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Dragons dominate new-look Dexter
DEXTER -- The Justin Peden era at Dexter High School didn't have quite the start the Bearcats had been hoping for.
Taking on state-ranked Ste. Genevieve in their season opener on Friday, Dexter watched the Dragons pull away to a 28-point halftime lead and hold on for a 42-7 final.
"We had some opportunities to do some things it just seemed like we get kind of rolling and things would happen," Peden said. "We'd have a penalty or something like that and we'd shoot ourself in the foot.
"We were in it at 13-7 for a little while and were rolling again. It's just they caught us in some bad situations and they came out with the win. Hats off to Ste. Gen. Coach (Bob) Stolzer has a heck of a program."
As Peden mentioned, the Bearcats momentarily turned a rough start around early in the second quarter with their only score of the game.
The Dragons scored on each of their first two possessions to go up 13-0 before a 67-yard drive by the Bearcats kept them in the game. It was a 37-yard run by Peyton Pollock that fueled the drive before Ethan Stevens sprinted 19 yards to put Dexter on the three-yard line.
A few plays later, Jon Foels punched it in from one-yard out, followed by Makalya Waldner's extra point, to make it 13-7 with 8:53 left in the half.
Unfortunately for the Bearcats, a fumble and failed fourth down on their next two possessions put momentum firmly back in the Dragons' hands as they scored 22-unanswered points to end the half.
"I think the heat started to get to our guys a little bit," Peden said of the second quarter struggles. "Depth is an issue for us right now and our guys who are going both ways started getting tired. It's brutal out here today, hot and it's muggy and you could tell they felt it.
"(Ste. Genevieve) busted a couple long runs and we were trying to scramble to get back in it and we just couldn't get that foothold to get there. It was tough."
While Dragons quarterback Matt Drury connected for a pair of touchdowns on the night Ste. Genevieve's biggest weapon was their ground game. A total of five runners gained 350 yards on the ground for an impressive 9.7 yard-per-carry average.
Senior Brendan Dallas was doing the bulk of the work as he finished the night with 185 yards and two scores on 13 carries.
His longest run of the night came in at 41 yards while he scored on runs of 34 and 22 yards respectively.
"Our lineman were getting on people blocking and our backs were hitting the hole quick picking up five or six at a time before they got tackled by the safeties," Dragons' head coach Bob Stolzer said of his ground game. "Dexter's safeties were in on an awful lot of tackles and anytime a safety is making that many tackles you're getting in to their secondary with your running game."
Ste. Genevieve out-gained the Bearcats in total yards 435-243 with Drury completing 10 of 13 passes for 89 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Compounding Dexter's problems were eight penalties that cost the Bearcats 40 yards.
Held to 154 yards on the ground, Dexter went to the air nearly twice as much as the Dragons. With quarterback Peyton Pollock routinely under pressure the junior went 8 of 20 through the air for 89 yards.
Pollock was able to keep several drives alive scrambling as he rushed for 108 yards on 17 attempts.
"They would bring guys from all over the field, blitzing all over the place," Peden said. "Once they figured out (Peyton) could throw the ball a little bit they kept him scrambling. I said before he could run and he had 108 yards rushing.
"He can move and made some plays with his legs. He's a good athlete, he'll be okay. We have to get our pass protection tightened up."
Dexter moves on to week two of their brutal first half of the schedule. They'll travel to Poplar Bluff to take on the Mules next Friday at 7 p.m. before hosting Sikeston the week after.
"They were down there for a little bit, but they've been getting better the past couple years," Peden said of Poplar Bluff. "They're going to be tough. Watching film on them they do a lot of similar stuff to what Ste. Genevieve does with a pro set and coming at you. We'll get good film from watching us (this week) to see what we need to do against Bluff."
| Ste. Gen. | 13 | 22 | 7 | 0 | - | 42 |
| Dexter | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | - | 7 |
First Quarter
S -- Brendan Dallas 34 run (Clayton Naeger kick good), 7:56
S -- Matt Drury 12 pass to George Steagall (Clayton Naeger kick missed), 0:50
Second Quarter
D -- Jon Foels 1 run (Makayla Waldner kick good), 8:53
S -- Anthony Roe 22 run (Matt Drury run good), 6:53
S -- Brendan Dallas 22 run (Clayton Naeger kick good), 3:55
S -- Matt Drury 36 pass to Anthony Roe(Clayton Naeger kick good), 0:22
Third Quarter
S -- Anthony Roe 2 run (Clayton Naeger kick good), 4:31
| S | D | |
| First downs | 21 | 13 |
| Total yards | 435 | 243 |
| Rushes-yards | 35-338 | 32-154 |
| Passing yards | 97 | 89 |
| Comp.-Att.-Int | 10-13-0 | 8-20-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 3-1 | 1-1 |
| Penalties-yards | 3-25 | 8-40 |
Rushing -- Ste. Genevieve, Brendan Dallas 13-185, Anthony Roe 12-123, Matt Drury 7-25, Luke Gettinger 2-10, Joe Allen 1-(-5). Dexter, Peyton Pollock 17-89, Trevor Waldner 6-19, Jon Foels 5-12, DJ Dowdy 2-14, Ethan Stevens 1-19, Dylan Bazarian 1-1.
Passing -- Ste. Genevieve, Matt Drury 10-13-0 97. Dexter, Peyton Pollock 8-20-0 89.
Receiving -- Ste. Genevieve, Clayton Naeger 4-19, Anthony Roe 2-40, Joe Allen 1-10, Brendan Dallas 1-9, Tate Meyer 1-7, George Steagall 1-12. Dexter, DJ Dowdy 3-56, Ethan Stevens 3-27, Tim Spence 2-11.