WOODLAWN - Despite having five consecutive drives end in turnovers, Woodlawn’s defense held throughout before the Junior Bears finally got it together in the second half to pull away for a convincing 32-6 South Conference win over the Strong Junior Bulldogs Friday afternoon at the Carl Jones Sports Complex.
It was the sixth straight win for Woodlawn as it improved to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in South Conference play.
Despite the Junior Bulldogs’ size advantage up front, the smaller Junior Bears had few problems penetrating the line of scrimmage and disrupting Strong’s offense the entire gameStrong netted 7 yards of offense and one first down for the game.
Eighth grader Zach Mull was in on four tackles for losses while Eli White, Wyatt Parker, Blake Heflin and Carson Young also had stops behind the line of scrimmage. Heflin also blocked a punt and Juan Dominquez had a fumble recovery.
Early on, it looked as though the Junior Bears were going to run away with it.
After the Junior Bulldogs failed on fourth down a their own 49, it took just three plays before Woodlawn quarterback Grayson Jones hit Heflin near the first-down marker, and Heflin put a move on his defender to race into the end zone for a 38-yard pass play. Jones bulled his way in after the TD for what would be the first of four conversion runs, giving the Junior Bears an early 8-0 lead.
Jones turned in one of his best overall performances of the season against Strong. He rushed for 86 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown, and on defense, returned an interception for a score to go with his touchdown pass.
Woodlawn would maintain that 8-0 lead until near the midway point of the third quarter as the Junior Bears turned it over on each of their next five possessions.
After the touchdown pass, Dominquez intercepted a Junior Bulldog fumble in mid-air and returned it 15 yards to the Strong 27. Six plays later, the Junior Bears fumbled it back.
The Woodlawn defense then forced another punt aft…