If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got, they say.

Which was exactly what Steve Brooks had in mind last Saturday when he and his football team of 8th graders traveled to Ogden and beat the Layton Silver team, 35-7 in the Wasatch Front Football League’s Mini Bowl.

“We’re just going to do what we’ve done,” Brooks said. “We’re going to make them adjust to us.”

For those who don’t know, what the Brigham City Purple team does is produce dominating wins. They’ve only allowed three touchdowns all year, all of which came in the last two games against some of the toughest competition in the league.

“We didn’t make drastic changes at all,” he said, on either side of the ball. “We did exactly what we did all year.”

Even when Layton came out early running a wildcat offense, something Brooks hadn’t seen them do in any of their games, the advice to his team was simple: Keep your heads up and do what you’ve done.

And they did, and it worked, which Brooks said highlighted one of the biggest strengths of his team: Coach-ability.

“They just wanted to learn and they wanted to win,” he said.

A great tackle by Jayk Brooks stopped Layton’s first drive. But on their second, the wildcat, some impressive misdirection and a completed pass to their biggest lineman—who lined up as an eligible receiver—set up a 17-yard touchdown run with just seconds left in the first quarter.

But as Layton’s tricks became less effective, Brigham City’s jabs more and more found their mark.

“We were just going to hit them with a little bit of everything he had until we knew where to attack them,” said coach Brooks.

Brigham City’s quarterback, Shad Watson, threw the first of his team’s big punches as two runs moved them 46 yards to Layton’s 47-yard line. The next was a viscous combination as Watson found Matt Williams on a short pass, which Williams turned into a touchdown. A successful two-point conversion—a pass from Jayk Brooks to Watson—ended up being the game-winning play.

The play illustrates the team’s biggest advantage on offense: A large number of weapons.

“Teams focus on one particular player, so we can go to someone else,” said coach Brooks.

Normally, that one particular player is Shad Watson, but if a team doesn’t get him down, he can pass it off to anyone of a number of capable receivers. One, for example, is Breckin Gunter, a new addition to the team this year, who made a one-handed circus grab late in the second quarter that set up Brigham City at Layton’s 5-yard line and resulted in a 1-yard scoring run by Jayk Brooks and a 15-7 Brigham City lead.

“He’s an outstanding ball player,” said Steve Brooks about Gunter, who used to be a lineman, but was switched to tight end when he came to Brigham City.

Gunter ended Layton’s last drive of the first half with an interception and recorded Brigham City’s last score when Layton muffed a punt late in the third quarter, which he picked up and returned about 35 yards to the end zone.

Of course, by the time Brigham City finished off their first possession of the second half, which went 61 yards, took five minutes off the clock and ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Watson, Layton was down 21-7 and things were looking desperate.

Which is a good look for an opponent when you have players like Williams and Teagan Hubbard in pass coverage, who both ended Layton drives with interceptions.

Hubbard’s pick set up Brigham City on Layton’s 47, and it only took one play and some great blocking downfield for Watson to turn the possession into a score.

Brigham City was able to take their first possession of the fourth quarter and run five-and-a-half minutes off the clock to effectively end the game.

The win marks the end of the journey for Steve Brooks, who has worked with the core group of the team for five years with the sole purpose of reaching the championship. He said he’s not sure if he’ll continue coaching or work in some other capacity in the league.

Or, he said, “Maybe I’ll get to know my wife now.”

One thing’s certain, however: “I’m going to be Box Elder’s biggest fan for the next few years,” he said, as his team continues its journey through high school.

“It’s going to be exciting.”