Mike Easterling

Special to the Enquirer

Brewer entered the season with a goal of making the Class 6A high school football playoffs for the first time in 18 years.

The Patriots have little room for error the rest of the way.

A crucial turnover early in the second half against Albertville put Brewer in a hole it couldn’t dig out of, and the team fell 28-14 in Region 7 action Friday.

The Patriots dropped to 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the region. Albertville improved to 3-1, 1-1.

Brewer hosts Pell City (2-1, 1-0) in another region game Friday. The top four teams in the region advance to the playoffs.

“I think Albertville is one of the top four teams in our region,’’ Patriots coach Geoff Walters said. “I hope we can get there. We’ve got some games coming up that will prove that or disprove that.’’

After playing Pell City, which is coming off a 28-21 region win over Southside-Gadsden, Brewer steps out of league play with a game at Arab. Then comes region games at home against Fort Payne and on the road at Southside-Gadsden. After an open week, the Patriots close their region schedule at Cullman.

“We’ve just got to keep working hard,’’ Brewer lineman Jordan Flack said. “We’ve got to put this loss behind us and get ready for Pell City. We’ve got to step up on the offensive and defensive line and keep fighting and working hard. I know we’ve got the talent.’’

Brewer’s Gavin Young recovered a fumble to set up a touchdown in the second quarter that brought the Patriots to within 14-7 just before halftime, and he got an interception from Kristopher Bramlee to thwart an Aggie threat in the fourth quarter.

But the Patriots had two costly interceptions.

“We got some turnover, but we laid some down, too,’’ Albertville coach Dale Pruitt said.

The Aggies led 7-0 in the first quarter behind a 48-yard screen pass from quarterback Tyler Comeau and moved ahead 14-0 on Phillip Dendy’s 19-yard run with 5:35 to go in the first half.

Following Young’s fumble recovery, Brewer moved 34 yards in four plays to a 15-yard touchdown run by quarterback Zack Self. Caleb Gullion’s extra point made it 14-7 with 1:10 left in the half.

Brewer took the second half kickoff and moved 28 yards to a first down at midfield. The game then turned for good when a pass from Self bounced off a receiver and into the arms of the Aggies’ Colby Strickland.

He returned the interception 55 yards to the Patriots’ 3-yard line, and Bendy took it in from there. Albertville led 21-7.

Albertville later took over at Brewer’s 16 following a bad punt snap, and Bendy scored from the 6-yard line. Oliver Diaz Ramos kicked his fourth extra point to make it 28-7 at the 3:19 mark of the third quarter.

Brewer followed by driving to the Aggies’ 30, but another interception ended the threat.

Walters said he thought coming into the game the teams were matched evenly, or the Aggies had a slight edge, but that the Patriots couldn’t win “making mistakes.’’

“Our program is not at the point where we can win making mistakes,’’ he added.

The Patriots closed the scoring with 5:37 remaining when Johnathan Morgan caught a backside screen and raced 45 yards to the end zone.

Brewer aims to have two starters return from injury against Pell City – offensive lineman Hunter Morgan (hand surgery) and defensive lineman Thomas Graves (ankle). “We’ve got to get those guys back healthy,’’ Walters said.