The Ava Middle School Bears hosted the Mountain Grove Panthers to wrap up the 2010 football season.
The Bears and Panthers battled to a scoreless tie in the seventh grade contest.
The Bears took the opening kickoff and moved the ball inside the Mountain Grove 30 yard line but were unable to score.
The teams exchanged possessions throughout the remainder of the half but were unable to score.
Mountain Grove maintained possession through most of the second half and threatened to score midway through the fourth quarter but the Ava defense stopped the Panthers at the Ava 5 yard line.
The Bears moved the ball out near the 30-yard line but were forced to punt with just under two minutes remaining. The last play of the game was a long pass by Mountain Grove that was intercepted by Ava’s Morgan Smith.
Leading tackler for Ava was Caleb McFarlin with 7 tackles; Chance Dobbs and Morgan Smith contributed with 6 tackles each.
Ava’s eighth grade team finished their season with a 44-8 win over the Panthers. A 55-yard return of the opening kickoff by Kane Thompson put the Bears in scoring position on the Mountain Grove 24 yard line.
Colton Akers scored five plays later to give Ava the lead. Thompson ran for the conversion to push the lead to 8-0.
A mishandled handoff on an attempted reverse by the Bears resulted in Mountain Grove scoring a safety on Ava’s next possession.
The defense shut down the Panthers and got the ball back for the Bears on their own 23 yard line early in the second quarter.
Akers scored his second touchdown of the game four plays later on a 52-yard run. Cody Huff passed to John Luebbering for the conversion to extend the Ava lead to 16-2.
Ava regained possession with about two minutes remaining in the half and was able to put another touchdown on the board. Brett Waggoner ran 11 yards for the score and Huff completed another pass to Luebbering for the conversion to give Ava a 24-2 halftime lead.
The Bears scored again on their second possession of the second half when Akers scored his third touchdown of the game on a 23 yard run. Huff ran for the conversion to extend the Ava lead to 32-2.
Mountain Grove’s next possession was halted when Thompson intercepted a pass for the Bears and returned it to the Panther 25 yard line. Waggoner scored six plays later on a two yard run to increase the lead to 38-2.
Mountain Grove scored with a long pass play on their next possession to cut the Ava lead to 38-8. After recovering an onside kick attempt the Bears scored six plays later when Cole Coombs broke a fullback dive and rambled 35 yards to the end zone.
Leading the Ava defense with eight tackles was Dylan Stout. Thompson and Akers also made six tackles each to help shut down the Mountain Grove offense.
