Bridgeland’s varsity football team defeated the Cy Woods Wildcats on Thursday, Sept. 30 to improve their record to 5-0 for the season.

Bridgeland entered the game 4-0, coming off of a 48-16 victory against the Langham Creek Lobos. The Bears remain undefeated after beating Cy Woods 41-14.

There was no shortage of action in the first quarter. Cy Woods started the game out strong with a 66-yard rushing touchdown by senior Connor Morris, but the Bears responded quickly with senior quarterback Connor Weigman throwing a touchdown pass to junior Jonathan Nelson to tie the game 7-7. Momentum stayed with the Bears as senior Roroghene Imarah recovered a fumble on defense midway through the quarter. This gave a good field position to the offense, leading to a 25-yard rushing touchdown from Weigman. The first quarter ended with the Bears up 14-7.

Senior defensive back Graham Gillespie opened up the second quarter with an interception, keeping the Bear’s tempo from the first quarter going. Nelson rushed in another touchdown, extending the lead to 20-7 followed by a blocked extra point attempt. With five minutes left in the quarter, Nelson scored his third touchdown of the first half, taking a lateral pass to the endzone for a total gain of 64 yards and increasing the Bear’s lead to 27-7. Jonathan credits his touchdowns to the hard work of his teammates.

“It felt amazing,” Nelson said. “I scored more touchdowns in the first half of this game than I have in the whole rest of the season, but I couldn’t have done it without the blocking from my offensive line, and from the receivers in the secondary.”

To end the second quarter, junior Brock Knapton sacked Cy Woods quarterback Fielding Craft on a crucial fourth down deep in Bear territory. On the next offensive possession, Cy Woods senior defensive back Joshua Jones intercepted a pass from Weigman. The Wildcats did not capitalize on that interception, letting the first half end with Bridgeland winning 27-7. Senior defensive lineman Nathan Earle talked about the adjustments the defense had to make to be successful against the Wildcats’ offense.

“We played a lot more physically upfront to get no movement,” Earle said. ”I saw that there was an injury on the offensive line, but that didn’t really slow down at all, so we just played more physical play with our hands.”

Bridgeland’s defense started the second half strong. Gillespie caught his second interception of the night, allowing the offense to take the field again. The Bears had to turn to backup senior quarterback Josh Stephens after Weigman extended to catch a pass and hobbled off the field in visible pain. Jones intercepted his second pass of the night off of Stephens, giving Woods the ball back. The Bear’s offense shook that interception off and junior running back Jordan Wooden punched in a touchdown with around a minute remaining in the quarter. The third quarter ended with a score of 34-7 in favor of Bridgeland.

Cy Woods started out the fourth quarter with a passing touchdown to cut the Bears lead to 20. Stevens and the offense responded with a 20-yard touchdown pass with 4 minutes remaining in the game. The second half ended with a score of 41-14, resulting in a Bridgeland victory.
With the game against Woods complete, the Bears prepare for their Orange Out game against in-district rivals, the Cy Ranch Mustangs. The game will take place on Saturday, October 9 at 7 p.m. at the Berry Center. Nelson says that the Bears will come prepared and ready to play.

“Well, we’re hoping that Connor Weigman comes back from his hamstring injury, but we got our faith in our number two, Josh Stephens,” Nelson said. “We’ll just have to come out, play our game, have the o-line blocking us, and make plays.”