The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Knights look sharp enough in defeat of Bears
They take 35-point halftime lead in rout in Ironwood League debut
ONTARIO >> Coming off a bye week and a school retreat, Ontario Christian football coach Matthew Hoekstra figured there would be some rust for the Ironwood League opener Thursday.
There was a little rust, but it was not nearly enough to derail the Knights.
Ontario Christian took a 35-point halftime lead and went on to rout Big Bear 55-6 at Ontario Christian.
“Overall, we’re happy,” Hoeskstra said. “There are always things to work on.”
Ontario Christian (6-0) used two quarterbacks in overwhelming Big Bear (42): Junior Hayden Slegers, who has been the Knights’ starter the last three years, and senior Dominic Tubbs, who was playing in his first game following the sit-out period after transferring from Santiago.
Of the seven touchdown drives engineered by the offense, Tubbs was quarterback for four and Slegers led the team to three. The other touchdown came on an 80yard kickoff return by sophomore Marquis Bradley.
“The plan was to go with two quarterbacks coming into this first game,” Hoekstra said. “When you have two talented players, you’re going to rotate them in and out. They have different skill sets and different strengths. Both came in and practiced well.”
Tubbs completed 8 of 9 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown, and rushed six times for 73 yards and a touchdown. Slegers completed 2 of 4 passes for 27 yards and a touchdown and rushed three times for 34 yards and two touchdowns. One of Slegers’ touchdowns came as he lined up at wingback while Tubbs was at quarterback.
“We were really excited to see our quarterback, Hayden Slegers… he comes in at wingback and scores a touchdown,” Hoekstra said. “We’ve known all along he can do all of that stuff.”
Ontario Christian’s offense didn’t turn the ball over and only punted once: but that one punt turned into a Big Bear fumble that was recovered by the Knights.
“They’re good. They’re disciplined and well-coached,” first-year Big Bear coach Jon Fleming said. “I expected to compete better than we did. I expected us to be better offensively and defensively. They did a good job and shut us down and made us work.”
The Knights led 28-0 on a Slegers touchdown pass to Bradley, a Tubbs touchdown run, a Jack Molina touchdown run and a Slegers touchdown run when the back-breaker happened just before halftime.
The Bears chose to go for it on fourth-and-13 from their own 43 and quarterback Sean Garvey was sacked with 1:41 to play before halftime.