San Marcos — It had been more than two years since the San Marcos Academy football team had won a district contest going into Thursday night’s TAPPS, Division II, District 3 game against Giddings State School.

That streak came to an end as the Bears handed the Indians a 42-12 trouncing at Ingram Stadium.

The Indians certainly didn’t help their cause by being penalized by a whopping 19 times for 130 yards.

Giddings was first on the scoreboard with a 67-yard touchdown run, as the two-point conversion failed.

But the Bears bounced back thanks to a organized ground attack, finished by Anthony Richardson’s 1-yard touchdown dive. Trey Banks booted the extra point to give SMA a 7-6 lead with eight minutes, 59 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Bears would strike again as Cameron Whitehead recovered a fumble which led to Michael Young’s 28-yard touchdown. Banks added the PAT for a 14-6 lead.

On the following play, Michael Latham fell on an onside kick on the next play and the Bears were rolling again.

Latham ran for 22 yards on the next play, setting up Mark Hamm’s 24-yard score to push the lead to 21-6 after Banks’ kick.

Defensively, the Bears were led by the play of Vishal Singh, who made a number of big defensive stops in the first quarter.

The Bear offense continued to roll in the second quarter thanks to Young’s 24-yard touchdown run to give the Bears a commanding 28-6 lead. The advantage would have been larger had Richardson not been intercepted in the end zone towards the end of the quarter.

Giddings did little to help its cause, as the Indians were penalized 10 times for 60 yards in the first half alone. At the half, the Bears had nine first downs and 194 yards of offense compared to four first downs and 103 yards for the Indians.

Mark Hamm mishandled a pitch on SMA’s first possession of the second half, but Whitehead gave the Bears the ball back with his second fumble recovery of the game. After a short, 13-yard punt from Giddings, Hamm raced 15 yards untouched into the end zone for a 35-6 lead with 6:13 left in the third quarter.

Giddings scored with 50-yard touchdown run to close the gap to 35-12 as the 2-point conversion was stopped by SMA’s Jay Claiborne.

Latham broke free for a 40-yard touchdown with 2:53 left after taking an option pitch from back-up quarterback Aubrey Oswalt, as Banks added another PAT for a 42-12 lead. 

The Bears finished the game with 310 yards rushing and 33 yards passing.

“We played better but we must eliminate mistakes at crucial times,” SMA head coach Brian Gaylor said.

The win places the Bears in control of their own destiny, as they only need one win over the last two weeks — against Texas Military Institute or Austin Hyde Park — to reach the playoffs for the first time in four years.