BILOXI – The West Lincoln Bears traveled to the Gulf Coast Friday night as homecoming opponents for the St. Patrick fighting Irish.

Afternoon thunderstorms in the area quickly passed, but left humid and wet playing conditions on the astro turf field.

In the first quarter, the Irish marched down the field on their opening drive and scored on a short pass to the endzone to go up 7-0 on the Bears. West Lincoln battled back on the next possession and got inside the fighting Irish territory in the first quarter but were unable to convert on fourth down.

With 10 seconds left in the first quarter St. Patrick’s fullback broke through the Bear’s defensive line and sprinted a 93-yard touchdown advancing the score to 14-0.

Defensively in the second quarter West Lincoln continued to pound the Irish and managed to hold them to just eight points on a rushing touchdown and a two-point conversion. West Lincoln’s rushing offense struggle to get pass St. Patrick’s defense as the Bears went into halftime scoreless.

In the second half, the Bears were plagued with miscues, penalties and a Ty Forman interception in the third quarter. Offensively West Lincoln struggled to move the ball down the field and failed to capitalize when in the red zone.

Coach Willie Brumfield stated, “We didn’t take care of the ball and missed three opportunities to score inside the 10 yard line and two of those were inside the one-yard line.”

St. Patrick took advantage of an interception and put six more points on the board but was unable to get the extra point. The Irish also finished the third quarter with a rushing touchdown with 42 seconds remaining to put the final points on the board 35-0.

Offensively the bears were held to just 217 total yards. Ty Forman completed one of eight passes for five yards. The Bears had 33 carries for 212 yards including a 40-yard carry by Jade Use. Use led the rushing yards with 17 carries for 118 yards followed by Jayden Rushing with 4 carries for 46 yards.

Defensively, Liam Rutland, Charles Wayne Smith and Julian Anderson each had five tackles for the Bears. Jayden Rushing intercepted a pass and Matthew Allred recovered a fumble caused by Alex Wilson.

Coach Brumfield expressed “I did a poor job preparing our team to play this week. I take full responsibility for tonight. It was very humid, and we struggled with our conditioning. This is usually not an issue especially during the fourth week of the season. I would like to thank all the wonderful West Lincoln parents and fans that made the long trip to support our team. Even though we didn’t wrap this one in ‘Green and White’ it’s still great to be a BEAR.”

The Bears (2-2) will be on the road again next Friday night to take on the Pisgah Dragons (0-3). Kickoff is slated to start at 7 p.m.