MOSCOW — The Bears strategy was apparent from the start.

Control the clock, wear down Sandpoint’s defense and keep Sandpoint’s offense on the sideline.

It worked and helped Moscow claim a 32-17 victory over Sandpoint on Friday night.

“We weren’t ready to play and it starts at the top,” Sandpoint head coach Ryan Knowles said. “We’ll look at the film, we’ll get the little things corrected but ... they outplayed us tonight and it showed.”

The Bulldogs were chomping at the bit to get a crack at the Bears all season after Moscow beat Sandpoint 39-21 last season at Memorial Field on homecoming.

But the Bears shut down any hopes of revenge early, taking a 21-0 lead into halftime. And the Sandpoint offense certainly didn’t help themselves as they only managed to get one first down in the first half.

Moscow started the game with a 15 play drive that chewed up nearly eight minutes of the clock and ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass on 4th and goal.

After forcing a Sandpoint three-and-out, Moscow took over at its own 46-yard line and found the end zone five plays later when quarterback Chad Redinger ran it in from 9 yards out to make it 14-0 Bears.

Moscow got the ball again and continued to drain the clock. They held the ball for just over five minutes on a 10 play, 80 yard drive that ultimately resulted in a 4-yard touchdown run by Brandon Suquet. It was 21-0 with 5:53 left in the first half.

With just under two minutes remaining in the first half, Sandpoint got the ball and looked to put some points on the board before the break. Unfortunately, on the second play of the drive senior quarterback Jaxon Pettit threw a deep pass intended for senior wide receiver Christian Niemela that was intercepted by a Moscow defender. The turnover solidified a scoreless first 24 minutes for the Bulldogs.

The second half saw the Sandpoint offense finally start moving the football. Thanks to a pair of pass interference penalties on the Bears, senior Dylan Peterson was able to convert a 28-yard field goal on the Bulldogs first drive of the half to cut into Moscow’s lead.

The Bears would respond with a field goal of their own but six seconds into the fourth quarter junior Keith Jensen powered his way into the end zone untouched to make it 24-10.

The teams would trade touchdowns in the fourth quarter and the Bears got a safety with just over three minutes left in the game to secure the final score of 32-17.

Knowles was frustrated by his team’s performance.

“Guys got to play with heart and I felt like we were overconfident over some wins that gave us some exposure so we’ll deal with that as a staff,” he said.

Sandpoint returns home to face Lakeland 7 p.m. next Friday.

Sandpoint 0 0 3 14 17

Moscow 14 7 3 8 32

Scoring summary

Q1 MHS Ben Postell 3 yd pass from Chad Redinger (Postell kick)

Q1 MHS Chad Redinger 9 yd run (Postell kick)

Q2 MHS Brandon Sequet 4 yd run (Postell kick)

Q3 SHS Dylan Peterson 28 yd field goal

Q3 MHS Ben Postell 24 yd field goal

Q4 SHS Keith Jensen 2 yd run

Q4 MHS Chad Redinger 7 yd run (kick fail)

Q4 SHS Max Theilbahr 16 yd pass from Pettit (kick fail)

Q4 MHS safety