In rare company

Sikeston wins 600th game in program history

sports@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- In 1908, the Sikeston Bulldogs won their first-ever football game with a 10-5 victory over Charleston.

Fast-forward 103 years to Friday, Oct. 7, 2011. With 599 victories, the Bulldogs needed to defeat Kennett to achieve history.

There had been only four teams in Missouri state history to record 600 all-time victories -- Rockhurst, Jefferson City, Chillicothe and Webster Groves.

Now add Sikeston to the list.

The Bulldogs joined the elite cast with a 56-0 homecoming victory over Kennett on Friday night at SPS Stadium.

Head coach Kent Gibbs, in his fifth year at the helm, has notched 39 of those victories in his tenure and it's something he is proud to be a part of.

"We always talk about, 'you're part of one of the best Class 4 teams in the state of Missouri and you need to represent yourself and play that way,'" Gibbs said. "And I told them before the game, 'you've got an even bigger apple out there. You get a chance to make history by being a team member on a team that scored its 600th win."

Sikeston (6-1) left little room for drama on Friday as they put the game away early. Only after an announcement by the public address announcer late in the fourth quarter did the crowd realize that they had just witnessed history.

"I think it's just awesome," Gibbs said. "I think it's awesome for the kids. I think it's awesome for the coaches, myself personally, our community and obviously our program. It just tells you we've had a lot of great coaches and a lot of great players throughout the years and certainly we want to keep holding up our end of that bargain."

It's Sikeston's sixth-straight victory this season after a season opening loss to Gateway Tech.

The Bulldogs, which have defeated Kennett in 10 of the last 11 meetings, completely dominated Friday's game against the Indians, out-gaining them 513 to 94.

The Indians (2-5) had racked up massive stats in a 75-59 loss to Malden a week ago, giving the Sikeston coaching staff reason for concern with such a high point total.

"We were concerned with their ability to move the ball," Gibbs said. "Their running back and quarterback are good athletes. We bent a lot early and gave up some plays, but we also made some plays. We kind of got into a rhythm on defense and the big thing I liked was we were really, really physical on both sides of the ball."

The Bulldog defense did not let the Indians breathe all night, forcing seven punts and two turnovers in the game.

"Against a quality team like Sikeston you have to mix it up," Kennett coach Corey Adkisson said. "The last few weeks we have been able to run it, run it, run it with success. Sikeston is probably the best defensive team we face all year long and you have to mix it up. Those guys fly around to the football and they were giving us more throwing the ball than running. They were trying to take away the run."

Kennett running back Darius Warren, a lightning fast junior who had rushed for 289 yards on 16 carries last week, was held to 33 yards on 17 carries against the Bulldogs.

A big chunk of his yardage was a 20-yard run on his first carry of the game that he nearly broke for long touchdown run before being tripped up.

Overall, the Indians only managed 12 yards rushing on 30 attempts. Quarterback Adam Grantham was sacked five times in the game.

"Defensively the thing that I liked was we really ran well to the ball," Gibbs said. "Sometimes it looked like there were 15 black jerseys out there."

The Bulldogs got off to a rocky start in the game, committing early penalties and having trouble getting its footing on offense as they punted on their first series.

However they responded with four touchdowns on the next four possessions to establish control of the game.

"We did start off awful slow," Gibbs said. "We didn't execute early and we had a lot of penalties -- way too many penalties tonight. But halfway through that first quarter, I don't know if we woke up or what the situation was, but we played really well after that. We've got to learn not to have those kind of starts. We're in our district play now and you can't afford to do that. But overall I was pleased with our effort. Outside of our penalties I thought we did a good job."

Senior running back James Watson got the Bulldogs on the board with the first of his three touchdown runs with 5:26 left in the first quarter from 23 yards out.

Watson then extended Sikeston's lead to 14-0 with an 8-yard run with 2:33 left in the first quarter. The play was set up by a 52-yard punt return by Kyland Gross.

The Bulldogs scored 21 points in the second quarter. Keldon Warfield scored on a 1-yard plunge, Watson broke a 68-yard TD run and Warfield caught a 15-yard scoring pass from David Foster to give Sikeston a 35-0 halftime lead.

The Bulldogs' blocking efforts, particularly on the outside, is what caught Gibbs' eye.

"We've worked and worked and worked on it and tonight we saw a little bit of that come to pass," Gibbs said. "We blocked better on the edge -- on the perimeter as we call it. And the other thing is we blocked a whole lot better downfield. A lot of the runs that you saw, you saw guys peeling back and making plays and white jerseys were hitting the ground."

Sikeston added three more touchdowns in the second half. Sophomore Chris Word had TD runs of 16 and 27 yards. Sophomore Clay Porter added a 16-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Sikeston tallied 426 yards rushing on just 35 attempts.

"They've got a lot of good players and put their kids in good situations with their offense," Adkisson said. "I thought we were around the ball defensively. They are a lot stronger than us and we've got to be a better tackling team. They're a Class 4 team, they're ranked for a reason, they've been to the semifinals the last two years for a reason. They've got a good program."

Sikeston will start district play next Friday with a road game at Perryville.

"I think we're getting better and certainly we need to be getting better and we need to be ready for our district," Gibbs said.

Notes: Sikeston was the first team in Missouri history to record 400 victories when they reached the mark in 1978 with a 20-9 victory over Blytheville, Ark. The Bulldogs won their 500th game in 1995 with a 29-8 victory over Charleston...In the early days of football, touchdowns only counted as five points, which explains the odd final score of 10-5 as mentioned previously.

Kennett 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Sikeston 14 21 7 14 -- 56

First Quarter

S -- James Watson 23 run (Hunter Williams kick), 5:26

S -- Watson 8 run (Williams kick), 2:33

Second Quarter

S -- Keldon Warfield 1 run (Williams kick), 11:56

S -- Watson 68 run (Williams kick), 5:25

S -- Warfield 15 pass from David Foster (Williams kick), 0:38

Third Quarter

S -- Chris Word 16 run (Williams kick), 3:13

Fourth Quarter

S -- Word 27 run (Williams kick), 10:36

S -- Clay Porter 16 run (Williams kick), 1:05

TEAM STATISTICS

K S

First downs 8 12

Total yards 94 513

Rushes-yards 30-12 35-426

Passing yards 82 87

Comp.-Att.-Int. 12-20-1 3-5-0

Punts 7-30.6 1-34.0

Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1

Penalties-yards 3-20 11-68

Turnovers 2 2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Kennett -- Darius Warren 17-33, Cameron Harper 1-5, Logan Dollins 2-3, Team 1-(-1), Declan Wallace 2-(-3), Adam Grantham 7-(-25). Sikeston -- James Watson 11-187, Chris Word 5-64, Kyland Gross 4-48, Clay Porter 2-32, Ray Council 1-21, Dustin Oakes 2-20, Markeith Bratcher 4-20, Reese Porter 3-18, Keldon Warfield 1-8, David Foster 1-5, Patrick Gross 1-3.

Passing

Kennett -- Adam Grantham 12-20-1 82. Sikeston -- David Foster 3-5-0 87.

Receiving

Kennett -- Cameron Harper 6-71, Antavies Drake 2-10, Logan Dollins 2-7, Treyvon Bradford 2-(-6). Sikeston -- James Watson 1-46, Keldon Warfield 2-41.