Although not quite on campus, the football team played their first home football game at El Paso High’s R.R. Jones Stadium, looking to gain a winning record in week three. The Bears defeated Clint 7-6 in a close game to improve to 2-1 on the season.

With a slow start in the first half offensively, the Bears turned it around in the second half and pulled out the win thanks to a 16-yard game-winning run by Nathan Felix.

Clint started off dominating offensively with a strong running game, as they ate up seven minutes on their opening drive and pushed the Bowie defense with a strong running attack until they found the end zone. A missed PAT kept the Lions lead at 6-0 early in the first quarter.

The Bears struggled offensively throughout the first half, as they failed to move the ball into Clint territory and were forced to punt the ball away on most of their possessions.

The second half started off with better running and overall offense by the Bears. Bowie kept possession of the ball for most of the third quarter as they picked up five first downs — more than the whole first half — while converting two of them on third down.

The Bears defense overcame their first half blunders by stopping Clint’s powerful run game and shutting down their offense to zero points, and only allowing one first down in the entire second half.

“They’re a great team offensively, but we stuck together, we knew what we could do on the defensive side of the ball. We stopped them, gave the ball to our offense and let them score,” defensive back Alfonso Puga said.

A 38-yard pass from William Carrasco to Carlos Varela set the Bears up in excellent field position late in the fourth quarter. After a couple plays, the Bears finally managed to take it to the house on a 16-yard touchdown run by Felix. A successful PAT by Joel Cano gave the Bears the lead 7-6 late in the fourth quarter.

“We were just switching blocks, finding a way to get us a touchdown. I just had to find my way into the endzone and thanks to my line, they do great”, running back Nathan Felix said.

After forcing Clint to turn the ball over on downs on their final drive, the Bears picked up a key first down on 4th-and-3 to melt the clock down to triple zeros, ending the game and taking the win.

“I’m exhilarated, exhausted, happy, every kind of emotion you can think of. We had ups and downs but the boys kept fighting. Anytime you play Clint, every play is important, because the game is so short, it’s a fast game. I think we only had four possessions, and every play is important, but overall it was just a team effort,” head coach Robert Padilla said.

The Bears play next Friday, Sept. 21, 2018 against the Ysleta Indians in Hutchins Stadium at Ysleta High School.