WOODLAWN - Woodlawn used an explosive start to grab an early four-score lead over the Brinkley Tigers as the Bears wrapped up a perfect regular season and the South Conference championship with a 50-18 victory on a foggy Friday night at the Carl Jones Sports Complex.This is Woodlawn’s first conference championship since winning the 8-2A title in 11-man football in 2006. The Bears did go 9-0 in their first season in eight-man football, but the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) does not considered that an official title since eight-man football was not sanctioned at the time but considered it a “club sport” instead.Brinkley had a shot of creating a three-way tie for the South Conference title between Brinkley, Woodlawn and Strong had the Tigers pulled off the win. Instead, the Bears finish atop the standings with an 8-0 overall record and 5-0 mark in conference play. Strong finished second at 4-1 and Brinkley third at 3-2.While the final score may have indicated an easy night for the Bears, they had to persevere after suffering some key injuries along the way. Most notable was the loss of starting quarterback Ethan Saeler late in the second quarter when his ankle was twisted following a tackle.Saeler was on his way to another great night before the injury forced him to the sidelines with about 2 minutes left in the first half. He had already rushed for 137 yards and three touchdowns while also returning a kickoff 65 yards for another score.Beau Watson, who normally starts at tight end on offense, filled in for Saeler the rest of the game. In the second half, Woodlawn lost another tight end when Michael Wright went down with an injury. “Really, in a way, Saeler is a big loss but losing Michael (Wright) is big too because he’s really our last tight end… We haven’t worked much past him,” Woodlawn Coach Doug Means said.Fortunately for the Bears, Woodlawn had already built a nice lead before the i...
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