By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser
It was a tale of two halves for Billingsley on Nov. 2, as the Bears came up on the short end of a 30-14 home game against the Dallas County Hornets.

Dallas County took an early 6-0 lead and a pair of scoreless possessions ensued before the Bears took over at the Hornets 48.

Five plays later, Malik Callens connected with Raymond Cutler for a 15-yard touchdown reception. The two-point conversion was run in by Callens to give Billingsley an 8-6 lead with 11:11 to play in the second quarter.

The Bears’ lead was short lived as Dallas County returned the ensuing kickoff across midfield to the Billingsley 44, where the Hornets began a scoring drive that ended on a 3-yard touchdown carry that gave Dallas County a 14-8 lead with 6:56 to play in the second quarter.

Billingsley started its next possession at their own 37 and saw a pair of early first downs thanks to runs by Callens that moved the Bears across midfield to the Dallas County 46.

Two runs of 7 yards and another of 4 pushed Billingsley down inside the red zone, where Callens capped the drive off with a touchdown run that sent the game to the half tied at 14.

Having won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half, the Hornets took the opening possession of the second half and grabbed a 22-14 lead with 8:11 remaining in the third quarter.

A three and out by Billingsley on its first possession of the half set the Hornets up at its own 35.

Sixty-five yards and seven plays later, a 3-yard touchdown carry by made the score 30-14 with 2:59 to play in the third.

Opportunity to cut into the Dallas County lead came the way of the Bears but, turnovers greatly affected the Billingsley comeback, as penalties forced the Bears into third and long scenarios.

A pair of interceptions halted two possible scoring drives for the Bears.

While a 3-7 record was not what Billingsley had in mind back when the season started in August, the Bears still hold a three-way tie for the final playoff spot in their region, and for head coach Tyson McLean the hope is that something was learned during the season.

“We have to take this year and we have to learn from it,” McLean said. “There were times through out the season when we had opportunities that we did not take advantage of and there were times tonight that we had opportunities that we did not take advantage of.

“We had to many negative plays throughout the entire season and tonight was a microcosm of all that. We get a drive going and we have a negative play and we weren’t able to overcome it. That has kind of been our season this year it seems.”

Callens led the Bears’ ground game with 66 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown, while Cutler added 57 yards on 12 carries.