Sports

BEARDEN BRUTALIZES BEARS 46-8

By Britt Talent/SPECIAL TO THE COMMERCIAL
Saturday, October 24, 2009 2:12 AM CDT

BEARDEN — The top-ranked Bearden Bears converted three first-quarter interceptions into touchdowns and used a nice mixture of run-and-pass to roll past the Woodlawn Bears, 46-8, on Friday night to clinch the 8-2A Conference championship at Bearden’s Rogers Field.

Bearden improved to 8-0 overall and 7-0 in conference play while Woodlawn fell to 5-3 overall and 4-2 in league play.

Should Woodlawn knock off Smackover at home next Friday, the Bears would lock up the third seed from the 8-2A Conference and secure a first-round playoff game at home.

Woodlawn coach Marion Glover was hoping to have his Bears pull off the upset Friday to create a three-way tie atop the conference standings but his gameplan didn’t work out.

Glover had his Bears uncharacteristically slinging the ball around at the start and quarterback Jordan Spakes did hit his first two passes for 14 yards in completions. But three of his next four went to the other Bears and they capitalized on each one.

After Bearden’s Blain Harris made the first pick at the Bearden 41, Rashad Beets hit Rickey Brown on a screen pass for a 45-yard touchdown play capping a six-play, 59-yard drive. Aaron Stell hit the point after to make it 7-0 with a little under seven minutes left in the first.

On Woodlawn’s next possession, Jordan Spakes missed his first pass and was intercepted on the next by Jarell Moore at the Bearden 47. The second of several blocking-in-the back calls on the interception return pushed Bearden back to its own 46.

It didn’t seem to make much difference, though, as the 6-2, 210-pound Brown swept pass the Woodlawn defense and went 54 yards for the score on the first snap of the possession. Another Stell kick and it was 14-0 with 6:07 left in the first.

On the ensuing possession Spakes again fired away on first down and this time Lowe dove in to make the pick at the Woodlawn 39. On the next play, Lowe hit Jarell Moore for a 39-yard touchdown and another Stell PAT made it 21-0 with 5:52 left in the first.

Woodlawn picked up a first down on its next series but a fake punt by Ryker Smith was stopped short at the Woodlawn 27.

After one play and two more holding calls on Bearden, Beets went 24 yards for the score. Bearden bobbled the snap but Caleb Clark managed to pick it up and find Brown in the end zone for a two-point conversion. That pushed it to 29-0 with 2:57 left.

To make matters worse, quarterback Jordan Spakes was injured while playing defense on Bearden’s offensive series and junior Jarrod Maglothin had to come off the bench to lead the Woodlawn offense.

Without the veteran passer behind center, Glover decided to stick with what his Bears do best — run the football.

And surprisingly, Woodlawn found some success doing it.

Taking over at the Woodlawn 39 following a 32-yard kickoff return by Dillon Aldy, the Bears would march to the Bearden 13 before being stopped about a half-yard short on fourth-and-one.

With 7:37 still left in the first half, there was plenty off time for Lowe and company to add another TD before the half.

After two plays and another holding penalty, Brown clipped off back-to-back runs of 40 and 31 yards to give Bearden a first-and-goal at the Woodlawn 4. Two plays later, Beets squeezed in for a four-yard TD run with 5:01 left. Stell’s extra point made it 36-0 with 5:01 left.

Bearden would add its final touchdown of the night on the opening series of the second half.

With the first-team offense making its final appearance of the night, Lowe ran for 32 yards on the first play, hit Moore for a 25-yard pass on the next and ran it in for the touchdown after a facemask penalty against Woodlawn moved it to the Woodlawn 3.

Stell’s kick made it 43-0 with 9:03 left in the third and the clock rolling with the mercy rule in effect.

Woodlawn fumbled the ball away at its own 30 on the first play of the ensuing series, and Bearden’s second-team offense drove it to the Woodlawn 5 before settling for a 21-yard field goal by Stell to make it 46-0.

Woodlawn would avoid the shutout on its next possession.

After Dalton Fowler returned the kick off 27 yards to the Woodlawn 47, the Bears would drive 53 yards in seven plays before Fowler punching it in from the Bearden 1 with 7:17 left in the game. Davy Earnest ran in the two-point conversion for the final margin of victory.

It was easy to see early on that Glover was going against his nature to try to surprise Bearden by hitting some quick outs to soften up the defense.

While it worked on the first two passes, the bold experiment went awry after that. Glover was in an upbeat mood after the game despite how everything turned out.

“We wanted to win so we had to throw it,” he said. “That was really the only chance we had. We had to do some things we usually don’t do.”

He admitted he was surprised at how well Woodlawn moved the ball on the ground after Bearden had capitalized on the three first-quarter interceptions.

“That surprised me a good deal,” Glover said. “In hindsight, I think if we had stayed with the ground game from the start, I don’t think it have changed the result of the game but I don’t think the score would have ended up like it did.”

Woodlawn finished with 177 yards rushing on 34 carries to average 5.2 yards per carry, though some of those yard did come against Bearden’s second-team defense.

Hank Long led Woodlawn in rushing with 77 yards on 13 carries.

Brown was the game’s leading rushing with 125 yards on seven carries, all coming in the first half. He also had a 45-yard reception.

Lowe had an outstanding night as well, rushing six times for 75 yards and hitting 3-of-4 passes for 111 yards and no interceptions.

Bearden had 441 yards of total offense: 284 yards rushing and 157 yards passing.

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