HoCo Bears maul West Laurens Raiders

Head coach Jeremy Edwards’ team, with 36 seniors, was looking to continue their unbeaten season while cleaning up some of the things from the previous game; reducing their turnovers and improving on special teams specifically, while playing better football overall.

The Bears started the game off quickly.

They received the kick off and on the second play from scrimmage Ryan Taleb scored on a 67-yard run, taking the ball off the left tackle, untouched, all the way to the end zone.

On the following kick off the Bears had the Raiders trapped deep in their own territory on the 12-yard line, when Jayden Jackson hit the Raiders’ quarterback in the backfield knocking the ball loose; the fumble was recovered by the Bears in the end zone and gave them an early 14-0 lead.

The Raiders fumbled the kick off and the Bears recovered it on the 12-yard line.

Antwan Hill wasted no time with a pass for as many yards to Ricky Johnson for the team’s third touchdown in the first quarter.

The Raiders downed the kick off on their 49-yard line and after three plays were forced to punt on 4th-and-15.

The Bears started the next series with the ball on their own 22-yard line after a fair catch.

On 2nd-and-two Hill fumbled the ball and it was recovered by the Raiders on the 23-yard line.

The Bears held the Raiders to fourth and seven. The Raiders missed their field goal attempt and the Bears took over with the ball on their own 20-yard line.

The Bears drove to the Raiders 38-yard line and then Amir Thomas took the ball through the middle of the offensive line for a touchdown, giving them a 28-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

On the series after the kick off the Bears held the Raiders to 4th-and-17 but a personal foul on Houston County during the kick gave the Raiders a first down.

After three more plays the Raiders were forced to punt and were able to down the ball on the three-yard line, where the Bears started their next drive.

After a 17-yard run by Jailyn Nealy, Hill threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Johnson giving the Bears a 35-0 lead over the Raiders.

On their next drive the Raiders had to punt on their own 20-yard line, giving the Bears a start on their 49-yard line on their next series.

After driving 39-yards to the Raiders’ 12-yard line, the Bears scored on a 12-yard pass up the middle from Antwan Hill to fullback Ty Waters in the end zone.

The Bears forced the Raiders to punt on the next series and started with the ball on their 25-yard line.

Amir Thomas broke free for a 57-yard run to the Raiders 18-yard line. The Bears drove to the eight-yard line in three plays. Two plays later the Bears ended the first half with a four-yard pass play to Ryan Mackey, giving them a 49-0 lead.

The second half gave Edwards a chance to get some of his younger players on the field to get some playing time.

With just over four minutes left in the third quarter the Raiders were able to score their first touchdown of the game.

The Bears’ younger players struggled to get the offense going in the second half and did not score during the third quarter.

Halfway through the fourth quarter the Raiders scored their second touchdown brought the score to 49-14.

Towards the end of the quarter the Bears drove the ball down to the four-yard line where Grey Dunlap made a four-yard pass to Max Willhide. The Bears missed the after point attempt.

That gave the game a final score of Bears 55, Raiders 14.

UP NEXT:

The Bears are traveling to Locust Grove on Friday, Sept. 8 to take on the 1-1 Locust Grove Wildcats.