September 17, 2016
Sikeston improves to 4-1 with 43-0 win over Dexter
Sikeston rattled off 29 points in the first quarter and led 43-0 by halftime to put the game away early.
By Derek James ~ Standard Democrat
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SIKESTON -- Sikeston showed its big-play capability in last week's thrilling victory over Cape Central.
The Bulldogs continued that trend on Friday with numerous quick strikes to trounce Dexter 43-0 on homecoming night at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium.
Sikeston rattled off 29 points in the first quarter and led 43-0 by halftime to put the game away early.
The second half clock ran continuously to put a swift end to the contest.
"We played a really, really good first half," Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs said. "We got off on a real good foot with the kick return. You look up and there's not much time off the clock and it's 15-0 and we just kept the throttle on and the pressure on and it worked out for us."
The Bulldogs (4-1) got big returns in special teams and intercepted four Dexter passes to routinely set the team up with excellent field position throughout the night.
The game started with a 52-yard return on the opening kick by Bulldog junior Don Larry. Sikeston's offense then went to work. It started with a short catch by sophomore receiver Ricky Scott, who then cut back across the grain, slipped two tackles, and somehow kept his feet for a 45-yard gain.
The play set up Sikeston's scoring drive, which included two fourth down conversions and eventually finding the end zone on 4th-and-goal from the 4 on a run by Larry to get the Bulldogs on the board.
After forcing a three-and-out, Sikeston's special teams struck again, this time with sophomore Elijah Faulkner fielding a short, low punt and returning it 50 yards for the touchdown. Dre Johnson ran in the two-point conversion to lead 15-0.
"I think any time you start a game with a touchdown, it's very important to keep that momentum on your side and we did that with the stop," Gibbs said. "I can't say enough about Elijah Faulkner catching that ball in traffic and running it to the house. Last week we got onto him for not catching the punt and he let it roll around, so tonight he just stepped up there and caught it."
Faulkner kept the hot hand, scoring on consecutive possessions just two minutes apart with a 25-yard run and a 10-yard run to lead 29-0.
His second run was set up by Austin Branch's 27-yard interception return off a halfback pass by Dexter's Trevor McDonald.
"We come out really flat," first-year Dexter coach Kevin Goltra said. "We seem to have that issue sometimes. We come out really flat against Bluff in the first half. We came out terribly flat in the first half this week. There was a severe lack of focus."
On Dexter's next possession, Larry thwarted the Bearcats' best scoring chance when he intercepted Ben Sindle's pass in the end zone for a touchback when he jumped up in front of the receiver to haul in the pick.
That led to a 5-play, 80-yard drive capped by Johnson's perfectly thrown 32-yard over-the-shoulder pass to Branch in the end zone for the score.
With leading rusher and scorer Justus Faulkner out with mononucleosis, Friday night's game saw numerous players contribute in his absence.
"The more guys you've got that can do things the better off you're going to be in the long term, regardless of who your opponent is," Gibbs said. "It's nice to see different guys get in there and pull the switch and make plays when they get an opportunity. The other thing that's happening is some of the kids on scout team got some snaps tonight. As they continue to get better on the scout team, we continue to get better with the front-line guys. Then when you get some people hurt, then we can move some of those guys in there and they do a good job."
Sikeston notched one final score before the half when sophomore quarterback Nate Self showed nice touch on his own pass on a 20-yard over-the-shoulder strike to Larry in the back of the end zone with one second remaining before halftime to lead 43-0.
Sikeston's passing game continues to evolve as Johnson completed 4 of 6 passes for 105 yards and Self went 5 of 8 for 33 yards.
"Outside of about twice that I can recall, we made good choices and we made good throws," Gibbs said. "We protected like we needed to and we didn't drop passes. I think early on in the season we were dropping passes, and we're seemingly catching a few more balls now."
Sikeston's defense also did its job, posting the shutout and limiting Dexter's offense to 116 yards. McDonald led Dexter in rushing with 68 yards on 16 carries.
Dexter only completed 2 of 8 passes for seven yards and four interceptions.
"Offensively we're still struggling trying to grow," Goltra said. "They've got the big defensive tackle [Josh Stinnett] and the scheme that Sikeston and coach Gibbs had laid out there was really, really good."
Dexter (2-3) is utilizing a new offense that has similarities to Sikeston's double-wing, double-tight that was used the previous two years.
"They did some similar things to what we did, a few differences is they tried to get out a little bit wider and running a little bit more counter than what we did," Gibbs said. "We pursued well to the ball. Our goal was to change the line of scrimmage and that means we needed a good surge out of our interior front and then we need to let our backers make plays on defense."
Sikeston finished with 284 yards of offense, a statistic mostly kept down by the Bulldogs' superior field position throughout the game. Elijah Faulkner led Sikeston's running game with 35 yards on just two carries, both going for touchdowns.
A committee of players received carries Friday night in an effort to replace Justus Faulkner, who was coming off the game of his life last week with 205 yards rushing and three touchdowns. It will be something they may have to get accustomed to as Gibbs said he is expected to miss considerable time as he battles mononucleosis.
"Justus is going to be out a while, we don't know how long," Gibbs said. "I talked to him several times during the game -- he doesn't like it and we don't like it, but it's a fact and there's nothing we can do about it except for the guys that step in there have got to do a good job. But he'll be back. He feels a lot better and we're going to get him on some conditioning stuff next week and see how he feels and just kind of build on that. Hopefully we will get him back before the end of the season and see what we can do with him."
Sikeston will travel to Farmington in a SEMO North Conference matchup next Friday. Dexter will play at Caruthersville in a SEMO South Conference game.
Dexter 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Sikeston 29 14 0 0 -- 43
First quarter
S -- Don Larry 5 run (Bryce Bays kick), 9:03
S -- Elijah Faulkner 50 punt return (Dre Johnson run), 6:38
S -- Faulkner 25 run (Bays kick), 3:23
S -- Faulkner 10 run (Bays kick), 1:34
Second Quarter
S -- Austin Branch 32 pass from Johnson (Bays kick), 8:29
S -- Larry 20 pass from Nate Self (Cam King kick), 0:01
TEAM STATISTICS
D S
First downs 6 9
Total yards 116 284
Rushes-yards 39-109 32-146
Passing yards 7 138
Comp.-Att.-Int. 2-8-4 9-14-0
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 4-18 4-38
Turnovers 4 0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing -- Dexter, Trevor McDonald 16-68, Caleb Hoggard 9-35, Ben Sindle 1-3, Jett Featherston 1-2, Joe Rice 1-2, Hunter Lawrence 2-1, Payton Tinnin 8-(-2). Sikeston, Keshawn Ellis 5-25, Elijah Faulkner 2-35, Dre Johnson 3-23, Phayzun Fobbs 3-18, Sean Blanchfield 3-14, Jason Moore 2-9, Matthew Perry 5-7, Don Larry 1-5, B.J. Hill 2-4, Colton Gaddis 1-3, Nate Self 5-3.
Passing -- Dexter, Ben Sindle 2-4-2 7, Joe Rice 0-3-1 0, Trevor McDonald 0-1-1 0. Sikeston, Dre Johnson 4-6-0 105, Nate Self 5-8-0 33.
Receiving -- Dexer, Payton Tinnin 1-10, Trevor McDonald 1-(-3). Sikeston, Ricky Scott 1-45, Austin Branch 1-32, Don Larry 1-20, Phayzun Fobbs 1-20, Sean Blanchfield 3-9, Colton Gaddis 1-8, B.J. Hill 1-4.
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