‘Monster’ Brown Carries Henderson to 41-22 Win Over Gladewater in Final Regular Season Matchup

HENDERSON — Senior Patrick “Monster” Brown lived up to his nickname as the Henderson Lions rolled over the Gladewater Bears, 41-22, in the teams’ final District 16-3A matchup Friday night at Lion Stadium.

Brown had 88 yards on six carries and recorded two touchdowns in the Lions' victory. Brown racked up 232 yards on punt returns alone, including a 71-yard return for a touchdown. Henderson senior Diamante Wright carried the ball 16 times for 51 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Janson Moore went 5 of 8 passing for 55 yards and one touchdown.

"We played a great team last week and had to come back and play Henderson football,” Henderson coach Dickey Meeks said. “We made some mistakes last week that we needed to improve on coming into the Gladewater game.”

Henderson (6-4, 4-2) faces Van in the bi-district round of the Class 3A Division II playoffs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium in Tyler. Gladewater ended its season 3-7 overall and 0-6 in district.

Early in the third quarter senior defensive lineman Contrell Phillips regained control of the ball for Henderson after Gladewater quarterback Derrick Daniels fumbled the snap on the Bears’ 17-yard line. From there, it only took three plays for Brown to race by the Gladewater defense for a 13-yard touchdown to extend the Henderson lead to 27-0.

The Bears quickly answered back with Daniels taking the ball 66 yards for a touchdown. Daniels then connected with McKenzie Stephens for a two-point conversion, putting Gladewater on the board for the first time to make it 27-8.

With 3:11 left in the third quarter Daniels broke three tackles to punch it in for the Bears from 18 yards out. Sophomore standout Daylon Mack bulled his way through the Henderson line for a two-point conversion and cut the Lions’ lead 27-16.

Vince McNew scored his first career touchdown for the Lions on a 6-yard run with 5:40 left in the game. Gladewater responded with a 25-yard touchdown run by Stephens as time expired.

“We had three turnovers tonight and we cannot do that against a good team like Van or Canton,” Meeks said. “We gave up some big plays and I haven’t seen much of Van or Canton, but whoever we play we won’t be able to do that. We need to work on keeping the ball and playing solid defense.”

Daniels finished the contest with 155 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns while Stephens rounded out the Gladewater offense with 14 carries for 71 yards and one touchdown.