The Bears beat the Sacred Heart Gators on Homecoming night, 24-17.
The Bears received the opening kickoff and didn’t waste any time getting on the board. Senior quarterback Teddy Dacey connected with junior tight end Leif Weintz for an 18-yard gain. On the following play, Dacey hit senior wide receiver Matthew Kwon for a three-yard touchdown, giving M-A an early 7-0 lead with 6:46 on the clock.
Despite the great start, the Gators matched the Bears’ energy with a long drive of their own that completed with an eight-yard rushing touchdown, tying the score at 7-7 with 20 seconds left in the first quarter.
Back on offense with only a few seconds to go, the Bears managed to score thanks to a blown coverage on the Gators that left sophomore wide receiver Kyle Gabriel wide open for an electric 80-yard touchdown. A successful conversion put the Bears back up 14-7 to end the first quarter.
Starting the second quarter, the Gators wore down the clock with a long drive. Through multiple efforts, the Gators had the ball placed at M-A’s 10-yard line, but the Bears’ defense remained strong with senior defensive lineman Jordan Lavulo knocking the ball loose, and senior defensive lineman John Niko then recovering the fumble.
Back on offense, the Bears couldn’t get the ball moving due to the Gators’ lockdown defense, forcing a punt with 2:26 left in the half.
Sacred Heart found themselves back in the red zone, but the Bears were able to come up huge on defense, shutting down the receivers and the defensive line by applying pressure to make the quarterback throw it away. The Gators had to settle for a field goal as time expired in the first half, making it 14-10 Bears.
Sacred Heart got the ball to open up the second half, and once again got into the red zone due to many quick passes and runs. Even so, M-A’s defense drove the Gators offense off the field, forcing them to take a field goal that missed wide right. This allowed the Bears to maintain a 14-10 lead with 6:41 remaining in the third quarter.
Offensively, the Bears couldn’t take advantage of the missed field goal, as they were unable to get a first down and had to punt the ball back to Sacred Heart.
The Gators couldn’t get anything going on offense either and prepared to punt. However, the snap was high, and the punter was swarmed by Bears who brought him down at the 12-yard line to end the third quarter 14-10.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, senior running back Monty Turner capitalized on the short field position, dodging through tackles for a four-yard rushing touchdown, and extending their lead to 21-10.
“We controlled and carried our momentum throughout the game,” junior safety Lucca Keighery said.
The Bears defense stepped up again, applying pressure to the Gators quarterback, forcing him to throw up a prayer that landed short of the receiver and turned the ball over on downs. The Bears started to run the ball to drain the clock, resulting in senior kicker Anthony Perez nailing a 28-yard field goal to make the score 24-10 with 5:18 left in the fourth quarter.
The Gators were able to find the end zone one more time to cut down the Bears’ lead to 24-17 with 3:03 left in the game, and the Bears were able to run out the rest on the clock to secure the win, 24-17.
“We kept the intensity up. We knew what the goal was this game, and we executed it,” Turner said.
“This is a lot of momentum that we can carry into Paly,” senior running back Eva Ama said.
The Bears will head back on the road and face the Palo Alto Vikings this Friday at 7 p.m.
