BY KEVIN DUKE

SPECIAL TO THE HERALD DEMOCRAT

WHITESBORO -- The Sanger Indians held on for a wild 53-34 win over the Whitesboro Bearcats on Friday night in the District 9-3A finale at Bearcat Stadium.

Both teams moved the ball well but it was two turnovers in the first half that led to Sanger scores and put the Bearcats in too big a hole to recover.

"Turnovers are always important, you have a chance to get some short fields and gain some momentum," Sanger head coach Chuck Galbreath said. "That helped us to kind of jump out on them a little bit."

"We couldn't stop them, they couldn't stop us and we turned the ball over more than they did, so there's your difference right there," Whitesboro head coach Eddie Gill said. "The second half we came out and played a little bit better, but we just dug ourselves to big of a hole."

After the Bearcats (2-8, 0-5) drove 82 yards to answer the Indians' first touchdown, Sanger scored three touchdowns in the next three minutes to put the game out of reach.

The first score came two plays after senior running back Bo Bob Howard broke a 72-yard run down the right sideline to get the ball down to the Whitesboro 1-yard line and one play and 27 seconds later the Indians (5-5, 2-3) were back in the lead.

The Bearcats then fumbled on their second play from scrimmage when Jordan Gill's pitch to Jerrid Caffey was bobbled and the Indians fell on it at the Whitesboro 42-yard-line.

Indian sophomore quarterback Dane Evans went to work, hitting Jay Cain on a deep pass over the middle to move the ball once again to the Bearcat one and Nathan Rotter punched it in from there to put Sanger up by 14.

"He's a talented young man," Galbreath said. "He threw the ball well tonight and threw it well all year. I really saw him grow up over the course of the year and I'm looking forward to a couple of more big years out of him."

The Bearcats used a good return on the ensuing kickoff to penetrate into Sanger territory, but Gill was intercepted for Whitesboro's second turnover in less than three minutes.

Evans moved the ball effectively once again, completing three passes to get the ball down to the Bearcat 37, where on a third-and-two, Howard broke a run off the right tackle the Indians third touchdown in the stretch to put the Indians up 28-7.

After Sanger had scored again on a 53-yard pass from Evans to Scott, Whitesboro showed some life.

Gill hit Caffey on a screen to the right, the blockers created a nice wedge and Caffey used them to go 65 yards for the score right before the half.

Caffey scored again on a 30-yard run on the Bearcats' first possession of the second half and Whitesboro closed to 15 at 35-20 but that would be as close as they would get for the rest of the game.