Senior quarterback Brian Wilson had some good vibrations Thursday, pacing unbeaten Burns Flat to a dominating 56-26 win over the visiting Alex Longhorns with 167 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Burns stays perfect in district play and on top of the heap, setting up a big week ten showdown at Fox, which also stayed perfect with a 47-0 mercy win over Tipton.

The Eagle defense shut Alex out until midway through the second quarter when Damon Avery, the Longhorns' leading rusher, topped off a solid 74-yard drive with a four-yard push.

Wilson answered by engineering an 83-yard drive, capping it with a six-yard keeper and Burns took a commanding 34-6 lead to the locker room.

Burns pinned the Horns down deep in their own territory early, forcing two punts and turning them into two quick scores. Wilson then exploded for 61 yards to put Alex in a 22-point hole before Avery finally got them on the board.

A third-quarter Alex fumble set up young Brennan Morse's second touchdown of the night, an eight-yard burst to extend to 34, but the Horns responded with a solid sixteen-play, 76-yard dive.

Avery carried most of the load, then quarterback Kelby Ketchum snuck the ball in from the one and hit Chris Thrash for the two to get to 34-14.

Momentum swung back to Burns and they capitalized with three unanswered scores. A turnover on downs, an interception and a fumble gave them three opportunities and they hit paydirt on all three to blow things open.

Morse got his third touchdown from the 21, Wilson got his third from the 16 and a reserve tailback for Burns scored from the 28 to extend to an overwhelming 56-14 and the starters started coming out in droves.

Dereck Halford scored from the seven and Tim Helm broke one for sixty yards as the fourth quarter was in the mop-up stage and the Eagles finished with an impressive 56-26 thumping.

Burns outrushed Alex 373-235 and had 440 total yards to the Horns' 291. Wilson led everyone with 167 yards and Morse finished with 122. Helm's late sixty-yarder put him at the top of the Longhorn rushing with 112 yards for the night. Avery was held to 66.

The good news for Alex fans is that unless the Horns completely implode next week, they'll finish third for the playoffs. They finish out district play at home Friday hosting struggling and rebuilding Tipton before a walkover with non-district Duke for Senior Night.

We'll take a closer look at the playoff picture on Tuesday and preview week nine in Wednesday's Express-Star.