HONEA PATH — It took four games, a lot of preaching and even more coaching, but the Belton-Honea Path Bears finally had something to smile about on Friday. The Bears got over their first 0-3 start since 1995 with a 35-14 victory over the Wren Golden Hurricanes in Honea Path.

“(The players) haven’t given up, haven’t quit,” B-HP coach Wayne Green said about his team’s first win. “A lot of teams that have had a past history of some success, if they start off 0-3 and had to listen to some of the things that these guys have had to listen to (they) very easily could have quit, but they haven’t done that.”

B-HP receiver/running back Jacob Tavernier caught a touchdown pass just before halftime and ran one in later in the fourth to give the Bears some cushion. Sophomore running back Charles Lindsey, who started the year on junior varsity, rushed for a pair of scores in the third quarter and totaled 100 yards on 20 carries.

“(Lindsey’s) been telling me all along that he’s the man,” Green said. “I think the more times we give him the football, he does show that he has tremendous ability. He runs extremely hard and makes good decisions with the football. When you pair him with Jacob Tavernier back there you got ‘Little Thunder’ and ‘Big Lightning.’ It’s kind of reversed from the way some things are.”

Wren (1-4) capitalized early after a bad snap to the Bears’ punter gave the Golden Hurricanes the ball at the B-HP 39-yard line. After quarterback Austin McCaskill found receiver Chris Perdomo — who had eight catches for 145 yards in the game — for a 26-yard pass play, Raymond Rogers took a handoff on the next play up the middle for an 18-yard touchdown run to give Wren a 7-0 lead.

B-HP (1-3) rallied with Tavernier’s 33-yard touchdown catch on a fade pass from quarterback Nino Wooldridge with 46 seconds left in the first half.

Wren got within a touchdown late in third quarter on a 1-yard run by Rogers, but Tavernier’s 11-yard touchdown run, a nearly seven-minute B-HP drive in the fourth quarter and a 60-yard interception returned for a touchdown by Ryan Stevenson sealed the Bears’ victory.

“We had opportunities to give us a comfortable lead, maybe put some doubt in their mind and we didn’t do it,” said Wren coach Jeff Tate, who’s team faces rival Easley next week. “They came out in the second half, ran it right at us, challenged our manhood. They were better men tonight up front than what we were in the second half.”

Green said he was pleased with the way his team responded this week after a missed extra point and field goal last week against Palmetto hurt his team’s chances of winning.

“We’ve gotten better,” said Green, who takes his team to Clinton next week. “We’re still not near as good as we could be. But I think the thing we got tonight during the game, it wasn’t because we finally won the game, but I think we finally came together as a team a little bit better.”