CLEVELAND — The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Battlin’ Bears now find themselves just one win away from nailing down the District 10-4A Division title by fending off the Cleveland Indians 32-27 on the road Friday night at Indian Stadium.
The Bears (4-3, 3-1) jumped out to a 26-7 lead and then held off the Indians (3-5, 1-3) late to snare the huge victory.

The Bears will now face Navasota (5-4, 3-1) at Battlin’ Bear Stadium Friday night. A win would seal the 10-4A title. Navasota defeated Bridge City 33-6 Friday night.

Silsbee (4-4, 3-1) is also tied for first after defeating Huffman but the Bears have the tiebreaker edge over the Tigers due to their 58-38 win to start 10-4A play.

Jett Hendrix put the Indians up early with a five-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0 with 6:12 in the first quarter.

The Bears answered quickly though as tailback Chris Winters ripped off a 34-yard touchdown gallop to complete a drive but the two-point conversion failed and the Bears trailed 7-6 with 4:59 in the first period.

The Bears went up 13-7 with 11:50 in the half when receiver Dameon Morris was able to scoop up a Winters fumble and return it nine yards for a score. Kooper Abernathy drilled the extra-point as the Bears snagged a 13-7 edge.

Morris added another score right before the half as he was able to dart into the end zone from six yards out to make it 20-7 with 2:43 in the half.

It looked like Winters had broke it open when he zipped his way to a 35-yard touchdown jaunt to make it 26-7 with 9:09 in the third.

Hendrix answered again for the Indians with 2:13 in the third when he bolted in from three yards out, trimming it to 26-14.

Bear sophomore quarterback Ethan McCollum answered with 10:31 remaining when he was able to score from four yards away to push it back to 32-14.

Hendrix made it a 32-21 contest when he scored his third touchdown of the night with a one-yard keeper with 7:55 left.

The Indians added a late score when Hendrix connected with Monroe Harding on a nine-yard touchdown toss.

The Bears finished with 367 total yards, 291 of it via the ground attack.

The Indians collected 302 yards, 286 of it coming off the ground game.