Shiner battled all of 2020 with a target on its back.
The Comanches (14-0) ran the table in 2A DI the entire season as the wire-to-wire No. 1 team in the state and capped it off with a 42-20 win over Post (15-1) in the state championship Thursday inside AT&T Stadium.
“They didn’t skip a beat since (summer workouts),” Shiner head coach Daniel Boedeker said. “They were determined, and it was a very special group to work with this year with all the things we had to work with week-to-week.”
After heading into the locker room up one at halftime, Shiner blanked the Antelopes in the second half, outscoring them 21-0 thanks to a forceful effort from its defense spearheaded by MVP performances from the Brooks Brothers, Doug and Dalton.
The first score in the second half came off a blocked punt from the older brother, Doug, that rolled in the endzone. The 6-foot, 265-pound defensive tackle was named the game’s Defensive MVP after also having a stripped fumble on Post’s opening drive.
“They’re gamechangers on both sides of the ball and both of them definitely did that today,” Boedeker said.
During Shiner’s next offensive possession, the Comanches hit the Antelopes with a dose of lightning on Dalton’s 24-yard scamper. He was named the game’s Offensive MVP.
“It means a lot,” Dalton Brooks said. “We came in and said we weren’t going to let the team lose. Things got rough and the team just came together, came back out in the second half and played as a team. The defense came in and started getting stops and we just made a bit more plays than other people, but we were all making plays.”
The game’s final touchdown came on a jump-pass from quarterback Tyler Palmer to Michael Williams from 27 yards out with just under three minutes remaining.
The Bold Gold battled through most of the game without their point-man quarterback Slayden Pittman. The senior exited the game on the Antelopes’ second drive with a leg injury.
After Pittman’s injury, Post had to reinvent itself on offense tossing out roughly “85 percent” of its playbooks, according to head coach Michael Pittman, including most of the traditional passing plays. Michael Pittman is also Slayden’s father..
“They adapted and kept fighting,” Michael Pittman said. “It kind of handcuffed us as far as the amount of different things that we could do.
“It was one of the tougher things I’ve done. You’ve got that (father-son) relationship, but you got a lot of other kids fighting and you’ve got to keep fighting for them. It’s a juggling act. The kids responded well, but it wasn’t easy for sure.”
Post’s offense was buoyed when senior wideout Nathan McDaniel stepped in the backfield and rattled off two big touchdowns of 78 and 35 yards. McDaniel finished with 126 yards on the ground and 92 through the air