’Stangs ready for Bears fight

[WO-S 89]

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

A meeting of “good old†Orange County District 20-4A friends will take place at Little Cypress-Mauriceville’s Battlin’ Bear Stadium tonight as the West Orange-Stark Mustangs venture to LC-M to face the Battlin’ Bears.

The two schools separated by the most part by Interstate 10, renewed their long-time rivalry last season when the Mustangs defeated the Bears 35-14 at Dan R. Hooks Stadium last year to go up 21-2 in the all-time series.

The Mustangs (1-0), ranked No. 8 in Class 3A in the recent Class 3A Associated Press state poll, downed Dayton, which is one of the favorites to capture the District 22-4A crown, 22-14 last week by scoring 22 unanswered second-half points.

The Battlin’ Bears (0-1) fell to Conroe Caney Creek 33-21 at home last week against a Panther unit that went three-deep in the playoffs last year.

The Mustangs outgained Dayton 258-199 in their victory, racking up 196 yards on the ground alone in the second half comeback.

Quarterback Ortavious Hypolite bulled his way to 112 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries and scored all three of WO-S’ touchdowns. The Mustang defense held Dayton to just one first down in the second half and 33 yards.

“I tell you, that was an emotional win for our kids last week,†said Mustang head coach Dan Hooks. “We defeated a very good Dayton team and now we’re getting ready for a tough LC-M squad this week and then all of a sudden, it’ll be a Bay City team next week. We have our hands full, to say the least.â€

LC-M senior tailback Kendrex Salter zipped his way to 158 yards on 11 carries and scored a touchdown in the Bears’ loss to Caney Creek in which three turnovers proved costly. The Bears also have a proven quarterback running the ship in President Driver. A young Bear defense allowed Caney Creek 385 yards, 328 of it coming via the ground.

“The Bears are pretty darn salty on offense,†Hooks said. “The Salter kid can take it to the distance at any given moment and the Driver kid is a type of player that a team can lean on. Defensively, the Bears are just like us, they’re counting on a lot of young guys that are still learning a lot about Friday nights.â€

The LC-M-WO-S encounter is a matchup that Coach Hooks would love to see carry on way down the road.

“We had a couple years there where we didn’t play and our kids missed that and I think their kids did too,†Hooks said. “We have kids that have known each other all of their lives and it’s a great game for both communities. Looking at it, we really need to play this game each year. Just look at the proximity of the two schools and the expenses alone that we both save.â€