By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor
The Bearcats will be road warriors again on Friday night, when they head south to face the New Madrid County Central Eagles in Class 3, District 1 football action.
The Eagles, now 1-7 on the season, don’t compare to New Madrid teams of old, but coach Aaron Pixley noted the Eagles’ speed and youth on offense.
“[They have] a lot of speed, they run the spread offense,” he said after Thursday’s walkthrough. “A lot of fly, fly sweep, option, counter-treys. They throw a little bit more than they normally do. Good athletes, good young athletes, but we’re going to have to play well against them.”
Fresh off a blowout win over Kennett to open District play, the ‘Cats look to continue their path to the playoffs by locking in the SEMO Conference championship - and moving one step closer to Dexter’s first back-to-back District titles since the late 80’s - with a win Friday night. Coach Pixley noted his team’s excitement, but hopes they aren’t looking past the Eagles’ dangerous offense.
“We’ve just talked conference championship all week; we haven’t had a chance to win one in a while, and I think the kids are excited about that,” Pixley said. “At the same time, we need to come in ready and focused on them. I’ve not heard any talk about anyone else, and we don’t need to - this will be a tough enough game as it is.”
On thing hasn’t changed on New Madrid’s team - they still run a very active ‘pressure’ defense, stacking the line of scrimmage and blitzing multiple players on any given play. The Bearcats’ offensive line has played phenomenally the last few weeks - tackles Zach Lacy and Theo Gaul have physically dominated their opponents, and center Jacob Stephens has done a great job adjusting the call to various blitz packages - and Coach Pixley knows the ‘Big Nasties’ will have to have another solid performance Friday night.
“They’ll stack the box against certain sets, and they bring a lot of pressure,” Pixley noted. “They want to ruin your play before you can get going. They’re very active and very athletic on that side of the ball too, so we’ve got to get off on our running game, and pick up our blocks in the passing game.”
“It’s a difficult task, because they stack the box and do some exotic things. We’re going to have to have our heads up up front, and play well on the line on both sides of the ball.”
Pixley said the team had another great week of practice, despite battling the changing weather conditions throughout the week.
“[Practice has] gone smooth. Tuesday was really sloppy and rainy, so we practiced indoors. We actually had a really good indoor practice - probably the first time that’s happened in my career - and Wednesday was pretty chilly out here,” Pixley said. “It was our first taste of cold weather this season, but we had a really solid practice. Today, everything went smooth, so overall, it was a great week.”
Kickoff for Friday night’s contest is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
Editor’s note: The ‘Cats will have everyone back in the lineup for NMCC, except for senior Dalton Putnam.
I’d expect to see Chase Young filling in for Putnam on both sides of the ball this week, as well as a little more of Garrett Wray on the offensive.
As always, if you can’t make it to the game, I’ll be Tweeting the scores and big plays of the contest from the sidelines - just keep checking back with our Facebook or Twitter page for updates!
Without further adieu, here are your Players of the Week for Week 8!
OFFENSE: #33 - Nick Summers
Nick ran the ball hard all night long, earning 96 yards on 9 carries and 3 touchdowns. He also averaged over 10 yards a carry, and surpassed the 500 yard mark (534 yards on 68 carries) in his senior season.
DEFENSE: #5 - Garrett Wray
Garrett, earning POTW honors for the first time in his senior season, didn't lead the team in tackles, but he made several key plays during the game. Wray filled the role of a shutdown corner throughout the game, and recovered a fumble that led to a Bearcat touchdown.
The SBU offense is lead by junior quarterback Dan Connors who has thrown for 1202 yards with six touchdowns over the first seven games of the season. Connors has completed 65.8% of his passes and is averaging 200.3 passing yards per game this season.
The Bearcat defense is lead by Zach Moore, who has recorded team highs in tackles (57) and tackles for loss (4.5) this season. As a team, the Bearcats had wrapped up 10 sacks, picked off 9 passes, and recovered 8 fumbles, and blocked 6 kicks on the season. Dexter native Glen Johnson had had success from the defensive end position, and continues to earn more playing time in the Bearcats’ defensive line rotation.
