Bears maul Cougars

Bears score quickly and often in 62-6 win over Monument Valley

The onslaught began at 7:02 p.m.

The referees waited for the sun to dip below the rocks on the west side of the stadium and shade the field before they whistled for the kickoff between the Dolores Bears (1-1) and Monument Valley Cougars (0-2) on Friday evening.

From then on, it was all Dolores.

The Bears scored in less than four minutes on their first possession, with a 55-yard drive capped off by Jalen Balderrama's 3-yard touchdown scamper.

They found the end zone again less than five minutes later on a Gage Reynolds 21-yard touchdown rush.

Leading 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, Dolores tacked on another score on the first play of the second quarter with Tristen Medina's 11-yard run.

Dolores proceeded to kickoff, recover their own kick, and score again in one play when Balderrama connected with Medina on a 53-yard pass.

The clock read 11:43 when Tommy Nelligan kicked in the extra point to make it 28-0 Dolores.

The Bears scored 14 points in 17 seconds to start the second quarter.

"We told the kids coming in there that we wanted to score quick and score often," said head coach Chris Trusler. "We wanted to dictate their defensive play and their offensive play by what we did."

The game continued with the Bears defense stuffing the Cougars offense and forcing turnovers, and the Bears offense scoring at will.

There were multiple contributors on both sides of the ball.

Kyle Biery was constantly in the Cougars backfield and had three sacks and seven tackles.

Talon Zwicker chipped in two more sacks on his way to a team-high 10 total tackles.

Balderrama and Tylin Yarbrough each had interceptions, and Yarbrough took his to the house for another six points.

Offensively, the Bears grinded out 259 rushing yards by splitting carries with multiple backs.

Senior Josh McCoy led the team with 102 yards rushing and one touchdown, Reynolds had 41 yards and two touchdowns, Zwicker ran for 25 yards, freshman Skieler Grooms ran for 41 and a score, and quarterback Balderrama had 40 yards rushing and the first touchdown of the game.

Then there was Tristen Medina - the Swiss Army knife - who impacted the game on offense, defense and special teams. He could have even driven the bus.

Medina set the Bears up for scores early on by returning punts deep into Cougar territory and giving them a short field.

Occasionally he would punch it in himself, once on an 11-yard rush and later on a 53-yard reception.

And when he wanted to score but Monument Valley had the ball, he simply took it away and ran into the end zone, as he did by intercepting a Monument Valley pitch on an option and running 46-yards for his third touchdown.

"Medina definitely lit the spark this week and did a good job as a leader on the field," Trusler said.

After the 62-6 dismantling of Monument Valley, Trusler praised his defense and credited the man making the calls.

"Coach Biard has done a great job this year calling the defensive plays," he said. "And we're just getting fine-tuned for league play."

Dolores has two more non-conference games remaining until league play, starting with Newcomb (1-2) on Friday, Sept. 18.

"We don't know anything about Newcomb," Trusler said. "So we've just got to go and execute better than they do."

He would like to work on the passing game a bit more, but he plans to continue to share touches in the backfield.

"We're going to split the carries up and just see who produces the best," he said. "Once we get into league, then hopefully we should know who's going to carry the workload. But for now, we're going to switch up the duties."