Thursday night was a tough one for the Southwest Bears as they dropped their home opener 40-6 to the 15th-ranked Itawamba Indians. The Bears fell to 1-1 on the young season while the Indians stayed undefeated at 2-0.
"The main thing tonight," said Southwest head coach Tucker Peavey, "is we made too many mistakes offensively and we put our defense in a bad way. I think if we don't do that early in the game, we have a chance to get a little momentum and who knows what would have happened."
Itawamba built up a 20-6 lead at the half. A. J. Hunt got things started for the Indians when he bolted into the end zone from eight-yards out with 8:55 to play in the opening quarter. Emmit Dendy kicked the extra point for a 7-0 advantage. Runs of eight and three yards by Chris Ingram and a PAT from Dendy had the visitors on top 20-6. The Bears got their only score of the night when quarterback Jamil Golden connected with Aaron Chappell for a seven-yard touchdown pass. The PAT kick was no good.
Ingram added two four-yard runs in the third quarter and, Dendy an extra point (one kick was blocked) as Itawamba led 33-6 after the third quarter. Their final score, a 24-yard pass from backup quarterback Andrew Goodman to Hunt and Dendy's kick, provided the final margin.
Golden completed 14 of 28 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown to lead the Bears' offense on the night. Chris Jones carried the ball 10 times for 70 yards while Jamal Hall toted the ball twice for 48 yards.
Ingram had 20 carries for 102 yards and four touchdowns to pace the Indians' offense. Starting quarterback Griff Loftis completed 22 of 30 passes for 223 yards while Goodman completed seven of nine for 102 yards and a score.
Up next for the Bears, on September 12, is a trip to Scooba to face the Lions of East Mississippi Community College, ranked fifth in the current NJCAA poll. The Lions won at home Thursday night, 59-0, over East Central.
Peavey said the Bears would get ready for the game "just like any other game. You can't pay attention to those scores. You've just got to do what you do to get ready for a game. Hopefully, we'll get ready (for East Mississippi) better than we did (for Itawamba). No matter who (the opponent), we're going to prepare the same way every week."
Kickoff at East Mississippi's Sullivan-Windham Field is set for 7:00.
