Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Brookfield's Christian Davis finds running room as Pymatuning Valley's Jon Finello tries to strip the ball away

BROOKFIELD — The Brookfield High School football team didn’t recognize the Halloween holiday in the traditional sense on Friday night.

Instead of costumes and haunted houses, the Warriors served up a Fourth of July display in their first-round Division VI, Region 21 playoff game against visiting Pymatuning Valley.

There were fireworks aplenty in the first half en route to a 48-16 victory over the Lakers. The fifth-seeded Warriors improved to 10-1 and will play No. 4 Dalton in the second round next week.

Senior quarterback Donovan Pawlowski connected with classmate Isaiah Jones for a 77-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the contest.

On Brookfield’s next possession, Pawlowski and Jones hooked up on a 44-yard touchdown play to cap a seven-play, 98-yard drive.

“Our eyes light up when we see mismatches,” Pawlowski said. “(Jones) had a big mismatch all night long and we just got it going. It was great to jump out early and gain the momentum. We just kept it going from there.”

Sophomore running back Christian Davis got rolling in the second quarter, scoring on touchdown runs of 10 and 32 yards. Davis had 134 yards rushing on 12 carries at intermission and finished with 210 yards on 18 handoffs, including a 66-yard touchdown late in the third period.

Pawlowski’s third touchdown pass of the first half was a 27-yarder to a leaping Jones in the back of the end zone with 1:47 left in the half to increase the Warriors’ lead to 34-0 and precipitate a running clock in the second half.

“That was a great catch,” Pawlowski said. “I went through my reads and nobody was really open and Isaiah had two guys on him. But I knew if I put it up there where he could outjump anyone, it would give us a chance. He came down with it and it was a beauty.”

Brookfield coach Randy Clark was happy with both the offense and the defense.

“We know we have a very good offense and we have some very reliable threats,” he said. “It was great to score out of the gate. We have a strong passing game, which is even better when we are able to run the ball, and we ran it well tonight.”

Pawlowski was 7-for-9 passing for 184 yards prior to intermission with Jones snagging three balls for 148 yards. Pawlowski finished 8-for-10 for 214 yards as he tossed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Aiden Jones on Brookfield’s first possession after halftime.

Pawlowski shined despite still being somewhat reluctant to run the ball as he recovers from an injury sustained against Garfield.

“We told him we didn’t want him to run the ball these past three games, but I think he’ll be nearly 100 percent next week, which could help us immensely,” Clark said.

The 12th-seeded Lakers, who had 60 total yards at halftime, scored on Ty Vickery’s 5-yard run with 4:22 left in the game and he added a 23-yard TD run with 21 seconds remaining.

“Give them credit, they kept playing hard,” Clark said. “They have a few good players over there and they never quit.”