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Sikeston 'D' holds Jays to 67 yards in hard-fought win
CHARLESTON -- The past four seasons the Sikeston Bulldogs have found great success with a stingy defense and a quarterback that can be as dangerous with his legs as much as his arm.
That formula proved to be fruitful once again on Friday in the Bulldogs' 24-6 season opening victory over Charleston at Marshall Stadium in the 128th meeting between the two ancient rivals.
Sikeston's defense did its part as they completely stifled the Charleston offense, limiting the Bluejays to just 67 yards of offense with just one yard coming in the entire second half.
And in his first game at quarterback, senior Reese Porter had a successful debut, rushing for a team-high 126 yards with two touchdowns and throwing for 85 yards.
The Bulldogs had numerous mistakes, including a fumble on the first play of scrimmage that Charleston returned for its only touchdown, but Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs was upbeat after the game, particularly with his team's defense.
"Everybody likes to see a lot of points on the board and certainly I do too, but the big thing with us the last few years it's really been our defense that's carried us and certainly tonight they did," Gibbs said. "A kid took the ball away from Chris (Word) and ran it in, otherwise they wouldn't have scored on us."
Charleston came into the game returning many key players from last year's 9-3 team, including 1,700-yard rusher Robert Bogan and 1,000-yard rusher Rontavious Clark.
The Bulldog defense limited Bogan to two yards on 11 carries and Clark led the team with 20 yards on six carries.
Seemingly every time Bogan, Clark or any other Charleston player received the football, the ball carrier was surrounded by the white clad Bulldogs.
"I think our defense really pursued well to the football on the edge and I think our inside folks really came off the ball," Gibbs said. "You saw several times we were in the backfield. We were assignment sound. We didn't let them get outside on us."
The Bulldogs held Charleston's vaunted ground attack to just 38 yards rushing on 34 carries.
The Bluejays only had three first downs in the game.
"(Sikeston has) a good defense and we knew that coming in," Charleston coach Brett Blackman said. "I think their defense is what's going to carry them all season. We had some breakdowns in our blocking and we'll get that all fixed next week."
As they did in last year's season opening loss against the Bulldogs, Charleston got on the board first.
On Sikeston's first play, Word took the handoff up the middle, never could get a good grip on the football, and was stripped by Charleston's Demontrail Clark, who returned it 23 yards for a touchdown just 11 seconds into the game to take a 6-0 lead.
Sikeston's offense had trouble getting its footing until its fourth series as Porter directed a nine-play, 62-yard scoring drive capped by Word's 8-yard touchdown run with 9:35 left in the second quarter.
Chase Davis ran in the two-point conversion to give the Bulldogs an 8-6 lead.
Both teams saw defense control most of the second quarter as they exchanged five straight punts.
With just over a minute left in the half, Sikeston took advantage of good field position at the Charleston 43, when, on the third play of the series, Porter kept it on the option for an 18-yard touchdown to take a 14-6 lead into halftime.
Neither team's offense could get anything going in the third quarter until Sikeston ran 12 plays and marched 68 yards, but the drive ended on downs merely inches from the goal line when Porter was stopped on a quarterback keeper.
Faced with poor field position backed up in its own end zone, Charleston's Devonte Ware tried to bounce wide but was tackled for a safety to extend Sikeston's lead to 16-6 with 1:24 left in the third quarter.
"That kind of broke our back," Blackman said. "Looking back at that it probably wasn't the best play call. But we were trying to get it outside. I thought the way they were playing us up front, I didn't think we could get the fullback yardage and that's why we tried to get something to bounce outside and unfortunately our back took it too far outside. It was a deflating play. That's kind of what broke our back in a bad situation."
Sikeston sealed the game for good in the fourth quarter as Porter scored on a 6-yard run with 3:40 left. Davis' two-point conversion run marked the final margin.
Charleston's final drive of the game ended with a leaping interception by Donnell Cobb.
"I think we were a little bit fatigued and that's on me," Blackman said. "We'll take care of that next week. The way we condition isn't the problem. I think the pregame was a little bit of a problem. We'll take care of that and address that."
Sikeston's offense, which never could seem to get into a rhythm, still managed to tally 323 total yards on 68 plays.
By comparison, Charleston only had 40 plays of offense.
"I think our defense did what they could and our offense didn't necessarily do what they could," Blackman said. "When your defense is on the field all night -- they gave up 24 and they were on the field probably 80 percent of the time, probably closer to 90. That's what's going to happen. That's the nature of football."
Porter completed 4 of 11 passes for 85 yards. He completed four of his first six passes, but misfired on his final five attempts. He had no pass attempts in the second half.
Porter knows he has big shoes to fill from previous Sikeston quarterbacks, three of which -- Juqualin Wiggins, Trey Lewis and Kyland Gross -- were all-state players. While he looked up to those players, he says he's still in the process of learning the new position.
"I think I did okay," Porter said. "There's some things I've got to clean up. I always go to coach Gibbs and ask him what I did wrong. I just have to take what he tells me and convert it in the game. At the beginning I was a little nervous but I felt more confident as the game went on. Part of being quarterback is the pressure. If something goes wrong the first person people look at is you. But I love the pressure."
Word, who had problems with fumbles last year, had two more on Friday, losing one, but he still managed to rush for 91 yards on 18 carries and caught a pass for a 35-yard gain. He also was a disruptive force from his defensive line position.
"I felt once Chris got over his fumble-itis early in the game he ran the ball hard," Gibbs said. "I also thought Reese did a good job. There's a lot of things we've got to clean up. Overall I was pleased with his performance tonight. He made some good reads, threw some good passes."
Sikeston has won 14 of the last 17 meetings with Charleston, including the last seven straight.
The Bulldogs now lead the all-time series 90-34-4.
| Sikeston | 0 | 14 | 2 | 8 | -- | 24 |
| Charleston | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- | 6 |
First Quarter
C -- Demontrail Clark 23 fumble return (run failed), 11:49
Second Quarter
S -- Chris Word 8 run (Chase Davis run), 9:35
S -- Reese Porter 18 run (run failed), 1:05
Third Quarter
S -- Safety, 1:24
Fourth Quarter
S -- Porter 6 run (Davis run), 3:40
| S | C | |
| First downs | 15 | 3 |
| Total yards | 323 | 67 |
| Rushes-yards | 57-238 | 34-38 |
| Passing | 85 | 29 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 4-11-0 | 3-6-1 |
| Punts | 4-25.8 | 8-34.3 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 2-1 | 0-0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 9-58 | 9-55 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 1 |
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Sikeston, Reese Porter 24-126, Chris Word 18-91, Chase Davis 5-14, Earnest Fobbs 2-7, Peyton Boyd 2-1, Ray Council 1-1, Team 5-(-2). Charleston, Rontavious Clark 6-20, Delfincko Bogan 3-6, Mike Kellum 9-5, Deiontreil Winston 1-5, Robert Bogan 11-2, Devonte Ware 3-0, Demontrail Clark 1-0.
PASSING -- Sikeston, Reese Porter 4-11-0 85. Charleston, Mike Kellum 2-5-1 29, Delfincko Bogan 1-1-0 0.
RECEIVING -- Sikeston, Chase Davis 2-41, Chris Word 1-35, Earnest Fobbs 1-9. Charleston, Demontrail Clark 2-29, Mike Kellum 1-0.