The sights and sounds of Homecoming 2023 had many in good spirits Saturday including the Bears who welcomed in arguably their toughest test of the regular season in No. 5 Jones.
 
And for nearly all of the contest, the Bears matched toe-to-toe with the Bobcats, but it was the visitors from Ellisville who got a late defensive stand to escape with a narrow 27-21 win. After the game, Southwest head coach Cliff Collins was pleased with how his team performed, as the Bears gave the Bobcats all that they can handle. The Bears (1-6, 0-5 MACCC South) out-gained the Bobcats 384-311 offensively. 
 
"We were the better football team than the team that we just played," he said. "I call it like it is, we have a good football team in that locker room. We fight and we do make some mistakes and we are playing with a half-deck, the hand that we were dealt. We just have to go play. We had some drops and some turnovers, but we played."
 
Right out of the gate, a turnover hurt the Bears as a fumble on the game's opening kick return gave the ball to the Bobcats with great field position. The Southwest defense stiffened up, however, forcing Jones to settle for a field goal.
 
The Bears set up shop on offense for the first time and it took only two plays for Southwest to take the lead as Amarien Jefferson found Jeremiah Ratliff across the middle before the sophomore from McComb turned on the jets and found the end zone from 71 yards out. Lyndell Boatman added the PAT putting the Bears up 7-3.
 
Later in the quarter, the Bear defense shined once again limiting the Bobcat gain to just 1 yard on a 4th and 2 for the turnover on downs.
 
With about a minute to go in the quarter, Jones re-gained the upper hand with a 6-yard touchdown run making it a 10-7 deficit for the Bears.
 
But Southwest regained possession and the lead following a 9-play, 75-yard drive that wrapped with Jefferson tossing his second touchdown of the night, this one a 13-yard strike to La'Jarion Martin. Boatman's PAT gave Southwest a 14-10 lead.
 
The back-and-forth battle ensued as Jones found the end zone once again on a short run to jump back on top at 17-14 with 9:57 to go until halftime.
 
The Bears were unfortunately shut out for the remainder of the half, while the Bobcats added to their lead late on a short touchdown pass making it a 24-14 contest.
 
In the third quarter, both defenses stepped up. The only points in the period came from a 32-yard field goal by Jones increasing the Southwest deficit to 13 at 27-14.
 
Despite being down, the Bears were not out and began to rally at about the midway point of the fourth quarter. Quez Goss came on in relief at quarterback and moved the Bears down the field with a 9-play 80-yard drive that culminated with a 36-yard touchdown pass to Tavaris Henshaw and with the Boatman PAT, Southwest pulled within one score at 27-21. A key play on the drive came on a 4th and 10 when Goss scrambled for a 12-yard gain and a 1st down. 
 
After the Bear defense shut down the Bobcat offense one last time, Southwest had 1:41 to look for the equalizer. Unfortunately, the offense couldn't get anything going as a sack on 4^th down dashed the Bears' hopes.
 
Jefferson finished 14-of-30 for 180 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Goss had 82 yards and a score on 6-of-13 passing. Tyler Reed had 63 yards on 13 carries while Martin led the receivers with 6 catches for 90 yards and a touchdown.
 
Defensively, Jeffery Polk Jr. had arguably his best game as a Bear with 8 tackles.
 
Southwest will have a quick turnaround as they only have a few days to prepare for their next contest, a 7 p.m. road game at Pearl River on Thursday.