Consistency key for Sikeston in upcoming matchup with Farmington

sports@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- After two blowout victories and then avenging a pair of losses to teams from last year, the Sikeston Bulldogs could not have asked for a better start to the season.

Now coach Kent Gibbs is hoping his team can keep the momentum rolling as the Bulldogs prepare for the meat of the conference schedule starting tomorrow when his team hosts Farmington at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium.

The Bulldogs enter the game at 4-0, which includes a 23-19 win over state-ranked Cape Central and a 62-14 victory over Dexter last week, both of which are teams that handed Sikeston losses last season.

The Bulldogs defeated Farmington twice last year -- a 14-13 thriller in the regular season and then a 55-14 rout in the first round of district play.

Gibbs says this year's Farmington team, which enters the game at 2-2, is much different than a year ago, namely in the offense that they are running.

"They changed their offense from spread to more of a flex-bone look with the option game," Gibbs said. "They still use some of their spread principles in throwing the ball. I think the big thing is we've got to figure out a way to stop their option game. That's an assignment deal and it's got to be a disciplined deal. They've done a really nice job of moving the football in every game they've been in."

Returning at quarterback is senior Brandt Busenbark, who has made a smooth transition to the Knights' new option-based attack. He leads the team with 321 yards rushing on 80 carries with three touchdowns. He's also thrown for 759 yards, completing 39 of 59 passes (66 percent) with five touchdowns and one interception.

"The big thing is Busenbark is a big, tough kid," Gibbs said. "He's probably the best running quarterback that we've seen so far. His technique is pretty doggone good. He's a bigger kid so he's going to be tougher to bring down. He's a great athlete. He's going to make some plays. But we have to make them drive the football the length of the field."

Running backs Gavin Duncan has 100 yards rushing on 28 carries with a pair of touchdowns while William Seibert follows up with 89 yards on 14 carries with a score.

Busenbark's top target is Brayden Krause, who has 21 receptions for 464 yards and three touchdowns.

"He is an excellent receiver," Gibbs said. "He's very, very fast."

Krause is also an effective kicker, booting three field goals against Jackson last week. He had two field goals against the Bulldogs in last year's regular season game.

The Knights opened this season with impressive victories over traditionally strong Ladue, 17-14, and defeated rival North County 34-6. But they've dropped two close conference games at home, falling to Poplar Bluff (44-30) and Jackson (35-29).

"We had a great win at the beginning of the season when we beat Ladue and then had a decisive victory over our arch-rival North County," Farmington coach Erik Kruppe said. "Then we got in our conference schedule against Poplar Bluff and Jackson. Both were winnable football games but couldn't get over that final hump in the fourth quarter."

Kruppe says Sikeston's diversity on offense will be one of the biggest challenges facing his team's defense.

"Offensively they create you a lot of problems because they have two distinct offenses," Kruppe said. "They have their traditional spread offense and then they get tight and they get big on you and get more bodies on you at the point of attack than you have defensively to get to the ball."

The Bulldogs have used both the spread and its tight formation effectively well in all four games so far this season. Gibbs indicated the spread may be featured a bit more in the coming weeks, but mainly he's hoping for more consistency from an offense that has shown big play capability, but can also get stagnant.

"There's been times where we've really been explosive on offense, but then there's also been times where we haven't maintained our consistency," Gibbs said. "Little things like how you line up in each formation, because the way you line up gives you angles on certain plays. Or when you get off the ball and nobody shows in front of you, you've got to get to the next level and get to the linebackers. Or staying on our blocks a little bit longer and making plays when we need to make them. It's just a consistency that we're talking about."

Sikeston is averaging 48.3 points per game and allowing 11.3 points on average.

Orchestrating the offense is senior quarterback Nathan Hampton, who has thrown for 317 yards, completing 22 of 39 passes (56 percent) with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

He also has 53 yards rushing with three touchdowns.

Senior running backs Victwon Riley (57 carries, 307 yards, 10 touchdowns) and Earnest Fobbs (31-293, 2 TDs) lead the ground game. Junior Justus Faulkner follows up with 206 yards rushing on just 12 attempts, averaging a whopping 17.2 yards per carry.

Fobbs is the top receiver on the team, catching 10 passes for 156 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Seniors Jaylen Mallory (3-79, TD) and Deterio Newman (3-71, 2 TDs) follow up in receiving yards.

Sikeston leads 22-15-1 in the all-time series with Farmington, including winning six of the last seven, but some of those were down-to-the-wire affairs.

Gibbs expects the Knights to be just as tough tomorrow night.

"If you look at the people that we have on our schedule I think we're all pretty even," Gibbs said. "I really do believe that it's anybody's game right now. We always talk about putting ourselves in a position to win our conference and our district, so if you want to put yourself in a position to do that, you've got to win games and Friday night is a big one. To be able to win this game we'll have to be sharp, we're going to have to be sharp mentally and we're going to have to play with some emotion. We need to establish the run and establish the momentum and keep the ball out of their hands for long periods of time. It should be a short game. They like to run the ball and we like to run the ball."