Cats Use 2nd Quarter Explosion to Tame Bears in the Mountains
PIKEVILLE. Ky. - The Bethel Wildcats, fresh off their upset of another Top 10 team built on that momentum with a 44-13 win on the Pikeville Bears in Pikeville, Kentucky Saturday.
The Cats moved to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the Mid-South Conference while the Bears fell to 2-4 and 0-3. The Cat victory evened the series at four.
The Bears took the lead in the first stanza on a 95-yard touchdown run by Adrian Medacco. The point after with 43 seconds left by Jakob Headley gave the Bears a 7-0 lead.
Bethel's James Dixon returned the kick-off 48 yards to the UPIKE 44-yard line. After Nolan Chowbay found Dixon over the middle on a huge pass play, De'Ontay Tate carried it in from seven yards out. Luis Morales nailed the point after, and the game was tied with 14:29 left.
Pikeville had a big return which set up a 24-yard field goal by Headley and the Bears retook the lead at 10-7.
The Cats answered with a 65-yard drive capped off by Tate who rushed in untouched from three yards out and Bethel had their first lead at 14-10 with 10:16 left in the half.
Xavier King picked off a Bear pass, but the Cats could not convert on the turnover. A few players later however the Cats had another opportunity when Devious Christmon intercepted a pass at the Bear 35. One play later, Chowbay found Avont Burrus for a 35-yard touchdown strike and the Cats upped their margin to 21-10. The Christmon pick was the 12th of his career which places him 3rd all-time in Wildcat history.
The Wildcat defense did their job, and the Bethel offense took the field in the waning minutes of the half. Chowbay, the Nashville native was not through. He hit Davius Prather from 42 yards out and the Cats led 27-10. The PAT by Morales failed but the Cats went to the half with the nice lead.
The Wildcats took the second half kick-off and moved the ball inside the Red Zone but had to settle for a Luis Morales field goal. The U of M transfer and Cordova, Tennessee native nailed a 28-yarder to give the Cats a 30-10 lead.
The Wildcats came up with another turnover when Bethel's leading tackler on the season, Jakobe Griffin recovered a fumble. Chowbay went to work again with a long pass completion to Burrus. That set a 14-yard touchdown pass to Dixon and Bethel went up 37-10.
The Bears scored on a 27-yard field goal by Headley with just under 11 minutes left to make it 37-13.
The Wildcats added to their lead with 5:59 left. Tate scored his third touchdown on the day, running in from 13 yards out and Bethel won 44-13.
The Wildcats had a 569-289 advantage in total yards. Bethel had a 362-116 margin in passing yards. Bethel outrushed the Bears 207-173. Tate had 195 of those yards on 31 carries. He now has 3, 095 career rushing yards which is 4th in program history. Chowbay was 25-of-38 in passing for 362 yards and three touchdowns. Burrus caught nine passes for 144 yards. Dixon had eight receptions for 118 yards.
Vonte Bates led Bethel with nine total tackles. Jared Gentry had six stops and three tackles for losses. Jerwin Young had six total tackles and three TFL's. Xavier King had three TFL's.
Coach Michael Jasper was pleased with how his team responded. "It was a god job by our kids in staying the course today. Our offense struggled early, our defense had a huge bust, and our special teams missed a few tackles and assignments, but they all stayed locked in and got things turned around. This was a quality win against a solid and well coached program, and I am proud of how we handled things in the end."
The Wildcats remain on the road visiting Cumberland University Saturday with kick-off scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Live video:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/cu/
Live stats:
https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2021-22/boxscores/20211023_fnlw.xml
Tickets:
https://www.gocumberlandathletics.com/tickets/