Bears Rally To Beat Lee Williams

Photo: Caden Dabney high points the ball for the first Bears touchdown

The Bradshaw Mountain Bears got a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns by Jon’te Jones to come from behind and beat the Lee Williams Volunteers 30-27 in a hard fought game in Prescott Valley. 

It was a matchup of #3 Bradshaw Mountain versus #12 Lee Williams with playoff implications in the balance, not to mention a region title to see off in the distance. It was also a night where two of the top running backs in the region would go toe to toe scoring three touchdowns each.

After three ho-hum games where the outcome was known by halftime, the Bears found themselves finally in a real battle. Bears coach Bob Young said, “It was a dog fight. We knew Lee Williams was going to give us challenges. That is a good team over there with a very good runner and we needed to play all four quarters tonight.” 

Photo: Lucas Leist scoring his first of three TDs

Bradshaw Mountain struggled early on offense and that opened the door for their opponents with the ball at midfield. The Volunteers struck first when Lucas Leist went up the middle, breaking through a pair of defenders on his way for a 26 yard score with 6:11 in the first quarter. 

The Volunteers found themselves with the ball again near midfield and rolled the dice going for it on 4th and 10, but were stopped a yard short.

Photo: 2 Taye Evans being pressured by 15 Liam Casson

The Bears took advantage of the sudden momentum switch and went on a nine play drive that culminated when quarterback Taye Evans found Caden Dabney who made a great catch on a 17 yard scoring strike. A bobbled snap on the extra point attempt was picked up by Evans who bolted with the ball a split second ahead of the defense to just get across the goal line for the two point conversion and Bradshaw Mountain led 8-7 with 8:45 left in the second quarter.

Photo: 33 Jon’te Jones on the carry with 28 Hunter Wilcox and 7 Demarcus Walema in his way

The Volunteers coughed up the ball at their own 23 setting Bradshaw Mountain up to score once again. Jones went up the middle from one yard out and with Dabney adding his 30th straight extra point, led 15-7 with 8:08 on the clock.

Photo: 1 Andrew Van Dell and 56 Alex Mendibles attempt to bring down 1 Lucas Leist

Lee Williams would regain the momentum themselves when Leist made a miraculous run that included toeing the sideline and cutting back through traffic on an exciting 67 yard run to pull the Volunteers to within 15-13. A two point attempt failed leaving the deficit at two.

Another momentum swing took place just before the half when in the final seconds defensive back Ethan Byrd put a massive hit on quarterback Taye Evans as he was fighting for a first down. The ball popped out and safety Demarcus Walema picked up the loose ball and scampered 24 yards for the score and a 20-15 Lee Wiliams lead heading into halftime.

The Volunteers added to their lead in the third when Leist again went 76 yards down the near sideline for a 27-15 lead with 3:26 remaining in the third quarter.

That play woke the Bears up and Jones took off for 39 yards on the first play. Five plays later the Bears converted a fourth and one at the Volunteers 8. Early in the fourth quarter it was Jones who went up the middle crashing into the end zone in a pile up of players to close the deficit to 27-22.

A huge play in the game came with seven minutes left when the Bradshaw Mountain defense rose to the occasion and stopped the Volunteers on a fourth and three at the Bears 46.

It took a little over three minutes for the Bears to take the lead. Jones with help from his friends up front moved the ball the final yard for the score. Ahead by just one, coach Young called timeout and set up an impressive two point play, using the ole swinging gate formation to throw the defense off and it worked to perfection. Evans found Dabney wide open on the other side of the end zone for the two points giving the Bears a 30-27 lead with 2:48 left. 

Lee Williams had one final chance and had the ball just inside Bear territory with a first down. Four plays, not one allowed Leist to even touch the ball ending the night for the visitors from Kingman. Bradshaw Mountain took a knee as the final seconds ticked off.

Jones said, “That was tough tonight. Some big hits going on. After three weeks of working on ourselves we had to focus on a good team. That was really good for us. We needed the competition.” About what went on in the locker room at halftime, “We didn’t panic. We had some good discussions and knew what we needed to do and we came out and took care of business in the second half.”

Quarterback Taye Evans said, “We didn’t prepare as hard as we should have and it showed early. After cruising through those past three games it took us sometime to get it going and that is not going to happen again.”

Lee Williams sophomore center Paul Brazdys, who transferred from Kingman Academy after their school didn’t have enough players go out to field a team this year, said about the Volunteers postgame discussion, “Coach said we are a playoff team and the entire state of Arizona shook right now after the way we played a number three team.”

Lucas Leist, who finished with 264 yards and 3 touchdowns, said, “Tough way to end a game but we played hard.”

Coach Young added, “I was proud of us because sometimes when a team gets down by two scores they fold, especially after the way we have been whooping on other teams. It was good to be able to see our team bounce back in the second half.” 

Bradshaw Mountain (3-0) in the Grand Canyon Region, (6-1) overall, will travel to Buckeye on Friday for a non-region game. Kickoff is at 7pm. Lee Williams will be at Coconino.

BRADSHAW MOUNTAIN BEARS 30, LEE WILLIAMS VOLUNTEERS 27

Score by Quarters-     1        2        3        4     –     T

Lee Williams               7       13       7        0     –    27

Bradshaw Mountain    0       15       0       15    –    30

Scoring Summary

LW-Leist 26 yard run (Casson kick) 

BM-Dabney 17 yard pass from Evans (Evans run)

BM-Jones 1 yard run (Dabney kick)

LW-Leist 67 yard run (Pass failed)

LW-Walema 24 yard fumble return (Casson kick)

LW-Leist 76 yard run (Casson kick)

BM-Jones 4 yard run (Dabney run)

BM-Jones 1 yard run (Dabney pass from Evans)

GRAND CANYON REGION STANDINGS

School- 4A Rank (*)       W-L       W-L

Bradshaw Mountain (3)  4-0        6-1

Prescott (5)                    3-0        6-0

Coconino (14)                2-0        3-3

Lee Williams (12)           1-2        5-2 

Flagstaff                         0-2        0-6

Mingus                           0-3        0-5

Mohave                          0-3        0-6

*-Ranking as of October 8

THURSDAY NIGHT SCOREBOARD

Bradshaw Mountain 30, Lee Williams 27

Horizon 34, Cactus Shadows 21

Lake Havasu 34, Deer Valley 27

Notre Dame Prep 34, Chaparral 14

South Mountain 8, Central 7