Bears travel to Hinds

The Bears are hoping the third game proves to be the charm as they travel to Raymond Thursday night in search of their first win of the season against the Hinds Eagles.

The Eagles enter the game at 1-0 after a 35-31 win over Itawamba (their first game, versus Northwest, was stopped in the fourth quarter due to inclement weather and declared a 'no contest') while the Bears dropped to 0-2 with a 67-34 loss to Holmes.

Bears' head coach Tucker Peavey said he has seen no signs of quit in his team despite the rough start. "They've worked hard," he said. "We had a good Sunday-workouts, meetings, practice. I think everybody understands our situation and they're rallying with one another. Their attitude's been great."

Looking at the Eagles, Peavey said they "are very good on defense with their line, very talented and athletic in the secondary. Offensively, they have some really good receivers and a quarterback that can deal it around so I think they're a very good football team in all phases."

Peavey said the keys to a Bears win this week are "we've got to control the ball on offense, move it down the field and get points. Defensively, (we have to) be where we're supposed to be and not give up the big play and make them earn whatever they get."

Despite the Bears' record, the offense has put up decent numbers in the first two weeks, including 54 points. Because of this, do not look for any changes from the team in Raymond. "I talked to the guys (Sunday)," offensive coordinator Cam Achord said, "and told them we have to stay within ourselves; we don't need to try to do too much."

"We've just got to continue to improve each week," Achord continued. "I thought we made a better jump from week one to week two so we've got to continue to do that. The biggest thing is not to beat ourselves. As long as we continue to improve on what we're going, then we should continually hope to see some success and put some more points on the board."

Defensively, the Eagles gave up 407 total yards in their win (245 passing, 162 rushing). Achord said his unit will try to maintain the balance the Eagles faced last week.

"That's what we try to do offensively anytime we go into a game," he stated. "We want to be as balanced as possible. My philosophy from an offensive standpoint is take what the defense gives you. So, we're going to try to take what they give us (and) hopefully it ends up being a balanced game."

On defense, the Bears have been battling the injury bug as well as their opponents. But, defensive coordinator Kelby Bowman said "We can't harp on that. We've got to strap it on and come out and get ready to play this week. I think we've got a good group of guys we're going to put on the field and be competitive and we'll see what happens. But, our guys are definitely ready."

The Eagle's offense battered Itawamba for 458 total yards (296 passing, 162 rushing). Bowman said his unit will "have to get a feel of what they're trying to establish, but we definitely have to be ready to stop the run first. But, they (the Eagles) have one of the best juco receivers so we'll have to cover all our bases. We'll have to be fundamentally sound and do what we're supposed to do."

Kickoff Thursday night is set for 6:30 at Joe Renfroe Stadium. The game can be heard on WAKH 105.7FM (K106), k106.net and southwestbearathletics.com.

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Bears travel to Hinds