Riding the legs of De'Angelo Ballard and Jamal Hall, the Southwest Bears picked up a 24-7 home win over East Central Thursday night to move to 2-2 on the season (1-0 in the MACJC South Division). Ballard carried the ball 24 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns while Hall rushed 13 times for 111 yards and a score.
 
East Central (0-4, 0-2) drew first blood in the contest after taking the opening kickoff. Taking the ball at their inside their own 30, the Warriors marched down the field in 10 plays. Quarterback Donnie Farmer capped the drive with a short three-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Pace with 9:42 on the clock. Austin Franklin kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
 
Following a quick drive of their own, and an East Central punt, the Bears put their first points on the board with a quick four-play, 55-yard drive. Ballard carried the ball on all four plays and reached paydirt on a one-yard scamper with 3:25 on the clock. Michal McDaniel booted the PAT to make the score 7-7 at the end of the first 15:00.
 
The Bears scored the only points of the second quarter when McDaniel kicked a 48-yard field goal with only 0:01 showing on the clock to give the home team a 10-7 lead at the break. The kick capped off a five-play drive that started at the Southwest 48-yard line with 0:30 to play.
 
Southwest quickly added to their lead, and scored the only points of the third quarter, when a muffed punt recovered by the Bears' Dominique Lavalais gave them the ball at the Warriors' 39-yard line. Three plays later, Ballard recorded his second score of the night when he raced into the end zone from 25-yards out with12:29 on the clock. McDaniel's PAT made the score 17-7 with one quarter to play.
 
The Bears' final score of the game came on their third possession of the fourth quarter when Hall outran all defenders into the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown to cap off a four-play, 49-yard drive with 4:12 to play. McDaniel kicked his third PAT of the night to produce the final score. An interception by Nic Parker with 3:18 remaining put the icing on the cake for Southwest and they were able to run the clock out.
 
"We started off slow," said Southwest head coach Tucker Peavey. "We gave up the drive and touchdown defensively…but, we settled in and started doing some of the things we can do and played great defense after that."
 
Adding to Southwest's 335 rushing yards was Chris Jones who picked up 66 yards on 12 carries. Ballard completed four of 18 passes for 35 yards to give the Bears 370 total yards of offense. Bodarius Johnson had two catches for 17 yards, Jonathan McNair one catch for 11 yards and Ladarrius Slocum one catch for seven yards.
 
"We're not efficient at all throwing the ball," Peavey said, "and it's mostly the catching part. We just have to go back to work and see if we can get better at it. Against good teams, we're going to have to be able to throw the ball because they'll just load the box and outnumber us in the running game."
Guy Stallworth led the Bears' defenders with eight tackles. Troy Egana and Terrien Steele both had six total stops. Taylor Smith punted five times for a 31.6 yard average with his longest punt being 48 yards.
 
The Bears registered 15 first downs in the game and were penalized five times for 27 yards. They recovered their only fumble.
 
Farmer completed 12 of 26 passes for 154 yards, with one touchdown and one interception, to pace the East Central offense. Lamarcus Franks carried the ball 14 times for 45 yards.
 
The Warriors had nine first downs in the game and were penalized eight times for 75 yards. They recovered their only fumble. Franklin punted the ball eight times for an average of 34.6 per punt.
 
Speaking of their next opponent, Peavey said, "We'll finish this one (the East Central win) tomorrow, the players and coaches, and then we'll get started on Pearl River and just go through the weekly routine. I think they're a good football team and we'll have to play better than we did tonight, especially offensively, to have a chance."
 
The Bears travel to Poplarville to face the Wildcats, 2-2 after a 21-7 win at Coahoma Thursday night, on September 26. Kickoff is set for 7:00.