Melissa Gaona Photo The freshman Bears didn't let the cold weather slow them down Thursday night, October 23, when they hosted the Palestine Wildcats. They set the tone for a great winning weekend for all of the Bears football teams against Palestine. They finished the night in victory with an 8-0 lead.

"The ninth grade football team is on a roll!," stated Coach Hutchins. "We started the season off slow, but have not been beat in our last four games. The defense played a great game last night."

This was the first shutout of the season.

Coach Hutchins continued, "Going into the game, we were wanting to shorten the game and control the clock. We knew coming in that they were going to have a lot of speed. So, instead of trying to outrun them, we tried to run straight at them. We put in a special play or two to help us out."

Cody Strickland did a great job as quarterback. D.Z. Moss made several great plays for the Bears, including a 50-yard touchdown reception. Keuntis Thompson ran the ball hard, as well as Mikey Ramirez, while Nick Jones caught some big passes. Jones caught the twopoint conversion after a touchdown and he caught a huge pass on third down late into the game. This helped the Bears move out to midfield.

"Offensively, we dug into our bag of tricks on several occasions to try and offset the agressiveness of Palestine's defense," said Coach Hutchins.

"I thought we had a chance to put up a couple more touchdowns, but we'll take the 8-0 victory. A win is a win."

The freshman Bears will travel to Crockett Thursday evening, October 30, to take on the Bulldogs. Kickoff will begin at 5p.m.