August 23, 2014
Sikeston scores early and often in 66-20 win over Charleston
sports@standard-democrat.com SIKESTON -- Momentum can be a powerful ally or your worst enemy in sports. And sometimes, once a team has that momentum, it is difficult to swing it back in your direction. The Sikeston Bulldogs seized momentum early in Friday night's season-opening contest against Charleston and rolled to a 66-20 victory over the Bluejays in front of a large crowd at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium in the 129th meeting between the two rivals...
By Derek James - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
SIKESTON -- Momentum can be a powerful ally or your worst enemy in sports.
And sometimes, once a team has that momentum, it is difficult to swing it back in your direction.
The Sikeston Bulldogs seized momentum early in Friday night's season-opening contest against Charleston and rolled to a 66-20 victory over the Bluejays in front of a large crowd at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium in the 129th meeting between the two rivals.
The Bulldogs piled up what is believed to be a modern day state record with 50 points in the first quarter alone.
"We've got a young football team and they capitalized on some mistakes in the first quarter and we couldn't stop that snowball from rolling in," Charleston coach Brett Blackman said. "It just rolled down and created an avalanche in that first quarter."
Sikeston scored on its first nine possessions and they took advantage of six turnovers by the Bluejays, two of which were turned directly into touchdowns for the Bulldogs.
"The big thing is we came out with some emotion and played well as a team," Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs said. "They made a lot of mistakes early. We recovered the turnovers and we had a couple scores off the turnovers. Our defense did that twice tonight and that's always going to be big for us."
Sikeston opened the game in grand fashion with junior running back Earnest Fobbs breaking off a 48-yard run down the left sideline before being tackled on the Charleston 18.
On the first play of the season, Fobbs' 48-yarder topped Sikeston's longest play from scrimmage all of last year.
Two plays later, sophomore Justus Faulkner scored on an 11-yard run to get the Bulldogs on the board. Fobbs caught the two-point conversion pass from Nathan Hampton and Sikeston led 8-0 just 50 seconds into the game.
However, Charleston responded on the ensuing series. Helped by a pass interference penalty by the Bulldogs on third down to keep the drive alive, Bluejay senior running back Rontavious Clark took the handoff, reversed field and bolted down the sideline untouched for a 72-yard touchdown.
That would be the highlight of Charleston's night.
"We had the one letdown there -- the kid did a good job of running the football," Gibbs said of Clark. "He cut it back against the grain and did a really nice job. We didn't pursue very well. Sometimes that kind of wakes you up and makes you play a little bit better and I think that happened. He kind of woke us up a little bit and we came to play a little bit better after that."
Sikeston needed just three plays to score on its next drive with Hampton hooking up with senior receiver Corbyn Blissett for a 37-yard touchdown pass. Hampton's extra point kick made it 15-6.
Charleston went three-and-out on its next possession, followed by a 10-yard punt which signaled the beginning of the end for the Bluejays.
Fobbs scored on a 28-yard run on the second play of the drive to extend the lead to 22-6.
Charleston then had turnovers on its next five possessions.
Faulkner recovered a fumble in the end zone after a bad snap over the punter's head and Blissett returned an interception 34 yards for the touchdown to make it 36-6.
Three more Charleston fumbles set up touchdown runs by Sikeston's Victwon Riley, Jason Moore and Deonundre Johnson. Johnson scored a second touchdown with 3:09 left in the second quarter to extend the Bulldogs' lead to 66-6.
"We had some mistakes and they are mistakes that we haven't had a problem with but I think it was nerves out of our young kids," Blackman said. "You've got to remember, even our older kids, they've had kids playing in front of them for the last three years so they haven't seen much Friday night football."
The clock ran the entire second half but Charleston had some positive moments, including having a 44-yard punt downed at the Sikeston 1-yard line which led to a safety and then Clark ripping off a 33-yard touchdown run on the first play after the free kick to cut the score to 66-14.
Charleston put together its best drive of the night on the final series of the game, marching 63 yards on 11 plays, covering 8 minutes, 51 seconds and scoring as the final horn sounded on Evan Burton's 5-yard touchdown pass to Tennerious Ewing.
"We got down on ourselves in the first half and made some mistakes and weren't going as hard but we bounced back in the second half with a little better effort," Blackman said.
