The Tellico Plains High School Bears took the field Friday night in the final game of the season hoping to finish the year with back-to-back wins. The Bears also had a chance to give Coach John Mullinax his 200th career victory as a head football coach and send the senior Bears out on a winning note.

The Bears accomplished all they set out to do, securing a 31-16 victory over the Whitwell High School Tigers.

To start the game, the Bears would win the toss and defer to the second half. The Tigers would get on the board first late in the first quarter on a touchdown run by Ben Sartin and would add a two-point conversion to make it 8-0 Tigers.

On Tellico's next position they would go four and out and be forced to punt the ball, but the punt was blocked and recovered by Whitwell in Tellico territory.

The Tigers would score on a run by Dusty McHone and add another two-point conversion to make it 16-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The only score in the sec­ond quarter would come with only 1:14 left in the half when Tellico's Dwayne Hollingshead would punch it in from a couple yards out. Garrett Reno con­verted a two-point conversion to cut the Whitwell lead to 16-8 going into halftime.

Tellico would receive the ball in the second half kickoff and would take it down the field through the air and on the ground, getting into the end­zone on another touchdown by Hollingshead.

Reno would again punch it in for another two-point conver­sion to tie the game at 16-16 with 6:26 left in the third quar­ter.

Early in the fourth quarter, Tellico would make it 24-16 on a touchdown pass Hollingshead to Robert Vandervort.

The Bears defense would come up with a huge stop on Whitwell's next position, as Devin Collier and Bryce Carter would come up with a sack to stall the Whitwell drive on a turn­over on downs.

Reno scored the Bears final touchdown of the night to make it 31-16 with 5:28 left in the game.

The Bears defense would again stop Whitwell and take over possession with 2:02 left. The Bears would run out the clock to finish the game and defeat the Tigers 31-16.

The Bears finish 2012 with three wins and a two-game win­ning streak. Coach Mullinax gets his 200th career victory and the seniors go out with a bang.