Running back Justin Stein (left) secures the ball after taking the handoff from quarterback Brandon Cerny (center) while S.L. Lewis (right) clears a path on Friday night (September 9, 2016) against Brazos. [ NOTE: click on photo to enlarge ]

photo courtesy of Lori Raabe

The Shiner Comanches, with a big second-half lead, saw the ideal time to work on their quick passing game.

The Comanches (2-1) scored 41 points in the first half mainly due to their vintage ground game.

And then were able to get in some throws as they bounced back to winning ways with a 41-14 win over Wallis Brazos on Homecoming Night Friday night at Comanche Stadium.

"We got a lot of receivers who are possession players who can catch the ball and we wanted to see what the short game would look like," Shiner head coach Steven Cerny said. "It came through pretty good."

Shiner still ran the ball extremely well with 305 yards on 31 carries.

Dadrian Taylor had another stellar night with 151 yards on nine carries and three touchdowns. He also caught a short touchdown pass. Justin Stein, also with nine rushes, had 127 yards and a touchdown.

"We are going to run the ball first. We know if someone is packing the line of scrimmage and we are struggling (running the ball), we are going to have to throw," Cerny said. "This was a good opportunity to work it.

Quarterback Brandon Cerny was 8-of-13 passing for 98 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Ty Boedeker had two catches for 38 yards and tight end Jordan Malinovsky had two catches for 16 yards and one touchdown.

While playing well with a couple of stops on fourth down and one interception, the Shiner defense was not completely flawless.

Brazos got a couple of big runs and a couple of big passes.

"Our defense got hurt by the run and the big play," Steven Cerny said. "There was several times on third downs we should have had Brazos."

Shiner also had 75 yards in penalties.

"You do not really put that much emphasis on penalties when you are up by a lot but we have to be more disciplined," he said.

Tyler Mikes took over at quarterback in the second half, allowing Boedeker and Dustin Petras to focus more on playing receiver and in the secondary.

Steven Cerny said it also allowed Mikes to get quarterback experience as Boedeker and Brandon Cerny are both seniors.

Shiner opened the game with a kickoff return to midfi eld and scored in eight plays, on a 2-yard run by Taylor.

After a three-minute-plus drive for the Cougars, Shiner defense held and the offense went 78 yards in three plays. On the second play, Taylor took a toss and ran 25 yards from his 31 to the Brazos 44. Stein scored on the next play.

The Cougars scored on their next drive, 68-yards in 10 plays on the long touchdown run by Daimon LaFrance.

Shiner went ahead 20-7 on a 72-yard drive, finished off by a 14-yard run by Taylor.

Brazos went three-and-out next, and the Comanches had a 57 or 58-yard punt return to the 12.

Shiner took all but 39 seconds with Brandon Cerny’s 10-yard toss to Malinovsky for a 27-7 lead with 6:52 left in the half.

The Comanches then scored twice in about a five-and-a-half minute span —- Brandon Cerny picked off a pass and returned it 37 yards to the Cougar 8 for another very short field. He then tossed an 8-yard pass to Taylor.

Brazos turned it over on downs on the next drive inside Comanche territory at the 33 and it was a quick, three-play drive, capped with a 64-yard run by Taylor.

Brazos got one more score as LaFrance took in an 18-yard pass from Luke Demny with 10:42 left in the game.