The District 13-4A Division II slate got off to a rough start for the Brownwood Lions last week with a home loss to No. 2 La Vega, while the preseason Top 10 Robinson Rockets escaped an upset bid from Salado in their league opener.

The Lions (2-4, 0-1) will make their first trip to Rocket Field at 7 p.m. Friday in their first-ever meeting against Robinson (5-1, 1-0) on the gridiron.

Reflecting on last week's 49-14 loss to La Vega, Lions second-year head coach Jeryl Brixey said, "I saw us not play real great in the first half and certainly we need to be more competitive. There's a thousand reasons you can get into, but I'm just going to always challenge our kids that whatever obstacles we need to overcome, we have to overcome them. We have to go out and execute on offense and tackle on defense, and we really struggled with tackling for quarter and a half, and didn't do a real good job of blocking then either. But we played a lot better in the second half and we have to build on that. I feel like we lose a little fire and initiative if we fall a couple of touchdowns behind and we're not doing a great job ignoring the scoreboard. A year ago, I felt like that group did a great job of not worrying about what the scoreboard says and kept playing. And there's times that we've done that this year, but it seems like if we get a little down we don't handle it well. It's our job as coaches to get us through that and get that fixed, and we're working hard to get it fixed. I'm looking forward to moving forward and being better this week in that regard." The Lions were outscored 42-0 in the first half and outgained 382-39 in total yards over the first two quarters, but outscored La Vega, 14-7, in the second half as Erza House rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown and Rush Tharp caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Riggs Gray.