Bulldogs break loose in second half, run past Brilliant 47-14

The Belgreen High School varsity football team’s 2026 return to Sparks Stadium on Friday night could not have gone any better for the Bulldogs, who routed the Brilliant High School Tigers to win by a final score of 47-14.

After taking a 48-8 loss at Woodville in the opening week of the campaign, Belgreen (1-1) regrouped and asserted itself at home against Brilliant (1-1), especially in the second half when the Bulldogs scored 34 points to run away with it.

The game began a bit slow but picked up as it went along.

A lackluster first quarter saw Brilliant put together a long but ultimately fruitless opening drive, the Bulldogs forcing a turnover-on-downs after the Tigers held the ball for over six minutes. The first quarter concluded with an opportunity for Belgreen to get on the board but that also ended in a turnover-on-downs. A long run by Logan Alexander set Belgreen up deep in Tiger territory, but once the Bulldogs got near the goal line the drive sputtered to a stop and they turned it over on downs at the Brilliant one-yard line.

“On that first drive we’ve got to be able to punch that in there,” Belgreen head coach Jonathan Raper said, “but we had a miscommunication on two plays with people going in the wrong direction. That’s what happens when everyone’s not on the same page.

“It hurt us, but it didn’t ruin the night,” he added. “We didn’t dwell on it and were able to move past it.”

It was the second quarter when Belgreen began to garner momentum.

Following a Brilliant punt, Belgreen got the ball back in good field position and was once again able to drive into the Tiger redzone. This time the offense came through. Set up by a 27-yard rush by Ethan Dawson that took the Bulldogs to the one-yard line, junior Rush Berryman was able sneak it past the goal line for the game’s first touchdown. That gave the Bulldogs a 6-0 advantage with 9:01 to play in the half.

A couple of possessions later, a Brayden Messer interception (Belgreen’s second INT of the night) gave Belgreen the ball back at midfield with less than a minute to go in the half, and the hosts took advantage. With 38 seconds left before halftime, Berryman saw freshman Zed Wilson wide open on a post route and hit him in stride for an easy 60-yard touchdown to make it 13-0 going into the break.

Berryman and Wilson, two of the Bulldogs’ best weapons, split time at quarterback in Belgreen’s wing-T offense and play other offensive positions when not under center. This flexibility—not just with Berryman and Wilson but with several players—played a role in his team’s success against Brilliant.

“It keeps people from keying on just one person, and it gives us different ways to get people involved in the offense,” Raper said.

“We’ve got a lot of different guys at different positions. We’re playing two quarterbacks, got several guys that can run the ball and play different places. We’re pretty balanced.”

“Getting the ball to people in different ways and moving people around, I think it makes us a better team,” Raper added.

Up 13-0 at halftime, Belgreen wasted no time extending its lead when it came out for the third quarter.

Less than 90 seconds into the second half, the Bulldogs were up 19-0 after a 46-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Clayton Mitchell.

Brilliant responded with a touchdown of its own on its next drive. A long kickoff return by the Tigers preceded a short touchdown run to make it a 19-7 ballgame, but after that it was all Belgreen for the remainder of the game.

Less than a minute after Brilliant scored, Belgreen answered with a screen pass from Wilson to senior Ethan Dawson that went 50-yards for the score. The Bulldogs would go on to score two more touchdowns in the third quarter—one a 13-yard touchdown run by Berryman, the other a 39-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to junior Dylan McGee—to give them a 39-6 advantage heading into the final 12 minutes.

Belgreen’s last touchdown was scored midway through the fourth quarter via a 42-yard dash down the sideline by Berryman.

The visitors managed to put one more touchdown past the Bulldogs, but with less than three minutes to play the game was far out of reach.

The key to Belgreen’s second half explosion, Raper said, was pretty simple: It came down to execution.

“We had a few plays called in the first half that I think would’ve been big plays, but, whether it was (because of) a false start or something like that, we ended up botching them,” Raper said. “In the second half we were able to hit on those; we took advantage, and I think the kids did a good job of executing on, what (Brilliant) was giving us.”

As the Bulldogs enter region play with their next game against Cherokee on September 4, Raper is hopeful that the lessons learned from the Woodville loss combined with the confidence boost from the Brilliant victory will push his players to continuing improving each day.

“In the Woodville game our biggest problem was that we just didn’t execute very well,” Raper said. “Now, Woodville is a good team, and that’s what I told the kids after game: Unless they have a lot of injuries, Woodville is going to make the playoffs and make some noise in the playoffs. But those are the types of teams we have to play with if we want to get to where we want to be and be able to compete with some of these teams in our region.

“I was very pleased with the way we rebounded and showed up Friday night. We were improved in all phases of the game. A lot of times I think you see the biggest improvement from week one to week two.

“Now we’ve got to keep working hard and improving and building on this,” Raper added. “Hopefully we can add another win to this one, but if we not we’ll move on and get ready for the next one.”