Bears win homecoming against Legacy

A full house on the home side saw the first game on the new artificial turf at Battlin' Bear Stadium on Friday night. The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears outscored the Legacy Titans 50-34 in front of their very enthusiastic fans.

LCM (3-2) had its offense working both running and throwing the football for over 400 total yards in the game. Legacy (1-5) got yards in bunches too but could not keep pace with the Bears' offense. The game was homecoming for Little Cypress-Mauriceville with Brooklyn Leonard being crowned the Homecoming Queen and Da'Marion Morris named as the Homecoming King.

The Titans scored on their first drive of the game needing only four plays. Quarterback Jacob Smith threw a beautiful 42 yard pass into the hands of his most dangerous receiver Keisean Henderson to the Bears' one yard line. A.J. Merrida scored two plays later. The snap on the point after was bobbled and the holder tossed to Michael Brown for two points to put Legacy up 8-0 with 8:35 left in the opening quarter.

The Bears would answer driving 56 yards in eight plays. Da'Marion Morris had his hands on the ball six times running five and catching a pass during the drive. Morris got the six points with a 14-yard run. Lucas Wright kicked the point after to make it 8-7 at the 6:48 mark of the first.

Legacy gambled on a fourth-and-7 at their 43 and a pass by Smith was incomplete giving the Bears great field position. Little Cypress-Mauriceville got a first down run by Jonah Fuller and a pass from Dean Reynolds to Jacob Pollock for 24 yards to move the ball to the Titans' 10.

The drive stalled there. Wright attempted a 22-yard field goal, however, the Titans got great penetration and blocked the kick as it came off the foot of Wright. Fortunately, the Bears prevented any return of the blocked kick but they still trailed.

The Titans were forced to kick after three plays when their punter Jamarion Whitlock fumbled the snap and was tackled for a loss at the Legacy 13. The Bears needed just one play a pass from Reynolds to Kyler Garlaska to take the lead. The Bear pair teamed up again for the two-point conversion to put LCM on top 15-8 with 1:17 to play in the first quarter.

A turnover led to the Bears' next score. Morris intercepted a Smith pass at the Bears' 26. Morris ran for a first down on the first play.

Reynolds and Garlaska hooked up again for 23 yards moving the ball past midfield. Fuller ran twice to gain another first down for the Bears at the Titan 34 before Morris and Reynolds both ran for first downs giving LCM a first-and-goal at the six.

Morris caught a 6-yard pass from Reynolds for the touchdown. Wright's kick gave the Bears a two-score lead 22-8 with seven minutes before half time.

Legacy gambled again going for it on fourth down but the Bears' defense stopped Smith for a loss giving the Bears great field position at the Titans' 25. Four passes netted LCM only three yards and nothing came of the opportunity.

The Titans had their best drive of the first half this time converting on a fourth-and-one by Smith sneaking for it. Merrida ran 19 yards for another first down into LCM territory.

Smith passed 16 yards to Noah McClatchey to take the ball to the Bears' 33. An apparent scoring pass was called back because of a Titan penalty but it did not matter as Smith completed a 31-yard pass to McClatchey for a touchdown that did count. The two-point conversion failed keeping the score 22-14 with 1:02 left in the half. There was no further scoring in the last minute.

The second half kickoff went to Legacy and again the Titans moved the ball on the Bears. The big play was a 28-yard scramble by Smith on third-and-14 that brought the Titans to the Bears' 46.

Roric Hawkins gained 19 yards on the next play and picked up another first down with a seven-yard run to the 14. Legacy was flagged for a penalty which did not deter them as Smith passed 16 yards to Stefan Reynolds for the touchdown. The pass for two failed and the Bears hung to a 22-20 lead 4:15 into the third quarter.

Little Cypress-Mauriceville responded to the challenge quickly. Reynolds got a first down on a seven-yard run and then completed a 44-yard touchdown pass to Garlaska that put the Bears back up by two scores 29-20 with 5:43 left in the third.

The Titans came back moving the ball forty yards to the Bears' 38. Jarves Riley made a huge play for the Bears when he tackled Smith for a seven-yard loss on third-and-one. Legacy went for it again on fourth down but in the Wildcat formation Henderson was gang tackled for a four-yard loss.

Taking over near midfield Little Cypress-Mauriceville needed only four plays to score again. Reynolds passed 42 yards to Elijah Allison for a first-and-goal at the eight. Two plays later Morris scored from the nine, and Wright's kick put the Bears up 36-20 with 93 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

The two teams each scored a pair of touchdowns in the final period. Legacy got two touchdown passes from Smith. The Bears had a long 28-yard run by Reynolds and a short run from Morris for their last two scores.

For the Bears Reynolds finished the night with 224 yards passing with three touchdowns throwing and one touchdown running contributing 66 yards on the ground. Morris was the leading rusher gaining 79 yards on 17 carries and had a total of four touchdowns three running and one receiving. Garlaska caught three passes for 80 yards including two touchdowns.

Next week is the start of district for Little Cypress-Mauriceville. The Bears travel to Vidor to play the Pirates. The Bears and Pirates were co-district champions last season each suffering a loss. The kickoff will be at 7:30 PM on Friday.