RISON - This year's match-up between the Bearden Bears and the Rison Wildcats had a lot of hype surrounding it leading up to kickoff, and it did not disappoint.

This year's version went down to the final 28 seconds of the game, as Bearden's Jamond Young was able to connect with Quinten Wilson for a 26-yard touchdown. A successful two-point conversion would help the Bears earn a 28-20 victory, and second place in the 8-2A conference standings.

"Hats off to both teams to be honest," said Bearden head coach Ernie Horstkamp. "I think every kid laid it on the line, and it just came down to big plays at certain times. They made big plays and we did too at the right times. There were big plays at big times in the ball game. We just made the big catch at the end, and that was the difference in the ball game."

It was indeed a game full of big plays. After a scoreless first quarter, Bearden struck first on a 17-yard pass from Young to Wilson with 11:45 to play in the first half. The Bears would convert a two-point-conversion to go up 8-0.

Rison would drive the field on their next possession, and quarterback Nathan Wilson scored on a one-yard keeper with 6:08 to play. The Wildcats would attempt a two-point conversion of their own, but it would fail.

Bearden would go into the locker room with an 8-6 halftime advantage.

Both teams played hard-nosed defense in the third quarter, but Bearden was able to score again with 1:32 remaining in the quarter when Young and Wilson connected for their second touchdown of the evening, once again from 17-yards out. The Bears missed their PAT to take a 14-6 lead.

Rison scored on their next possession, as Jokenzie Broughton found the end zone from three-yards out. Once again, the two-point conversion failed, and Bearden held on to the 14-12 advantage.

Following the kickoff, Bearden had their first big play, as Young found a hole in the Rison defense, and raced 54-yards for the touchdown. A failed two-point conversion put the Bears up 20-12 with 10:46 remaining in the game.

Rison's first big play came with 5:49 remaining in the game.

After Bearden held the Wildcats to on defense, Wilson muffed the punt, and Rison's Eric Leopard recovered the ball on the 24-yard line.

Rison would score six plays later on a one-yard plunge by Wilson with 2:57 remaining in the game. Following two delay of game penalties before the two-point try, Wilson connected with Garrett Dedman to tie the game up 20-20, before Bearden scored the go-ahead touchdown with 28 seconds remaining in the game.

"You try not to get caught up in that," said Horstkamp. "I knew it was tied, but we still had a couple of minutes to go down and score with all of our timeouts. It's one of those things you work on throughout every week in your two-minute drills. We just had to go get the ball and move the chains and make some plays, and we got a couple of big ones."

Horstkamp said he felt several players stood out for his team as well.

"Offensively Jamond Young played great, and Quinten Wilson had the big catch at the end and several throughout the night," he said. "The guys just made plays all night, and I couldn't be more proud of all of them. It was a total team effort, but those guys stood out making the big plays."

Young would finish the night with 16 carries for 125 yards and a touchdown, and completes 11 of 18 passes for 301 yards and three touchdowns, with one interception, while Wilson had nine receptions for 150 yards and three touchdowns.

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