West Branch BearsFootball

Friday night at the Little Rose Bowl in West Branch, the Bears wanted to show that despite the adversities this season (and as recent as Friday afternoon), they are still a force in District 3. That is certainly what they accomplished in their Homecoming game against Durant.

Due to an injury to starting quarterback Brandon Rummelhart earlier on Friday, the Bears turned to tight-end-turned-receiver-now quarterback Cooper Kabela to command the huddle. Armed with zero positional experience, an afternoon playbook/practice session with offensive coordinator Jarod Tylee, and about a dozen warm-up plays, the senior captain took the field as the team's signal caller.

In his position, he was probably pretty relaxed as he has West Branch's all-time leading rusher behind him to give the ball to. On the first drive, that's exactly what Kabela did as the running back took it 19 yards to get the scoring started for the Bears. After the Bear defense forced a second Durant punt, Lenoch didn't need Kabela's help as he kept it on a play from the wildcat formation and took it into the endzone from 13 yards out. 14-0 Bears early.

On the first play after the West Branch kickoff, Jacob "Cheese" Graves picked off the Durant pass and set the Bears up with excellent field position once again, inside the Wildcat 30 as the first quarter came to an end. On the first play of the second quarter, Kabela got to throw the ball and found Graves in the corner of the endzone for his first career completion and touchdown pass. Javier Zamudio's PAT kick was once again perfect, and the Bears had a comfortable 21-0 second quarter lead.

Half way through the second quarter, Luke Lenoch bursted his way into the endzone for his third touchdown of the night, this time on a 28 yard run to put his team up 28-0. Next drive? More Lenoch. The senior running back broke loose for a massive 69 yard touchdown run. After a successful two-point conversion attempt, the Bears lead 36-0.

On the Bears' next possession, Kabela got to try his hand at the two-minute offensive attack. The lefty ended up being successful as he found Tanner Lukavksy in the corner of the endzone for his second touchdown pass of the game. The Bears took a 43-0 lead into the half.

West Branch came out in the second half not done scoring. On their first drive, which was an all wildcat formation approach with Brett Schiele at the helm, the sophomore wide receiver and defensive back had a few nice runs and ultimately made his way into the endzone for his first Varsity touchdown on a two yard keeper. 50-0 West Branch, which is where it stood into the fourth quarter.

Early into the final quarter, the Durant offensve wasn't backing down. On three straight drives to close out the game, the Wildcats found the endzone two pull within 50-22 of the Bears, which ended up being the final.

Check out video highlights of the game.

Check out a video replay of the game.