Tale of two halves—Bears’ rally falls short in home opener
By Greg Moore
Banner Sports Editor
Opening night of Friday night lights found the Butler County Bears toe to toe with a good Logan County Cougars team through two quarters of play before the second half got away from the Beas in Russellville. The following week, in Dixon, KY, the Bears found themselves clinching a 26-11 advantage over Webster County at intermission, but falter in the second half. The Trojans pounded the ball on the ground all night and took its toll when they scored in the closing seconds of the game to win, 30-26.
In that game, senior quarterback, Garrett Phelps’ explosive 55-yard keeper put the Bears up 6-3 after the Trojans kicked a field goal on their time-consuming, opening drive. The Bears defense stood strong to force a punt on the home team’s second possession. Then, the Phelps hooked up with senior receiver, Kellon Meredith, a 64-yard strike in which Meredith made a spectacular catch in coverage for another touchdown.
Garrett Phelps plowing into the end zone as receivers, Meredith, Vincent, and Deweese look on.
After junior, Clay Steff, scored the two-point conversion to go up 14-3, senior defensive lineman, Brock Pfingston, forced and recovered a fumble for the Bears. Steff took a handoff for 24 yards to set up another Phelps touchdown pass; this one, a 15-yarder to sophomore receiver, Cainan Vincent. The Bears weren’t done when another Meredith touchdown-catch gave them the 15-point advantage.
Unfortunately, the big play and turnovers stopped after halftime. The Trojans ran the ball over and over to eat clock in the final 24 minutes and win. Senior, Tucker DeJarnette, who plays everywhere for Coach Robins, was a monster on defense, as was, sophomore, Kevin Robins. The two of them combined for 43 tackles, 22 and 21, respectively.
Opening game at BCHS, week three, found the Warren Central Dragons making the hop, skip, and jump up the parkway. On a fourth and long, the visitors struck first, a pass in which the Bears had some miscommunication in coverage, putting them up 8-0 after the conversion.
The opening drive for BC found the Bears marching down inside the red zone before turning it over on downs. Senior running back, Lonnie Phelps, who was sorely missed at Dixon, broke off some seriously physical runs by trucking Dragons on the drive, but like all the first half, the Bears never could break the Dragons and get into the end zone.
Lonnie Phelps had himself a night running through Dragons.
Before the end of the first half, on fourth and one, the Dragons scored on a QB keeper, which nobody knew whether he was in or not. Down 14-0, the Bears came out in the third with another long drive into Warren Central territory and knocking on the red zone door; however, the visitors bent but did not break, once again.
After the Dragons kicked a field goal to go up 17-0, Garrett Phelps took the ensuing kickoff up to midfield. A huge fourth down reception by DeJarnette kept the drive alive which consisted of a lethal dose of Phelps and Phelps. It was Garrett taking the football out of Lonnie’s belly on read-option from about eight yards out to get the Bears on the scoreboard.
After senior kicker, Brayden McKinney’s extra point, he placed an awesome onside kick within grasps of the strong hands of freshman, Felix Francisco. Francisco’s recovery with over nine minutes of play help shift the momentum; but, the Bears could not score on the possession. The defense stood strong after Central moved the ball into scoring position and left the Bears with only four minutes to score twice.
Garrett Phelps places the snap and set for the PAT by Brayden McKinney.
Finally, the Bears passing game started to make strides with completions to Meredith, and the Deweese cousins, Trever and Clayton. On fourth and four, Meredith snatched a touchdown to pull the score to 17-14.
Once again, the onside kick was a beauty from McKinney; however, it was not clear why the Bears did not gain possession. It looked as if they recovered it, but the officials gave the ball to the Dragons, who ran the remaining time off the clock. The win improved Warren Central’s record to 2-1 and dropped the Bears to 0-3 on the season.
The Bears will look to avenge last season’s rout to the Cougars of Grayson County this Friday night at home. In what should be a more balanced football game, Coach Robins will seek two good halves put together by his Bears in order to beat the traveling Cougars, who are coming in at 2-1, wins over Edmonson and McLean Counties.
The Bears could easily be 2-1 themselves. Phelps and Phelps will continue to lead the charge offensively as the offensive line abundantly meshes weekly. The Bears will hopefully continue a balanced attack and Phelps can find open receivers to make plays. In addition to Robins and DeJarnette, Will Amos, Zander Stokes, Brock Pfingston, and Lonnie Phelps have been anchoring the Bears in the box on defense which will look to stop Kadin Hanshaw, who carved them up last season. However, many things have changed since then.
