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100th meeting pits 2-0 Sikeston, Cape Central
CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Sikeston and Cape Central have been going at it for a long time on the football field.
Many of them nail-biters. Some of them blowouts. All of them intense.
With Sikeston holding a close 50-42-7 edge in the all-time series, the rivalry has been about as close as you can get.
Tomorrow night the two will meet for the 100th time at Cape Central High School at 7 p.m.
At stake is an early lead in the SEMO Conference North division as well as garnering a favorable seed in the district at the end of the year.
Both teams come into the game with 2-0 records but it's the Tigers that are considered the favorites in the district this season after reaching the Class 4 semifinals a year ago.
Cape Central, currently ranked seventh in the state in Class 4, has defeated St. Louis area squads Vashon (44-34) and St. Charles West (41-21) the first two weeks.
"We've done a lot of things to try to get our players to understand where we are with this particular ballgame as far as the district and the conference," Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs said. "More importantly it's a big ballgame because it's one we've got to play and it's the best team we've played all year. They're a really good team -- state-ranked. It's going to give us a chance to kind of look and see where we are with things and go from there."
The Tigers have defeated Sikeston in its last two meetings, including a come-from-behind 29-17 win over the Bulldogs last year.
And the Tigers are once again favored in this year's contest.
"We've had a good start -- so far the kids have stayed focused," Cape Central coach Nathan Norman said. "You can never be too prepared for anybody and we certainly don't want to overlook anybody. Sikeston's always well-coached and a disciplined football team. They always pose a threat with their speed. The number one thing is they're well-coached. They're a sound football team. You're going to have to beat them. They're not going to beat themselves."
The Tigers return many top players from last year including record-setting junior receiver Al Young, who is off to a torrid start to this season.
The 5-foot-10 speed merchant has rushed for 269 yards on just 20 carries for an impressive average of 13 yards per carry. He also caught six passes for 105 yards in last week's game against St. Charles West, three of which went for touchdowns.
Young has scored eight touchdowns in the Tigers' two games with two being a 66 and 81-yard run as well as a 69-yard pass.
Keying the offense is 6-foot senior Peyton Montgomery, a star quarterback at Chaffee last year before transferring to Cape Central this summer.
Montgomery has thrown for 199 yards, completing 14 of 21 passes with three touchdowns and one interception. He's also rushed for 113 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown.
"They're a very, very strong football team," Gibbs said. "They've got a lot of returners from last year. They've got a lot of pure athletes. Plus they had a quarterback move in so they're very, very explosive on offense and can score from anywhere on the field almost instantly when you let them have a chance to get some space."
Senior running backs Braion Owens and Jalen Redding are also threats with speed out of the backfield.
"There's two ways that you limit people as far as what they do on offense," Gibbs said. "One of those is you've got to play team defense and you've got to play the kind of defense where everybody is in on every play. Because I know if you give the Young kid and the Montgomery kid just a little sliver of daylight then they're going to make big plays. And there's several others in there that can do that also.
"The second way is you take the football and you keep it for periods of time and you don't let them have their hands on it as many times. We've got to do both of those things."
Sikeston's offense has gotten the job done so far this season. The Bulldogs defeated Charleston (66-20) and New Madrid County Central (35-6) in its first two games, but the first team offense only played one quarter against Charleston.
However, against NMCC they racked up 409 yards of offense.
Junior running backs Earnest Fobbs and Victwon Riley have led the ground game, with Fobbs rushing for 180 yards on 26 carries with three touchdowns and Riley following up with 122 yards on 16 carries with three touchdowns.
Junior quarterback Nathan Hampton has completed 8 of 21 passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns.
"They're improved at the quarterback position this year," Norman said. "They always have some talent at running back. We're looking forward to the challenge."
Senior Corbyn Blissett has been the top target, catching three passes for 81 yards.
Sikeston's defense has been stout as well, limiting Charleston and NMCC to 84 and 71 total yards of offense, respectively.
Gibbs knows his team will have to be sound in all aspects to compete with the talented Tigers squad.
"We've got our work cut out for us and we're going to have to have a really good effort and we're going to have to play real emotional to be in the ballgame," Gibbs said. "If we do those things and play as well as we can we'll have a chance. If not then we're not going to like the outcome."
Cape Central will be attempting to defeat Sikeston three straight times for the first time since 2003-05.
Sikeston had defeated the Tigers six straight times prior to Cape Central's two wins the past two seasons.
"A few years back we were kind of the big dogs and people would come in and try to knock us off and certainly Cape Central did that a few years back and they've kind of got it rolling since then," Gibbs said. "And now we're kind of the underdog where we have to go into the big dog's house and see if we can play well enough to knock them off and see if we can get a little momentum for us."