Brusly ends successful Berwick season

No. 22 Brusly upset No. 11 Berwick, 52-36, Friday in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs in Berwick, ending Berwick's first appearance in the playoffs in 20 years.
Berwick finished the season 8-3, while Brusly improved to 8-3. Brusly will face No. 6 Jennings in the second round. Jennings defeated No. 27 Church Point, 35-8, in other opening-round action.
Brusly gained 24 first downs and had 656 yards of total offense compared to Berwick's 339 yards and 14 first downs.
"No one likes to go out on this note, of course," first-year Berwick coach Eric Holden said.
"We just didn't get it done," Holden said.
"Brusly did a great job, some great coaches over there, great players,” Holden said. “I'm proud of those guys, and I wish them the best.”
This season has been one of changing the culture of Berwick football, Holden said. The players accepted that change, grew from it, "and everything went in the right direction," Holden said.
"We did a lot of things that haven't been done here in a long time," Holden said. "We beat Morgan City. We beat Patterson. We went down to E.D. White, who we haven't beaten since '74 and beat them. We hosted a home playoff game for the first time in I can't remember when."
Holden said he is proud of the team for how they've learned to compete and prepare this season.
Brusly coach Marc Brown said, "Offensively, this is probably our best game we've played all year, especially throwing the ball. They loaded the box on us, made us do something that we haven't shown a lot of success doing."
Quarterback Jason Holiday led Brusly and had a hand in all eight of his team's touchdowns Friday. Holiday completed 10-of-14 passes for 194 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for 281 yards on 29 carries and three touchdowns.
Brusly faced some third-and-long situations where it was able to convert, and Holiday did a good job of getting his team "out of bad situations and making plays," Brown said.
Brown said he knew Berwick could score, and he said Brusly never felt it had a comfortable lead.
Berwick jumped out on top early Friday when Kenan Jones made a tough catch in double coverage from quarterback Collin Louviere to score on a 44-yard play with 10:30 left in the first quarter.
Brusly responded quickly when Holiday threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Chase Green with 8:53 left in the quarter to bring the score to 7-6 after a missed extra point.
A lost fumble by Berwick led to another Brusly touchdown on a 10-yard pass to Tyler Nash to give Brusly a 12-7 lead after missing a 2-point conversion.
Brusly extended its lead to 18-7 in the second quarter when Holiday threw another touchdown pass, this time to Zavian Bell.
Later in the quarter, Holiday ran the ball 8 yards for a touchdown to further extend Brusly's advantage to 25-7.
Berwick answered with one more score before halftime when Louviere threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Toby Everage with 5:30 remaining until the half to cut Brusly's lead to 25-14.
To start the third quarter, Brusly turned the ball over on downs.
Berwick took advantage of good field position at Brusly's 44 yard line, scoring four plays later on a 26-yard pass to Josh Carver with 8:20 to play in the third to close the gap to 25-21.
But Berwick's defense continued to have difficulty stopping Brusly's offense as Holiday scored on another 8-yard run in the third quarter to give Brusly a 32-21 lead.
Brusly scored again early in the fourth quarter when Bell caught an 8-yard touchdown pass with 10:03 to play.
After Berwick turned the ball over on downs, Berwick got a break after Holiday ran the ball 45 yards and then 33 yards but lost a fumble just before the goal line that resulted in a touchback.
Mitchell Sanford, who had played quarterback on a couple of Berwick's drives earlier in the game, came back in at quarterback in the fourth quarter and completed an 18-yard pass to Tysin Meads to set up a 37-yard touchdown pass to Carver with 9:32 left. Berwick now was almost within one score of Brusly at 38-29.
Holiday continued his outstanding night, though, and scored on a 14-yard run and then threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Bell with 2:21 left to extend Brusly's lead to 52-29.
However, Berwick wasn't giving up, and Larenz Clark returned the kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown to bring the score to 52-36 with 2:07 to play.
Berwick's defense forced Brusly to punt on its next possession, and Berwick got the ball back with 1:17 left. Sanford had a 19-yard run, followed by a 23-yard completion to Jones, but Berwick couldn't do anything else on its final drive.
Louviere finished the game 12-of-21 passing for 168 yards and three touchdowns, while Sanford was 5-of-10 for 101 yards and one touchdown.
Jones caught eight passes for 104 yards and a touchdown. Carver had five catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
Brown said he "couldn't be more pleased" of how Brusly came out and executed their game plan on the road.
"My hat goes off to Berwick,” Brown said. “The coaching staff did a great job. It was a shootout for a while.”