Staying Alive: Dexter holds off Park Hills Central in Class 3 sectional
Late defensive stand sends Bearcats to quarterfinals
PARK HILLS -- With Dexter able to hold off one last desperation drive by the Park Hills Central Rebels Monday night in a Class 3 sectional showdown, the Bearcats punched their ticket to the state quarterfinals.
Up 28-20 late in the fourth, Dexter gave the Rebels one last chance with 28 seconds left when they turned the ball over on fourth down while trying to run out the clock, leaving Park Hills Central on their own 34.
Making things interesting, Rebel quarterback Aaron Tyree connected with Brandon Radford for a 42-yard gain, setting Park Hills up at their own 24, forcing the Rebels to hurry as the clock was running and they were out of timeouts.
Time for only one last play, Tyree rolled to his left out looking to pass.
With no one open, however, Tyree was dragged down by a Bearcat defender, allowing time to expire, sending Dexter on to play John Burroughs in the quarterfinals.
"We just did a great job in coverage," Dexter coach Aaron Pixley said of the last play. "Their quarterback had no one to throw to and thank the Lord we had some back side pursuit to catch up with the quarterback and get him on the ground and the clock ran out.
"The clock couldn't run out fast enough to me."
The last second stop was just one of many huge plays by the Bearcats in fourth quarter, including a 63-yard touchdown strike to Jake Cox to pad what was then only a one-point lead.
Buried deep with a third and 22 from their own 37, Stevens found Cox up the left sideline, hitting him in stride just a step in front of his defender to give Dexter a little breathing at 28-20 after the successful point after.
"We were running two crossing routes there on that play," Pixley said. "One of the routes was a go route and Jake beat (his defender). Cody saw it and threw the ball up in the air.
"He threw it where we needed him to throw it, where only we could catch it and Jake ran right underneath it and made a big play."
Cox's touchdown helped seal a game where the Bearcats at times struggled to deal with the Rebels physical ground game.
Though Park Hills Central only managed 46 yards through the air, they more than made up for it with 388 yards rushing.
Scoring all three of their touchdowns on the ground, Rebel runners busted out 38, 80 and 31 yard touchdown runs respectively to keep their team in the ball game.
After allowing Park Hills Central to take an early lead when Tanner Skaggs scored on on a 38-yard run on the Rebels opening drive, Dexter came back to answer with a strong ground game of their own.
Starting on their their own 39 after Park Hills Central opening score, Stevens capped capped the Bearcats 61-yard drive when he held onto the ball and ran it in himself on fourth-and-goal from the eight to tie things up.
Capitalizing on a Park Hills Central fumble early in the next drive, Nick Summers ran it up the middle from nine yards out to give Dexter it's first lead of the night at 13-7 after the missed extra point.
By the half, the Bearcats held a 21-14 lead that was cut to one when Brian Greer broke off a 31-yard run in the third to finish off a seven play, 72-yard march up the field by the Rebels.
That was as close as Park Hills would come to avenging their 14-0 regular season loss to Dexter, ending the Rebels season with a 7-5 record.
"It means a lot to us," Cox said of winning the rematch. "We got a little bit of respect back.
"Everybody thought it was a fluke last time (we beat them), but it gave us a lot of confidence coming into today's game."
Next up, the Bearcats will face their toughest challenge of the season when they take on undefeated John Burroughs Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
"We're going to enjoy this and go back to work tomorrow," Pixley said. "We're somewhat in uncharted territory here so we have to make sure we're ready.
"We know we're playing a 12-0 team that has beat everybody on their schedule pretty bad. So we're going to have to play our 'A' game that's for sure."