The Gold-Burg Bears played spoiler at Saint Jo’s homecoming Friday night.
The Bears won 64-50 to break a nearly 12-year losing streak against the Panthers.
Gold-Burg came into the game confident this was the year, carrying an undefeated record with dominant wins so far this season that had not gone past halftime.
Saint Jo would easily be the toughest opponent so far, coming into the game with only one loss against a really good Crowell team while playing much better teams than the Bears.
The Panthers got on the board first with an 18-yard touchdown run up the middle from Wade Lucas. Gold-Burg quickly answered its first drive as the quick-footed Jayon Grace scored on a 16-yard run to tie the game up at 8-8.
The Bear defense got its first stop as a big negative play on fourth down allowed Gold-Burg to get the ball inside Saint Jo’s 10-yard line. Grace scored on the next play give the Bears the lead 15-8.
The Panthers responded as Devin Stewart scrambled around to buy time before finding Wade Lucas in the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown pass, cutting Gold-Burg’s lead to 15-14.
The first quarter was not done yet with the scoring. Grace scored on a 15-yard run to put the Bears up two scores 23-14. Saint Jo would not go away as a deep kickoff to Lee Yeley was returned up the left sidelines 79 yards for a touchdown. It cut Gold-Burg’s lead to 23-22 heading into the second quarter.
The Panthers got the lead back at the start of the second quarter with their defense. Wyatt Lucas ripped a contested catch from a Bears’ player for an interception and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown to put Saint Jo up 28-23.
Gold-Burg responded with a successful offensive drive, finished off with Grace scoring on a short run. This put the team up 31-28.
Unfortunately for the Bears, Grace started dealing with some sort of leg injury that limited his availability for the rest of the second quarter.
The defenses took over for the rest of the half. Both teams got two stops each to end the half, with Saint Jo even getting another interception on defense when Mathew Sampson stepped in front of a pass.
Still, it was a one score game with Gold-Burg only leading 31-28.
Grace seemed to have worked off whatever was limiting him in the second quarter when he came back out for the second half. He got things going for the Bears on a 40-yard touchdown run, reversing all the way back to the other side of the field.
It put Gold-Burg back up by two scores 37-28.
The Bears went for the kill as Aidan Foster recovered his own onside kick to give the team the ball right back.
Still, the Panthers were not done fighting. Saint Jo’s defense forced another turnover as Blaine Penaluna recovered a fumble to prevent Gold-Burg from scoring.
The Bears defense then responded as Foster forced a fumble, recovered it and returned it 13 yards for a defensive touchdown, extending Gold-Burg’s lead to 43-28.
The Bears really started to pour it on with another stop on defense. It was followed with quarterback Levi Hellinger finding Paul Jones on fourth down, who ran from one side of field to the other on this catch and run 22-yard touchdown catch making it 49-28.
Saint Jo was not ready to fall down and get mercy-ruled though. Yeley scrambled around and found Wyatt Lucas open for 24-yard touchdown catch to cut the lead to 49-34.
Gold-Burg wanted to make sure to not give any momentum towards the Panthers and Grace scored on a 21-yard run to put his team back up by three scores 56-34.
Still, Saint Jo got one more score in before the third quarter ended. Stewart got loose on a 56-yard run to cut the Bears lead to 56-42 heading into the fourth quarter.
The teams started with their defenses both getting stops to start the final period.
Gold-Burg got the ball back and Hellinger again found Jones for a touchdown, this one for 20 yards to put the Bears back ahead by three scores 64-42.
The Panthers got one more with Stewart running for a 28-yard touchdown to cut the lead back to two scores 64-50 with 4:33 left to play.
The Panther defense then got a stop as they had some hope a quick score followed a successful onside kick could give them a chance to come back.
Those hopes were dashed when Saint Jo fumbled the ball away as Gold-Burg’s Isaac Renteria recovered the fumble with less than two minutes left to play.
The Bears ran out the clock to secure the win, 64-50.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.