Clark's two touchdown runs covered the bulk of his yardage on the night as he finished with 129 yards on 18 carries, but Blackman was pleased with Clark in other areas.
"Regardless of whatever he did as far as yardage tonight, his leadership and character he showed on the field tonight was amazing," Blackman said. "In a bad situation really. Never once did he falter or have his head down. He kept on motivating the kids and tried to do some good things out there. I tip my hat to him. If it wasn't for him, we'd be in a deeper hole than we were."
Despite Clark's rushing statistics, the Bluejays finished with 84 total yards due to the numerous lost yards on fumbles, bad snaps and several tackles for loss.
"We really did a good job up front getting off the ball and stopping them before they had a chance to get going and then we pursued well on some of the runs they got," Gibbs said. "We played really hard on defense."
Sikeston finished with 273 yards of total offense on just 30 plays, averaging 9.1 yards per play.
Fobbs led the Bulldogs ground game with 78 yards on three carries. Johnson, the backup quarterback, rushed for 45 yards on four carries.
Twelve different Bulldogs carried the football in the game.
"If we get some blocking up front -- we feel like our offensive line is coming on -- if we can get some of our running backs and our receivers a chance we feel like we can make some plays in space," Gibbs said. "We've got to spread the wealth with Nathan and our receivers and our running backs. We'll just continue to work on that. We used a lot of different kids even when it was still a ballgame and those kids performed well. So you take that and build on that and hopefully they'll keep performing and get a little better."
It marks Sikeston's 15th win in the last 18 meetings with the Bluejays, including the last eight straight.
"It's a rebuilding year for (Charleston)," said Gibbs candidly. "The thing is when you get a little overmatched and you're trying to rebuild it seems like all heck breaks loose and bad things continually happen. I know we put some young kids in there to play, but their kids didn't quit. The big thing is they had some success at the end and they can take that and learn from that and move on."
Charleston 6 0 8 6 -- 20
Sikeston 50 16 0 0 -- 66
First Quarter
S -- Justus Faulkner 11 run (Earnest Fobbs catch from Nathan Hampton), 11:10
C -- Rontavious Clark 72 run (kick blocked), 8:36
S -- Corbyn Blissett 37 pass from Hampton (Hampton kick), 8:02
S -- Fobbs 28 run (Hampton kick), 5:48
S -- Faulkner fumble recovery in end zone (Hampton kick), 4:04
S -- Blissett 34 interception return (Hampton kick), 2:30
S -- Victwon Riley 2 run (Hampton kick), 1:09
S -- Jason Moore 2 run (Hampton kick), 0:19
Second Quarter
S -- Deonundre Johnson 12 run (Logan Hampton run), 11:09
S -- Johnson 4 run (L. Hampton run), 3:09
Third Quarter
C -- Safety, 5:00
C -- Clark 33 run (pass failed), 2:50
Fourth Quarter
C -- Tennerious Ewing 5 pass from Evan Burton, 0:00
TEAM STATISTICS
C S
First downs 7 8
Total yards 84 273
Rushes-yards 31-50 28-236
Passing yards 34 37
Comp.-Att.-Int. 5-8-1 1-2-0
Fumbles-lost 9-5 0-0
Penalties-yards 1-5 8-85
Turnovers 5 0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing -- Charleston, Rontavious Clark 18-129, Jeremy Tucker 1-2, Tennerious Ewing 2-1, Evan Burton 5-(-22), Team 5-(-60). Sikeston, Earnest Fobbs 3-78, Deonundre Johnson 4-45, Victwon Riley 2-25, Jason Moore 4-17, Nathan Hampton 1-18, Justus Faulkner 3-22, Keshawn Ellis 5-10, Richie Garcia 1-8, Courtney Hawkins 1-8, Phayzun Fobbs 1-5, Mustafa Johnson 1-2, Bryce Bays 1-(-1), Team 1-(-1).
Passing -- Charleston, Evan Burton 5-8-1 34. Sikeston, Nathan Hampton 1-2-0 37.
Receiving -- Charleston, Tennerious Ewing 3-19, Jamarious Fisher 2-15. Sikeston, Corbyn Blissett 1-37.
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