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Sikeston set to host Farmington in rematch
SIKESTON -- Of the Sikeston Bulldogs' five wins this year, four were in convincing fashion.
But the one that wasn't was a 14-13 down-to-the-wire thriller at Farmington in Week 5.
Farmington felt like it let one slip away.
Sikeston felt like it stole a win on the road.
Now they will get a rematch as the fourth-seeded Bulldogs will host the fifth-seeded Knights tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium in a first round matchup in Class 4, District 1.
While the Bulldogs (5-4) come into the game having won two-straight to climb over the .500 mark on the season, Farmington (3-6) has hit a rough patch, losing three-straight by a combined score of 139-10.
Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs feels his team is peaking at the right time.
"I definitely think we're playing our best football right now," Gibbs said. "We had some tough games and some hard losses there in the middle. But even the Jackson game, I know the score doesn't reflect it, but we played pretty well for spurts against a really good team. And then these last two weeks we've played some of our best football of the season."
The Bulldogs defeated St. Louis schools the last two weeks, beating Soldan 30-14 in Week 8 and then Cardinal Ritter 20-0 last week.
And it all started when Gibbs and his staff decided to institute a new offensive scheme, double-tight, double-wing, to better fit the team's personnel.
It has given the team confidence and has improved the offensive line's aggression according to Gibbs.
"Our players' mentality is good right now," Gibbs said. "We've had great practices. The kids have really taken to the tight offense and our offensive line has really improved as a result. They are coming off the ball hard and blocking aggressively, and our running backs are doing a good job of finding the lanes to run through."
The tight offense was used exclusively in the Soldan game, but last week against Ritter the Bulldogs eventually went back with its traditional spread offense after beginning the game in the tight.
In that game against Ritter, it was the spread that put the points on the board for the Bulldogs.
Gibbs said he isn't sure which way he is leaning tomorrow night, but said he will most likely use both and go with the one that gets the hot hand.
"I don't know which offense we'll start with," Gibbs said. "Last week Ritter had so many players going both ways we felt we wanted to start in the tight and try to wear them down some and then when we went to the spread we were able to move the football some. Now that doesn't mean we will start in the spread or the tight against Farmington. We'll just see how it goes and see how we feel come game time."
Farmington started the season winning two of its first three games, defeating rival North County 20-13 and Poplar Bluff 13-0 in Weeks two and three, respectively. But the Knights lost five of its next six with its only win coming against Normandy, 44-20.
Farmington averages 12.7 points per game while allowing 31.9 points per game.
Junior quarterback Brandt Busenbark has a big arm, but he has had trouble connecting with his receivers.
Against Sikeston, Busenbark was 11 of 29 passing for 88 yards, although he did hurt the Bulldogs with his legs as he gained 58 yards on 19 attempts.
Running back Brayden Bohn carried 16 times for 68 yards against the Bulldogs, but he also had some bad luck as he had a 64-yard touchdown get called back by a personal foul penalty well behind the play. The run would have given the Knights the lead in the fourth quarter. Instead they settled for a field goal to pull to within one point.
The Bulldogs kept the Farmington offense out of the end zone the entire night. The Knights' only touchdown came on a fumble return. The rest of the points came off the powerful leg of Brayden Krause with a pair of 30-yard field goals, although Krause also missed a 22-yarder and a 48-yarder.
The game was also one of Sikeston's most proflic in terms of offensive yardage as they gained 406 total yards led by Victwon Riley's career-high 220 rushing yards and Earnest Fobbs' 104 yards.
The two juniors have combined to rush for 1,594 yards. Riley leads the team with 827 yards rushing with nine touchdowns. Fobbs has 767 yards rushing with seven touchdowns.
Both have gone over 100 yards rushing in the last two games.
Fobbs is one of the top receivers on the team, catching 12 passes for 178 yards.
Junior quarterback Nathan Hampton has thrown for 648 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions, completing 54 of 103 passes.
Senior Corbyn Blissett has 12 receptions for a team-leading 263 yards. Senior Donnell Cobb has 126 yards with a team-leading 15 receptions.
Defensively, Fobbs is by far the leading tackler with 105 stops, including 12 tackles for loss and three sacks.
Senior linebacker Shane Garrett follows up with 53 tackles and junior Shawn Blunt has 49 tackles.
Cobb leads the team with three interceptions and 12 passes deflected.
The Bulldogs average 22.2 points per game and allow 19.6 points on average.
A win against the Knights will assure Sikeston of its sixth-straight winning season, which would be the longest such streak since six in a row from 1964 to 1969.
The longest streak in school history was 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1943 to 1962.
The Bulldogs have won five of the last six games with Farmington.
"It's a whole new season and it's win-or-go home, so to speak," Gibbs said. "This is what you gear towards the whole year. This is what you play for. We're excited and we're looking forward to the game with Farmington."