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Bears invade revengeful Indians

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Bobcatfan4life

Bobcatfan4life

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Bears invade revengeful Indians

Tom Halliburton

The Orange Leader

PORT NECHES — Todd Moody and his Little Cypress-Mauriceville travelers should choose the main roads into The Reservation this afternoon. A sneaky backroad would be pointless.

There’s no way the Battlin’ Bears can roll their buses toward Indian Stadium on this district football Friday without excessive purple shirts on the lookout.

When this veteran scribe ventured to PN-G for his weekly Tuesday visit, Port Neches-Groves mentor Matt Burnett avoided any mention the 42-0 setback which his Indians endured last year at Bear Stadium.

Matt didn’t have to mention it. But the implication of last year’s embarrassment has spoken for itself around Indian land for PN-G (2-2 and 1-0).

Moody and his LC-M squad (1-3 and 0-1) have their own set of more recent 2007 losses which they wish to reverse.

This first October victory definitely would become a most welcome occasion for either side by the conclusion of tonight’s 7 p.m. kickoff.

As both arrive toward mid-season, the Indians and the Bears have similar answers to their identity questions. LC-M followers are wondering if this truly will be that first playoff season under Moody, a 36-year-old coach who has brought an Odessa Permian-like flair to the Bears' program.

Remember Mojo at Permian? LC-M’s common moniker is called Bojo and these Bears fondly resemble Permian’s Panthers in some of their plain and simple, hard-nosed traits.

As for Cherokee’s favorite listeners, a pair of back-to-back wins over LC-M and Nederland would work wonders at restoring plenty of peace and tranquility. But the Indians will not have their minds on Nederland that much tonight. Not after last year’s LC-M game.

“You have to forget all of that,†the Indians’ chief explained. “You can’t ever carry over a previous game because each time you play a different team. But we know that LC-M is a real good football team. They had a chance to beat Central.â€

LC-M’s coach sounded painfully aware on Thursday that his squad has had a chance to seize victory on more than one outing when it has failed to do so. It's still relatively early in the Bears’ season, but that pattern gets old real fast.

“We’ve played good teams,†Moody said. “We hadn’t played any teams that weren’t very formidable. We’ve had games when we’ve fumbled and haven’t been able to convert in the red zone. We would have come away with at least two more wins if we could have done that. So we just have to put it all together.â€

PN-G can sympathize with LC-M a bit, too. The Tribe had its chances against La Marque and Crosby. The 21-19 win at Ozen was not exactly a convincing win, yet Ozen brought plenty of talent and speed to that 22-4A opener.

The Indians struggled through a three-interception night from junior quarterback Harrison Tatum yet Burnett displayed his class and shouldered a good bit of the blame for those turnovers.

“We ran some play-action deep routes and we thought we might get Ozen’s cornerbacks to bit and they didn’t bite,†the Indians’ coach said. “Ozen made some really athletic moves in order to make some tremendous interceptions.

“That’s how I see what happened. Tatum’s a fine quarterback and he will do a good job. Really, we weren’t that pleased with our running game at Ozen, either, but I think Ozen's defense had a lot to do with that. Ozen had an outstanding defensive unit.â€

PN-G ripped off season-highs of 427 yards and 43 points two weeks ago at Silsbee. The Ozen defenders limited the Indians to season-lows of 136 total yards and seven first downs last week.

LC-M experienced similar peaks and valleys in the last two outings. The Bears pounded home 503 total yards and 25 first downs two weeks ago against Kashmere. But Central's defense closed the goalline door shut after Kendrix Salter scored a first-quarter touchdown last week.

The Bears rank higher in both total offense and defense numbers. Salter and PN-G’s Jake Hemmings rate No. 1 and 3 respectively among league rushers with 363 and 254 rushing yards.

The Bears are led by quarterback President Driver who has 450 yards on 26-for-50 passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Yet defense likely will rule the proceedings a great deal once more. PN-G has a group of fine defenders led by Kaleb Walker and Austin Miller at linebackers, Clint Burnett and Zeke Schexneider at ends. None of those are Indians are any better than two of LC-M’s seasoned defensive leaders — Joseph Viator at middle linebacker and Phillip Richard at free safety.

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indian28

indian28

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ok so they win one big game. and all of a sudden their contenders for the district title. they beat us last year. whne we had a very undisiplined team. and no senior leadership. all of a sudden their contenders huh. and yeah i read the paper to and i almost laughed my head off when i saw that they were compared to odessa. odessa would rip their head off.

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td

td

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ok so they win one big game. and all of a sudden their contenders for the district title. they beat us last year. whne we had a very undisiplined team. and no senior leadership. all of a sudden their contenders huh. and yeah i read the paper to and i almost laughed my head off when i saw that they were compared to odessa. odessa would rip their head off.

I didn't say they were contenders. I said, to the guy that said they didn't have a chance, that's what yall said last year. That being said, from what I've seen they play better than the Bears of old. If this is the beginning of something new, then it will just make the district better. If it's not, then they will be back to being the same old Bears.

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