Bears romp over Hawks for 1st district win

After a thrashing by Miyamura in their previous game, the Wingate Bears' offense got on track early for a victory over Thoreau, 52-6, on Oct. 2.

Wingate (2-3, 1-1), which lost 50-18 to Miyamura, earned the team's first District 1-3A win. Thoreau remained winless after four games this season and are 0-2 in district.

Wingate senior running back Devin Dixon scored four touchdowns and ran for 155 yards. The Bears held a commanding 36-0 lead at halftime.

Wingate head coach Donald Pine said that the Bears' running game was due to adjustments made in the offensive line.

"Our offensive line did an outstanding job this week," Pine said. "They adjusted to some of the blocking schemes and assignments. We asked them to step up again against Thoreau and they did. (They) controlled the line of scrimmage and gave our running backs huge holes to run through."

In their previous games, Wingate has thrown the ball well but Pine decided to run the ball against Thoreau so they could control the ball.

"I think any team that can run the ball is going to be a tough team to beat," he said. "We looked at the students who were returning to our program and we felt that we could run the ball.

"We've tried to mix it up a little, but our offensive coordinator has been busy trying to get as many of our running backs on the field at the same time," he added. 'Our offensive line is doing a great job opening the holes for them to run and so you'll see us run the ball maybe a little more than we have in past games."

Against Thoreau Pine was surprised with the score.

"For several reasons," he said. "First, our scouting report said that they were fairly tough on the defensive side of the ball. So we prepared our offense for a battle.

"Secondly, Thoreau has always been a good program and has always been a team that plays well against us," he said. "But for the last couple of years they haven't really played well against us. They have great athletes on both sides of the ball but they didn't really play up to their potential against us."

Though it was another loss for Thoreau, head coach Roger Willie still likes his team's chances in upcoming games.

"Overall, we're not a bad team," Willie said. "But we need to control our turnovers. In our four games this year, we had a total of 24 turnovers and they capitalize on them against us. Those turnovers really go against us."

Thoreau's only touchdown came in the fourth quarter on Tyrone Brown's 60-yard touchdown run.

"Against Wingate, our first two possessions were turnovers and they capitalized on it right away," Willie said. "When something like that happens, it hard to get back in to it. Turnovers have killed us. It's been like that since the beginning of the season."

Pine gave a lot of credit to his defense, citing Lance Charles and Randall Pine who contained outside runs, Bubba Wallace and Dex Morgan for controlling the interior, and linebackers Kyle Yazzie, Easton Holyan Bryant Pinto and Austin Largo.

Wingate next plays Crownpoint (2-3, 0-1) in another district game ton Friday in Crownpoint.

Thoreau will play Zuni (2-3, 1-1) Friday.

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