Bears to close out season at East Central

Two teams badly in need of a win meet on the gridiron Thursday night in Decatur the Bears meet the East Central Warriors in the MACJC season-finale for both teams.

The Bears enter the contest at 0-8 overall and 0-5 in the South Division following last week's 45-3 loss to arch-rival Co-Lin. The Warriors come into the game at 1-7 and 0-5 after a 38-0 loss to Northwest.

Despite their opponent's record, Bears' head coach Tucker Peavey said the Warriors "play hard. They do some things offensively that can present some problems, formation-wise.
"They're a solid football team," Peavey continued. "I don't know what they're going through that has produced this kind of season, but at the end of the day they're a team that plays hard and we'll have to be ready."

In order for the Bears to pick up their first win of the campaign, Peavey said they will have to "move the ball offensively and come off the field with points; we've got to score more. Defensively, we've got to be able to be in the right place and make the plays and don't give up big plays and just play sound football."

With one game left in what has been a down season, does Peavey think he will have problems with his players not being motivated? "I hope not," he said. "I hope they're competitive guys. It's an opportunity to go out and play and finish the season on a positive note and hopefully that's the way that they look at it."

The Warriors are giving up 315 yards per game on the ground, but only 151.5 through the air. So, will the Bears attempt to run the ball most of the night with an occasional pass to try to catch the Warriors off guard?

"When you break down East Central, they're very good at keeping everything in front of them," said Bears' offensive coordinator Cam Achord, "so I think that's the biggest reason teams haven't had much success throwing the ball. They don't give you a lot of big plays. That's what they do really well; they make you drive the football."
"To be honest," Achord continued, "I think we do have to run the football. I think we have to take advantage of being able to run the football, get positive yards (and) keep the chains (moving) and preventing the negative play."

"They make you drive the length of the field," Achord restated. "So you've got to really focus on the technique every single play and that's the key this week, making sure we're doing every step correctly, making sure we know where we're supposed to be and be there. I do think we've got to be able to run the football, no doubt about it, but we've also got to be able to take the opportunities in the pass game and break a tackle and let the athletes do what and get up the field and hopefully make some big plays that way."

The Warriors have struggled on offense this season, picking up only 144 yards per game on the ground and just over 154 via the pass.
Asked if they will focus on stopping the run and pass equally as opposed to stopping the run first, Bears' defensive coordinator Kelby Bowman said "I think we have to take the same approach we've taken for the previous eight weeks. (But), first of all, I just want to say how proud I am of our guys and how we've overcome the injury bug and the fact that they've continued to work week in and week out and come to play and I don't expect anything different this week."

"This is junior college football," Bowman went on. "What you see on the stat sheet can be true, but as a defense we have to be ready for all phases, run and pass. I think they (the Warriors) do want to establish the run game. They'll run it as many times as they need to just to try to establish it. But, we can't keep our minds focused on run only. We have to be ready for the pass."

"To me, they're (the Warriors) are very similar to an option team," Bowman sent on. "They get you sucked in on the run, run, run, and then they try to throw a deep pass on you. So, here again, we just have to be disciplined in what we're doing. They'll give you several formations, probably more so than what we've seen this year, but they (won't) give us anything we haven't seen. Our kids have done a great job as far as adjusting. We'll be ready to play. But, here again, we have to make sure we stay fundamentally sound versus the run and when we get in pass situations, we have to make sure we get our drops and be where we're supposed to be."

Kickoff is set for 6:30 Bailey Stadium. The game can be heard on WAKH 105.7 FM, k106.net and southwestbearathletics.com.

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Bears to close out season at East Central