YAZOO CITY — Brookhaven Academy thought Friday night’s gameagainst Manchester Academy would simply be a pushover beforegearing up for Friday’s first round playoff game against BowlingGreen. But the Mavericks had other ideas as they hosted theDistrict 4-AA champion for their final game of the year.

Brookhaven overcame a sluggish first half before escapingManchester with a hard-fought 27-14 win. Brookhaven improved to 8-3on the year as they begin playoff play Friday. Manchester ended itsseason at 3-7.

“We didn’t really want to have a game like this the week beforewe started the playoffs.” said Brookhaven Academy head coachHerbert Davis Jr. “We didn’t have our heads in the game early andwe made a lot of mistakes.

“It was an ugly win. We’ve got to work a lot harder in practicethis week to be able to beat good teams in the playoffs.”

The Cougars host Bowling Green in the first round. Kickoff is 7p.m.

It took just three plays for the Mavericks to strike on theopening drive. Taz Alias found Taylor Parks on a 47-yard pass playto set up the offense at the Brookhaven five yard line. On the nextplay, Alias darted in for the score. Alex Crawford added the extrapoint and the Mavericks led 7-0 with 11:15 left in the firstquarter.

Brookhaven responded in only 4 plays on the ensuing drive,marching 63 yards before Nathaniel Sbravati scored on a 16-yard runwith 10:23 remaining. Sbravati added the extra point, knottingthings up at 7-7.

Brookhaven added its only other score of the first half with5:06 left in the first quarter. Kolby Byrd picked off a RyanPeaster pass and raced 47 yards for the score. The extra pointattempt failed, giving Brookhaven a 13-7 lead.

Manchester answered with 8:39 remaining in the first half .Taylor Parks picked off a Chandler Rogers pass and returned it 29yards for the score. Crawford added the extra point for a 14-13Manchester lead at the half.

Brookhaven was able to overcome a flag filled second half andtake the lead for good with 8:13 remaining in the game. JenningsMills scored on an 8 yard run. Rogers found Scotty Peavey for thetwo point conversion attempt, giving the Cougars a 21-14 lead.

The Cougars got one more insurance score on a 1-yard run byKolby Byrd with 1:16 left in the game, ending the scoring at27-14.

Byrd led the Brookhaven offense, picking up 115 yards on 15carries with a touchdown. Sbravati had two carries for 43 yards.Rogers completed 5 of his 13 pass attempts for 96 yards. He wasintercepted twice.

Alias led Manchester, completing 7 of his 14 pass attempts for117 yards. He was intercepted four times. Ryan Peaster completed 5of his 8 pass attempts and he was intercepted once.

On defense, Kolby Byrd led Brookhaven with 11 tackles and 2interceptions. Austin Barnett made 7 stops. Mark Rushing made 6tackles and had an interception. Sbravati and Caleb Covington eachhad 5 tackles. Kyle Burt and Jennings Mills each had aninterception.