All season long, Highland Baptist has shown glimpses of what the future holds for football at the school. Even in lopsided losses, the Bears have managed to put together some impressive moments on the field.

Thursday night, the Bears finally showed what they can accomplish when they put it all together.

Zach Fleming rushed for 200 yards and five touchdowns, passed for 93 yards and another TD, and Seth Woerner returned an interception 40 yards for a score as the Bears crushed the New Orleans Home School Saints 48-6 in a Louisiana Christian School Athletic Association game.

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The Bears put together as complete a game as possible for a first-year program. From executing an onside kick to open the game, to Fleming’s 50-yard run to open the scoring, to the Highland defense holding the Saints to under 100 yards of offense for most of the contest.

“It’s been our goal all season to play four quarters and I feel like we did that tonight,” said HBCS coach Artie Liuzza, whose team improved 3-6 on the year with one game left in the regular season. “We’re still getting comfortable with the game and it takes us a while to warm up to it.

“When things start clicking for us and we got comfortable we were able to do a lot of things tonight that we haven’t been able to do all season. It was nice to see that improvement. To see guys get comfortable and play football.”

Fleming, who had a 200-yard effort against Natchitoches Christian in the home opener, again broke the 200-yard barrier in the home finale as he started the scoring with a 50-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and closed it with a three-yard scoring run in the fourth. In between, he added three more touchdown runs and threw a touchdown pass for the Bears.

“I have to give the credit to God because I couldn’t do any of this without him,” said Fleming. “We knew coming in that this was an important game and it was going to take hard work from all of us to get a win.”

After opening the game with an onside kick, Highland took possession of the ball at midfield.

After throwing an incompletion on the first play of the game, Fleming took off around the left side on the second play and weaved his way through the Saints defense, scampering 50 yards for the score and the lead the Bears would never relinquish.

Highland scored on all but three possessions in the first half. Twice the Bears turned it over on downs and once Fleming was intercepted deep in New Orleans territory to stop a drive.

Otherwise, Fleming put on show that effectively put the game out of reach by halftime. He scored on runs of 19 and nine yards in the second quarter and hit Woerner with a 10-yard TD pass with 27 seconds left before halftime.

New Orleans quarterback Sam Mauras added to his own troubles as Woerner picked him off and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown with four seconds left in the half.

“That is an impressive team that Highland has,” said New Orleans (0-9) coach John Burke. “We tried but we just couldn’t get anything going on offense and that quarterback is a great player. I have a feeling that we are going to be hearing from him for years to come.”

Highland added two more scores in the second half, one on a Fleming 70 yard run in the third quarter and the last on his three yard run in the fourth.

The Saints avoided the shutout late in the game as Mauras hit Caleb Sour on a 24 yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left.

It was the only drive New Orleans put together as the Saints finished with only 106 yards of offense and Highland’s defense held them to minus 16 yards rushing.

On homecoming and senior night for Highland, the Bears honored the two seniors on the team, Logan Dugas, who injured his knee earlier in the season and watched from the sidelines, and Dalton Kay, the big lineman who got his name into the record books when he ran in two 2-point conversions in the contest.

“That was a senior special,” said Liuzza. “Dalton has been a great player all year and in his senior year and only year playing football, I wanted to do something special for him so we let him run the ball a couple of times.

“That was fun,” said Kay. “This has been a great year for me and for Highland and to be able to do that was an incredible feeling.”

Highland closes out the regular season Thursday at Heritage Christian in Abbeville.