Bears on the road to Pearl River

Two teams in need of a win collide on the gridiron Thursday night in Poplarville as the Southwest Bears take on the Pearl River Wildcats in Dobie Holden Stadium.

Both teams enter the contest at 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the MACJC South Division. The Bears dropped a tough, 29-26 overtime decision at Co-Lin last week while Pearl River fell at Jones County 34-6.

The Bears' loss at Co-Lin came despite the team playing their best game of the season, to date, with only four penalties and zero turnovers.

In order to pick up a win this week, Bears' head coach Tucker Peavey said it would take "the same kind of effort. Obviously, Co-Lin's a really good football team and I think Pearl River is, too. We've got to score when we get the chances and hit the things that are available on offense. I thought we played hard (last week) and I thought we played well, but obviously not quite good enough."

Although defeated by 28 points last week, the Wildcats' defense only allowed Jones County to pick up 260 total yards of offense leading Peavey to say "I think they're a good defense. I think they're a good team overall. Their defensive front's big and they're good football players. So, we've got our work cut out for us."

Southwest defensive coordinator Kelby Bowman said that, with Pearl River picking up only 37 of their 251 total yards last week on the ground, the Bears will probably focus more on attacking the passing game this week.

"I've seen that they throw the ball a lot more than they run the ball," Bowman said. "They have a quarterback (Matt Williams-6' 2", 195-Murfressboro, TN) who can throw the ball very well (and) they have a group of receivers that are really able to catch the football. They run good routes and are good on the scramble drill. So, yes, we are definitely going to have to stop them from throwing the ball."

"But, on the other hand," Bowman continued, "they're going to line up with two tight ends at times. They have a big tight end out of New Orleans (Anthony Jones-6' 6", 260) and also Will Inlow (6' 2", 225-Pascagoula) who we'll see a lot. So, they'll give us a lot of tight formations (and) wing formations and they have the ability to run the ball."

Bowman said the Wildcats offense, overall, is one of multiple formations. "They do a great job of getting their kids in different formations, different sets and different motions," he commented. "They're going to give you several (different formations)-shotgun, under the center, they're going to give you a lot of motion. So, we have to make sure we're ready to adjust to their motions and adjust to their shifts."

Kickoff is set for 7:00 Thursday night. The game can be heard on the radio on WAKH 105.7FM (K106), on the internet at southwestbearathletics.com and k106.net or via smart phones (by downloading the k106 app).

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Bears on the road to Pearl River