The Bearcats are off to the best start in school history, and look to move to 7-1 on the season with a victory over Missouri Southern this Saturday. The game is set to kick off at 2:00 p.m. from Joplin, Missouri.
Southwest Baptist University is a four-year evangelical Christian university that was established in 1878. The main campus is located about 30 minutes north of Springfield, Missouri, in Bolivar, a town of approximately 10,000 people.
DHS alum Glen Johnson is a defensive lineman for the Bearcats.
For more information on SBU Bearcat Athletics, visit sbubearcats.com.
By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor
Seeding has been announced for the Class 3, District 1 Volleyball Tournament, held Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 24 & 25) at the Bearcat Event Center.
The Lady ‘Cats drew the No. 3 seed, and will face No. 6 Fredericktown at 7:00 p.m. Monday.
Perryville earned a bye in the first round with their No. 1 seed; they’ll face the winner of the (No. 4) Kennett and (No. 5) NMCC match on Tuesday. District powerhouse Notre Dame, who handed the Lady ‘Cats a tough loss in their last regular season match, was given the No. 2 seed. The Bulldogs will play (No. 7) Doniphan at 6:00 p.m. Monday.
The District Champion will be crowned Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m., and they will move on to face the District 3 Champions on October 29 at 4:30 p.m.
Tournament brackets can be downloaded here.
Make sure to visit mshsaa.org for up-to-date brackets and tournament information!
Special to the ShowMe Times
By Baylee Taylor
The Rebel Yeller Staff
ESSEX - The Richland Lady Rebels hosted its third annual Dig Pink volleyball game to raise awareness and funds to fight breast cancer.
The volleyball matchup Monday evening against New Madrid was held at Richland gym and all funds raised were donated to the Ben Kruse 18 Fore Life Foundation to help local families fighting breast cancer. Money was raised through selling t-shirts, a 50/50 raffle which the money was generously given back, and selling little pink volleyballs to hang on the wall for those who are or who have fought cancer.
The girls were pumped up and ready to get a victory over the Lady Eagles. The junior varsity took the floor at 6p.m. with a spark that they hoped would bring them to get that “W”.
“They came out fighting hard, but something happened that got the girls down,” says head coach, Lisa Taylor. “They can’t let one mistake get to their heads.”
The JV girls ended with an upset the first set, coming out with a score of 20–25.
“I expected us to do better than we did, but unfortunately we got our heads down,” says sophomore, McKenzie Hillis. “We need to learn not to let one little mistake get us down and we can pull out a win before season is over.”
In the second set the girls let one server get to their heads and bring them down. They just couldn’t get that one pass. They finally got the ball back on their side with the score being 13-1. They fought hard and weren’t giving up, but that didn’t earn them that win. New Madrid took the second set 19–25.
The Senior Night ceremony was held between the two games. Chelsea Freeman, Shelby Lampkin, and Paige McCormick were honored at their last home game.
Gifts, flowers, and hugs were exchanged along with a lot of tears. That didn’t get the girls down. They were ready to “dig fore a cause” and claim another win for the record books!
The varsity came out fighting from the beginning and they refused to give up.
“I was very proud of the girls!” Coach Taylor exclaims. “I don’t think I have EVER seen them play that hard and want something that bad.”
The girls were not about to lose on such a special night. After winning the first set 14-25, they were on a roll to win that second set. The score was close the whole game, at one point the girls were down four points but they didn’t let that get to their heads. They were full of fight and refused to give up until they came out on top. The girls got what they wanted; they succeeded and won the game, 25-20.
The Lady Rebels are on the road Tuesday, Oct. 18 at Clarkton, and Thursday, Oct. 20 at Risco.
Photo Above: The Richland Rebel varsity and junior varsity squads pose for a photo in the pink uniforms (Photo courtesy Janie King)
