RICHLAND – The Bears waiting almost eight years for a return trip to Gull Lake. Last Friday night, mother nature made the Bears wait one more night for a return to the actual playing field.

After a nearly 2 hour delay before kickoff, the game was postponed last Friday night and the game was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1:00. 

When the two teams finally got on the field, it was the Blue Devils that found the scoreboard first after a long delay for a nearby tornado siren test.  The Blue Devils recovered a fumble on an errant pitch and TJ Haase returned it 56 yards for a touchdown.  The point after was missed and for the first time in the history of the two teams, Gull Lake had a lead. 

St. Joe cut the 6-0 lead in half on the following drive, when Cullen Hoffman kicked a 23 yard field goal with 4:42 left in the first quarter.

The Bear defense set up the offense next scoring drive after three consecutive plays for loss for the Gull Lake offense and a 10 yard punt set up St. Joe at the Gull Lake 19 yard line.  Five plays later Hoffman ran the ball himself from 2 yards out to put the Bears ahead 10-6 with 4 second left to play in the first quarter.

St. Joe would start the next drive inside Gull Lake territory after recovering a fumble. The Bears would increase the lead to 13-6 on Hoffman’s 36 yard field goal.

Gull Lake’s offense again would be working in reverse and punted.  St. Joe would again start on the Gull Lake side of the 50 and 4 plays later. Sean Akins scored on a 2 yard touchdown run to put the Bears up 20-6.

The Blue devils offense again failed to move the ball and fumbled, setting up the Bears just outside the Blue Devils 20 yard line.  Derek Burton scored on a 20 yard run to put St. Joe up 27-6 going into the half.

Gull Lake would make a long drive to start the second half, aided by some St. Joe penalties and on 4th and goal Seth Eldridge scored to cut the lead to 27-12, the Blue Devils missed the 2 point conversion.

St. Joe responded quickly on a 7 play 82 yard drive which ended with a 10 yard touchdown run from Sean Akins and the Bears had the 34-12 lead.

St. Joe’s defense kept Gull Lake bottled up the rest of the game and after getting the ball back with 2:00 left in the game, Hoffman kneeled the next three plays as the Bears won for the third time in three games against Gull Lake.

For the game. Gull Lake ran 49 plays and the Bear defense recorded 19 tackles for loss and forced four fumbles.  The Bears also recorded 3 sacks on Gull Lake’s 9 passing plays.