CAMDEN — By JACKIE BEVILL
Staff writer
BEARDEN---Friday night at Rogers Field in their annual Parents night game the Bearden Bears played their most consistent game of the year as their offense, defense and special teams combined to blast the Strong Bulldogs, 52 to 8 to get the number four seed in the class 2-A state play-offs next week. Bearden improved to 2-3 in the conference and 3-6 overall while Strong ends their season with an 0-5 conference record and 1-8 overall. For eleven seniors it was a special night to win their last regular season game at Rogers Field. The seniors are: Garrett McWhorter, Cohen Word, Drake Wilson, Scott Graves, Matthew Neugebauer, Jayden Meads, Javian Robinson, Jared Rinehart, Trevor Hamilton, Billy Miner and Nick Elliott. In the state play-off seedings Junction City is number one, Hampton number two, Fordyce number three, Bearden number four and Parkers Chapel number five from District 8-2A this year. Friday night the Bears were led by McWhorter who caught three touchdowns and a two-point conversion pass for 59 yards, scoring 20 points and recovering one fumble. Following him was sophomore, Kendrick Juniel who scored three touchdowns, one, two point conversion including a 54 yard punt return for a T.D. for 20 points, 115 all-purpose yards plus he played quarterback the entire second half as the Strong coach asked the officials to start the mercy rule with three minutes left before intermission with Bearden leading 46 to 0 at that point of the game. Cohen Word the senior quarterback threw three touchdown passes and a two-point pass to McWhorter, recovered one fumble and returned one punt for 26 yards. for good field position for the Bears. Jayden Meads a senior played his best game with Robert Miller held out of the game with an injury as he rushed for 40 yards recovered one fumble and he intercepted a pass and returned it 30 yards for the Bears. Jalen Wade a junior recovered one fumble, intercepted a pass had a 26 yard run on offense and made several tackles on defense.
Bearden scored 16 points before Strong ran a single play on offense as the Bears received the opening kick-off and drove 54 yards to score on McWhorter’s pass reception and Juniel running the conversion. On the ensuing kick-off McWhorter recovered the onsides kick at the Bulldogs 41 yards line for the Bears. With 7:54 left in the first quarter Juniel scored on a three yard run and Word passed to McWhorter for two points and a quick 16-point lead and the rout was on. At the end of the first quarter Word hit McWhorter for 20 yards and a touchdown and Word ran the conversion to make it 24-0. With 9:09 left in the half Word passed five yards to McWhorter and then the quarterback ran the two-point, conversion to up the score to 32 to 0, Bears. After a fumble recovery, Juniel raced 46 yards for another Bears touchdown to make it 38-0 on the scoreboard. With 5:56 left before the half, Juniel returned a Bulldogs punt 54 yards for the score and Word ran the conversion to make it 46-0 on the clock. By mutual agreement between the coaches this clock was kept running at that point. With reserves playing for the Bears the third quarter ended with Bearden leading 46-0. Bearden used a pass interception to score their last touchdown as Rinehart scored on and eight yard run but they failed on the two-point play to up the score to 52 to 0 with the clock running. Strong avoided the shut-out as X-Zavier McHenry score on a 54 yard run and then he ran the conversion to set the final score at 52 to 8, Bears.
Bearden will travel to Mt. Ida Friday night for a first round game in the state play-offs.