Houston cuts back on fast food, turns on speed in Bees’ rout of Lee

Stacey Houston ran around the practice field every day. Sometimes he jogged. Sometimes he sprinted. Sometimes he heard the ridicule of his teammates.

He heard nothing but praise Friday night.

The 5-foot-8, 190-pound senior, about 15 pounds lighter thanks to all that running, rushed for 215 yards and four touchdowns in Brookville’s 40-14 Division 3, Region III championship win over Robert E. Lee.

The Bees (12-0) advance to the Group AA semifinals, where they’ll host the winner of today’s Region IV championship game between Richlands and Tazewell.

Richlands beat Brookville 24-14 in last season’s state semifinals.

“I’m real happy with what we’ve been doing, but we’re definitely not satisfied,” Bees senior quarterback Logan Thomas said. “We’re ready for next week. We’re ready to play against hopefully Richlands. We want another shot at them.”

Houston noticed he had lost a step earlier this season. A Salem defender ran him down on what should have been a long touchdown run on Sept. 5. He noticed at that point he needed to shed a few pounds to get that extra burst back.

“I would have been a state record for longest run from scrimmage, but I got caught at the 43-yard line. So I told myself I had to lose a couple pounds to get in shape,” Houston said.

With the help of the Bees training staff, Houston started a workout regimen to help him lose weight.

When the team was practicing defensive drills, Houston would take laps around the field.

He cut out fast food, too.

“When defensive practice started, I was running,” Houston said. “I ran laps around the field, ran sprints. I hated it, but I love it now. It was a lot of work. My teammates were laughing at me because I was out there dying.”

Now, there aren’t many defenders who can catch him in the open field. That was obvious Friday night when Houston took off on a 75-yard touchdown dash on the first play of the second half.

That was the first of Houston’s four second-half scoring runs. He also had touchdown runs of three, 19 and three yards.

“Last week, I guess all off week, was the first time I saw Stacey drop it into that extra gear, like he had in the past, and he was able to do that tonight,” Brookville coach Jeff Woody said. “Usually, that drink machine would jump on his back halfway down the field. Not tonight.”

Brookville dominated the line of scrimmage. Its offensive line opened gaping holes for Houston, and its defensive line minimized the impact of Fighting Leemen (11-2) quarterback Dae’Quan Scott.

Scott, the Southern Valley District’s player of the year, accounted for 200 yards and two touchdowns, but he didn’t break free for many big plays.

He threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Mickens and scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.

“We put our fastest guy out there at practice, and we practiced against Lorenzo Smith and he got us ready,” said junior linebacker Zach Burns, who had nine tackles. “We just made sure we didn’t let him get to the outside.”

Houston accounted for more than half of Brookville’s offense. Thomas, a Virginia Tech commit, provided some big plays too.

He accounted for both of the Bees’ first-half touchdowns, scoring on a 3-yard run and completing a 27-yard pass to Smith.