On Friday, October 16th, the Willow Springs Bears would play their first district game against the Houston Tigers on the Tigers’ cold, muddy field. The Bears came out fired up and knew this would be a very important game.

The Tigers would defer the ball to the second half, so the Bears were first to receive. The Bears would not go far on their first drive, but neither would the Tigers. This game proved to be a defense dominated game. On their second drive, the Bears drove the ball down the slippery field to put it in for the score with a 3-yard run by Allen Brasier. With an unsuccessful two point attempt, the Bears were up early by six. The Tigers were also able to move the ball, but the Bears’ defense came up with some key stops to give the Bears’ offense the ball. Even though the ball was very slippery, Cole Johnson was able to conect with Brasier into the end zone for six. With another successful pass for two, the Bears put up eight before the half. At the end of the first half, the Bears were ahead 14-0.

At the beginning of the second half, both offenses would not make any big plays, but the Tigers defense would when Kyle Poynter picked off a pass to take it all the way. With a missed extra point, the Tigers had six on the board. Neither team’s offense would score for a long time but would burn up much of the clock until the last two minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Tigers had the ball but with not much time, they were desperate for the score. The time ticked away slowly, and so did the yards for the Tigers. Then with seconds left, the Tigers were able to score when Poynter completed a pass to Ridge Miller . This made the score 14-12, Bears. The Tigers had to get two points here and went for it. Poynter would run the ball only to be stopped short by the Bears in an amazing goal line stand. The Tigers would onside kick it to the Bears, but the Bears would recover. With a final kneel by Johnson, the Bears had done it. The final score was Bears-14, Tigers-12.

“We’re done with the first step,” said Coach Mac. The Bears hope to take their second step towards a district championship in their next district game against Cuba.