homedisappointed, as the Cougars topped Bowling Green 27-12 to improveto a perfect 7-0 on the season. Bowling Green fell to 4-3 on theyear.

“This win was big.” said Milton. “This is the toughest teamwe’ve faced this year and it was about the best game we’ve playedall year. Our defense played extremely well. We didn’t commit asingle turnover and our offense did a great job of grinding theball out and putting points on the board.”

Brookhaven got the first score of the night with just 45 secondsremaining in the opening quarter after an 11-play, 59-yard drive assenior quarterback Price Sessums dove in from three yards out.Brookhaven led 7-0 after Corey Dickerson kicked the extrapoint.

Bowling Green responded with its own time consuming drive andscored its first touchdown of the night with 7:34 remaining in thefirst half as Augie King scored on a 1 yard run. The extra pointattempt sailed wide right, allowing Brookhaven to stay on top witha slim 7-6 lead.

The ensuing drive saw Brookhaven once again put together a long,time-consuming drive, capped off by a 2-yard run by Dickerson with1:55 left in the half, giving the hosts a 14-6 advantage going intothe locker rooms.

Brookhaven put together another long drive on the openingpossession of the second half, but saw the drive stall and wasforced to punt. The Cougar defense bent but didn’t break on thefollowing Bowling Green drive, forcing a Buccaneer punt which setup Brookhaven deep in BG territory after the snap sailed over thehead of the Bucs’ punter.

The Cougars took advantage of the short field and Keith Franklinmade a spectacular diving catch on a pass from Sessums in thecorner of the end zone. Brookhaven tried for the 2-point conversionbut failed, giving the hosts a 20-6 lead with 8 seconds remainingin the third quarter.

The fourth quarter turned out just as the others had, with bothteams trading possessions before Sessums busted loose with a41-yard run and 2:25 remaining. Brookhaven led 27-6 after Dickersonadded the PAT.

Bowling Green got it’s only other score of the night just 24seconds later as Cody Hughes found Justin Daniel on a 59-yard passplay, ending the scoring at 27-12.

“This was just a good high school football game.” added Milton.”I’m not going to take a thing away from Bowling Green. They’re agood football team.”

Sessums led the Brookhaven offense with 145 yards on 27 carriesand two touchdowns. He was 4 for 6 through the air for 47 yards anda touchdown.

Dickerson picked up 36 yards on 9 attempts with a touchdown. Healso had two catches for 37 yards. Franklin caught two passes for15 yards and a touchdown.

Lee Hunt led Bowling Green with 91 yards on 19 carries. Kingfollowed with 21 yards on 5 carries. Hughes completed 7 of his 12pass attempts for 141 yards and a touchdown. He was interceptedonce.

On defense, Aaron Douglas led Brookhaven with10 tackles and a fumble recovery. Bradley Allred followed with 9tackles and Kolby Byrd made 8 stops. Daniel Lofton intercepted apass for Brookhaven.

Brookhaven travels to face Adams County Christian School inNatchez Friday night for a non-district matchup. Kickoff is set for7 p.m.