Recap
Friday night in Alburnett, the Bears defeated the Alburnett Pirates to clinch not only a district championship but a number one seed heading into the playoffs.
The 24-14 victory was hard-fought on a dreary night in northern Linn county.
On the Pirate's first drive, they couldn't get anything going and were forced to punt. On the 30+ yard return, senior Aaron Barnes got himself into the West Branch record books as he broke the single season punt return yardage record. Later in that possession, Luke Lenoch rumbled into the endzone from 5 yards out to put the Bears up 7-0.
Alburnett responded quickly with a short touchdown run of their own to tie it up at 7 in the first quarter.
Half way through the second quarter, Cooper Koenig connected with Matt Shawver in the corner of the endzone on a beautiful 30 yard touchdown pass to put the Bears up 14-7.
Inside a minute before the half, West Branch completes another long drive thanks to a Luke Lenoch 3 yard touchdown run to put the Bears up 21-7 at the half.
The 3rd quarter was scoreless, but the 4th quarter got interesting.
After a missed Alburnett field goal, the Bears drive down the field and nail a field goal of their down, putting them up 24-7.
But the Pirates weren't done. With 6:10 left in the game, the Pirates move themselves down the field and stuffed a run into the endzone to bring them within 10 points. From here, it was a defensive battle, with the Bears winning that battle, preventing the Pirates to score in the final 6 minutes.
With under 3 minutes left in the game, Luke Lenoch picked off a Alburnett pass to give the ball to the Bears to run out the clock. Run out the clock they did, thanks to a big first down, causing the Pirates to use their remaining timeouts.
Undefeated. District Champs. Number one seed. On to the playoffs!
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