By Ronnie Hughes

Leader Correspondent

SILSBEE — District 10-4A Division 1 opened play Friday night with a showdown in Silsbee as the hometown Tigers hosted the Battlin’ Bears of Little Cypress – Mauriceville.

The Tigers (3-3, 1-0) clawed their way to a 35-20 win with a 324-yard rushing performance by Calvin Tyler who added three scores on the night as he dazzled the crowd each time he touched the ball.

LC-M (2-4, 0-1) won the toss and elected to receive the opening kick-off. J’Lon Douglas grabbed the kick at the 5 and worked his way out to the Bear 35 to set up nice field position for the Bears. Chris Winters helped push the ball quickly past mid-field as the Bears run game was firing on all cylinders early.

The Bears, however, worked a 15-play drive down to the Tigers 2 and failed to punch the ball in after four attempts. They opted to go for the touchdown on fourth and goal, but turned the ball over on downs.

The Tigers didn’t waste any time getting things started on their end. Despite starting their first drive of the game in the shadows of the end zone, it took just two plays for them to put the first points of the night on the board. Tyler sputtered off the right side for three yards on the first play, but made up ground rumbling for a 95-yard touchdown on the very next play. He slipped through defenders and within a flash torched the Bears secondary. Following the extra point the Tigers led 7-0 with 3:11 left in the first quarter.

The Bears would open the ensuing drive at their own 31 and again went straight to the ground and pound attack. Mark Netherly opened the drive with an end-around play for 11 yards to get the offense moving again. The Bear offense finished the task this go-around polishing off an 11-play 69-yard drive with a Beau Bickham one-yard dive. The Bears trailed, 7-6, after Winters failed to lunge in for the two-point conversion.

Silsbee had time on their side with just under eight minutes remaining in the first half. Quarterback Willie Jones kept the offense moving forward starting off with back-to-back carries totaling 26 yards. The drive sputtered about six plays in and it appeared the Bear defense came up with a big time stop by forcing a Tiger punt. However, the Bears got caught sleeping and Jones took the fake punt 12 yards for a first down to keep the drive alive. Three plays later Jones would be on the receiving end of a two-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Collins as the Tigers led 13-6 at halftime after garnering 186 yards rushing in two quarters of play.

It appeared the Tigers wanted a replay of from their opening drive to start the second half. It again took the Tigers just two plays to get into the end zone and take control of the game. Tyler took the first play from scrimmage 64 yards down to the Bears 3. Tyler capped the quick drive with a three-yard skip into the end zone and also picked up the two-point conversion for a 21-6 Tiger lead just a minute into the third quarter.

The Bears answered back quickly after Dameon Morris returned the ball out to the LC-M 41. Faced with a fourth-and-eight from the Tiger 43, Bickham threaded the ball through the defense to find Netherly on a deep slant for a 43-yard touchdown pass. The Bears again failed to make the extra point and trailed 21-12 with ample time left in the third quarter. Bickham passed for 143 yards and three total touchdowns in the loss.

Big time defensive efforts by Winters and Netherly helped the Bears force the Tigers to punt on the next series, giving Bear fans a glimmer of hope being down by one score. The fans would be disappointed as the offense failed to muster much and went three-and-out.

An exhausted Bear defense took the field with little time to catch a second wind, but managed to again halt a feisty Tiger attack. After two big runs by Tyler for first downs the Tiger offense turned the ball over on downs, once again giving the Bears opportunities to stay in the game.

Bickham had his offense moving with a couple of big completions with Winters and Douglas putting in work on the ground. It was an attempted deep pass by Bickham to Katon Brown that killed the Bear momentum after Bruce Newton intercepted the pass one-handed as he was falling to the ground. The interception gave way to another big touchdown run for Tyler from 55 yards out that essentially sealed the game for Silsbee as the Tigers led 28-12 in the fourth quarter.

The Bear offense couldn’t find any answers for the Tiger defense. Newton intercepted Bickham once again on the second play of the Bears next series at the Tiger 12. Jones hit Kalon Barnes for a 57-yard pass right down the middle of the field for a big play. Guillory was able to walk Barnes down before he reached the end zone. Two plays later Jones broke a tackle for a 29-yard touchdown run giving the Tigers a 35-12 advantage with three minutes left in the game. Jones was 7-for-11 passing for 90 yards while rushing for 37 and nabbing a receiving touchdown.

While the game was seemingly out of reach the Bears kept trudging forward. They’d chip in one last score with seconds remaining in the game. Bickham pushed his way through a pile of Tiger defenders for a hard fought touchdown. The usual potent Bear rushing attack seemed to hit a wall gaining just 167 yards while star running back Winters was held under hundred yards rushing with 79 yards on 19 carries. Meanwhile Silsbee posted 497 yards of offense with 407 of those yards coming on the ground.

The Bears will regroup and look for their first district win next Friday with the Bridge City Cardinals traveling across town to Battlin’ Bear Stadium. Silsbee will face a tough task playing host to Navasota.

 

LC-M 0 6 8 6 – 20

Silsbee 7 6 8 14 – 35

 

Scoring Summary:

Tigers 3:11 1^st – Tyler 95 yd rush xp good

Bears 7:53 2^nd – Bickham 1 yd rush xp no good

Tigers :05 2^nd – Jones 2 yd pass from Collins xp no good

Tigers 11:00 3^rd – Tyler 3 yd rush, 2pt conv. Tyler

Bears 8:13 3^rd – Netherly 43 yd pass from Bickham xp no good

Tigers 10:06 4^th – Tyler 55 yd rush xp good

Tigers 3:14 4^th – Jones 29 yd rush xp good

Bears :37 4^th – Bickham 1 yd rush xp no good

 

LC-M Silsbee

First downs 7      13

Rushes-yards 38-167   33-407

Passing            158    90

Comp-Att-Int 13-23-3       7-11-1

Fumbles-Lost    1-1   0-0

Penalties-yards 7-65     5-40

 

Individual Stats:

Rushing LC-M – Winters 19-79, Douglas 7-37, Bickham 9-44, Netherly 1-10, Guillory 1-2

Silsbee – Tyler 18-324, Thomas 6-59, Jones 7-39,

Passing LC-M – Bickham 12-21-143-3int-1td, Brown 1-1-15

Silsbee – Jones 7-11-90-1int

Receiving LC-M – Brown 1-8, Netherly 3-59, Pope 2-27, Guillory 1-13, Douglas 2-25

Silsbee – Barnes 2-62, White 1-11, Thomas 1-6