MCKENZIE, Tenn. – The Bethel Wildcats used three passing touchdowns and one rushing score by freshman quarterback Blake Meadors to win their home opener beating spunky Warner University 35-20 Saturday at Wildcat Stadium in McKenzie. The players and fans battled temperatures in the mid-nineties in what was the 450th game in Bethel program history. Bethel improved to 2-1 while Warner dropped to 0-2.
Warner's Trevon Jackson scored on a seven yard run at the 11:07 mark to give the Royals the lead. Santiago Tovar hit the extra point and Warner led 7-0.
After being shutout in the first quarter, Meadors carried it in from two yards out and after the point after by Rodrigo Campos the game was knotted at seven all at the 7:35 mark of the second stanza. With 1: 33 left in the half, Meadors hit Dieuly Aristilde on a 70-yard strike to give Bethel a 14-7 lead.
The only score of the third quarter was a 31-yard field goal by Warner's Tovar.
Tovar hit a 37-yard field goal one second into the final quarter to pull the Royals within one at 14-13.
The Cats kicked the game into high gear after the Warner score and scored four times to put the game away. Meadors hit Davius Prather on a 27-yard score to up the lead to 21-13. With 8:23 left Meadors rushed from two yards out to make it 28-13. Four minutes later he hit QuaShawn Ford on a 14-yard pass to give the Cats a comfortable cushion at 35-13. With just over a minute left in the game Warner scored on a 76-yard interception return by Jacob Ross and the game ended 35-20.
Bethel had a 437-314 advantage in total yards. The Wildcats were outgained on the ground 195-165 but had 272-119 margin in passing yards. Bethel had a 35-20 margin in first downs. Both teams had their share of penalties as Warner was flagged for 12 for 131 yards. The Wildcats had seven Infractions for 95 yards.
Meadors was 11-of-21 in passing for 249 yards. He also rushed for 33 yards in the victory. Caleb Nelson caught five passes for 90 yards. Prather had two receptions. Anthony Hughes led Bethel in rushing with 84 yards on 20 carries.
Javon Wilson had a huge day for Warner leading all rushers with 142 yards.
Bethel's Jakobe Griffin led all tacklers with 13 on the day. Jeremy Beaulieu followed with nine tackles. Jeremy Johnson had eight tackles while David Miller finished with seven total hits. Daquan Lee led Warner with eight total hits. Johnson had an interception for Bethel.
In his first career home win Coach Michael Jasper said, "I won't ever complain about getting a win, but I will say that win was sloppy. Hats off to Coach Talley and his staff. They threw some wrinkles at us offensively and they had their guys ready to play. If we are going to get where we want to go, we must play to our standard and do so consistently no matter the opponent. We had flashes of a championship team and flashes of .500 team. It can't be that way. Thankfully we go into a bye week and have an opportunity to get better. I'm proud of how our young men fought but I know and they know we haven't scratched the surface of how we can play."
