Brave senior Zaylin Wood (#4) pursues a Tiger back during Friday night’s 41-7 region win at Temple (Photo: Jeff Napier)

(Temple, GA) — A big second half sparked a 41-7 Heard County Braves region road win over Temple Friday night to disrupt the Tiger’s homecoming festivities.

Senior Aaron Beasley had a monster night rushing the ball and the big men up front dominated on both sides of the ball to push the Braves record to 2-0 in Region 5-AA and 4-2 overall.

The Tigers kept the game close early trailing just 13-0 at halftime and would move even closer on a 66-yard fake punt TD run to close the gap to 13-7.

The excitement was short lived for the Tigers though as Beasley carried it in from 80 yards away on the next play from scrimmage.

Beasley finished the night with 302 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 17 attempts to lead the way offensively. The senior Tennessee Volunteer commit had a nice push and some big holes to run through all night long thanks to the Brave offensive line.

Regular starters Jaidan Cameron, David Urquilla, Brenden Thomspon, and Anthoney Graley all played well as did sophomore Drew Cornelius who made his first start filling in for the injured senior Michael Cheney.

Junior Matt Brown was effective off the bench as well.

With the very point profitable ground attack, the Braves did not need to air it out much although Alijah Huzzie did find Quincy Sheppard on a 21-yard first half touchdown pass.

The Braves gained 402 yards of total offense. Alex Boyd had a nice effort with 54 yard rushing on seven carries.

Defensively, the Braves were stellar up front smothering the Tiger offense all night long. The Brave defense yielded just 134 yards of offense with 66 coming via the special teams on the fake punt.

The Tiger offense had no answer for Zaylin Wood who was a force up front as he has been all season long for the Braves. His strip fumble recovery was the big defensive play of the second quarter. The Temple commit added several big tackles for losses.

Urquilla also was tremendous as was Tray Owens who came away with some strong stops. Kesean Johnson was huge in a two-play sequence where he made a big hit and on the ensuing play recovered a fumble.

As a unit the Brave defense forced a loss of yardage on 11 different plays. Sophomore Chance Curbow closed out the night in a big way for the Brave defense with his first varsity interception. Chance is the son of Brave offensive coordinator Randall Curbow.

The Braves will be on the road again this week in Region 5-AA action as they travel to Columbus Friday night to face the Jordan Red Jackets (2-5, 1-1) before returning home October 19 for an uber important match-up with arch rival Callaway in the sixth edition of the Pulpwood Classic.

In other Region 5-AA action Friday night, Callaway (6-1, 3-0) defeated Lamar County 45-6, Bremen (5-1, 0-1) upended Jordan (2-5, 1-1) by a score of 50-7, and Spencer (1-5,1-1) was off.