Dexter, Missouri - The Dexter Bearcats fell to the undefeated Sikeston Bulldogs on Friday night.

Sikeston put 22 points on the board rather quickly in the first quarter and never fell behind on their way to a 62-14 victory at Charles Bland Stadium in Dexter.

“We spotted them basically 22 points,” commented Dexter head coach Justin Peden.  “When you do that it is a tough hole to dig out of and I thought we fought back pretty hard.  We came back, but had some stalled drives and turnovers in key situations.  When that happens it starts to wear on you a little bit. We went into halftime feeling pretty good, but just couldn't get anything going offensively. We were moving well in the middle of the field. It just seemed like when we got in the red zone we had some issues."

Dexter recorded both of their touchdowns in the last few minutes of the first half.  Ethan Stevens ran 18 yards for a touchdown with 2:27 left on the clock.  Sikeston added tow more touchdowns before Stevens scored again.  He rushed for 72 yards with only 12 seconds left in the second quarter to set the halftime score at 36-14.

“It was good,” Peden said of the closing minutes of the first half.  “We showed Sikeston we could play with them.  We had a good drive for a touchdown, a big play and recovered an onside kick.  There were things we could do offensively. It was just a matter of putting it together play after play into a sustained drive. Once we learn to do that we will be a pretty good football team. There were plays where we looked pretty good . . . I'm proud of the effort we put out. The guys didn't quit and kept coming even when it started to get kind of bad there. Sometimes you see guys wanting to tap out and nobody tried to do that. They came out and played hard so I'm proud of the guys." 

No one scored again until the last 34 seconds of the third quarter when Sikeston 3 yards for a touchdown to increase their lead to 42-14.

The Bulldogs tallied three additional touchdowns in the fourth quarter to set the final score 62-14.

Stevens tallied 131 yards on the ground for Dexter. He had a team-high 15 carries.

“Sikeston played us really well,” Peden said.  “Ethan had to make some stuff happen with his rushing.  He had 131 yards on 15 carries, which was a good amount.  But we have got to be able to establish the run so we are going to go back and look at some different things we can do running the ball because if you can’t run the ball you are not going to win any football games.”

Austin Chesser caught three passes for a team-high 45 yards.

Sikeston intercepted five passes and recovered one fumble.  Dexter recovered two fumbles.

Bo McMullin recorded a team-high 10 tackles for Dexter before leaving the game with an injury.

"I don't think the score indicated how well we played defensively," Peden said. "We forced them out of that double wing they had been running the first three games. They came out a little bit, but we forced them into a spread situation and when they got to it they were able to utilize their speed. We didn't have an answer for it in some situations, but defensively I thought we played pretty well. I thought we played better than the score and there were times where momentum started to swing our way, but we stalled out defensively. I take responsibility for that. We had some stalled drives where we should have got some points and put our defense in some bad positions by giving them a short field.

Dexter        0   14   0     0 - 14

First Quarter

S - Victwon Riley 13 run (conversion good), 11:13

S - Jaylen Mallory 44 pass from Nathan Hampton (Hampton kick), 5:09

S - Riley 3 run (Hampton kick), 3:39

Second Quarter

D - Ethan Stevens 18 run (Jason Jarrell kick), 2:27

S - Riley 3 run (Hampton kick), 0;52

S - Deterio Newman 41 pass from Hampton (Hampton kick), 0:32

D - Stevens 72 run (Jarrell kick), 0:12

Third Quarter

S - Hampton 3 run (Hampton kick no good), 4:32

Fourth Quarter

S - Riley 7 run (Hampton kick), 11:55

S- Justus Faulkner 47 run (Hampton kick), 9:20

S - McKenzie Worth 60 fumble recovery (Hampton kick no good), 4:36

Rushing - (Sikeston) Victwon Riley 17-83, Nathan Hampton 10-38, Earnestt Fobbs 6-36, Jason Moore 4-11, Phazun Fobbs 2-8, Keyshawn Ellis 2-6, Jestus Faulkner 1-47, Jaylen Mallory 1-3, Marcus Williams 1-2, Bryce Bays 1-(-2). (Dexter) Ethan Stevens 15-131, Carson Dean 11-1, Jason Jarrell 5-7, Jake Adams 1-1, Payton Tinnin 1-0.

Passing - (Sikeston) Nathan Hampton 6-12-0 = 119. (Dexter) Ethan Stevens 5-18-4 = 81, Jason Jarrell 0-1-1 = 0.

Receiving - (Sikeston) Earnestt Fobbs 2-23, Justus Faulkner 1-6, Jaylen Mallory 1-44, Bryce Bays 1-5, Deterio Newman 1-41. (Dexter) Austin Chesser 3-45, Carson Dean 1-22, Jason Jarrell 1-14.

Punting - (Sikeston) Nathan Hampton 2-81. (Dexter) Ethan Stevens 3-120.

Dexter (1-3) will host Caruthersville on Friday, September 18^th.  Game time 7:00 p.m.

"Coach Jackson over at Caruthersville is a good, young coach," Peden said. "He's a smart guy and has a lot of weapons at his disposal. Upfront I would said they don't have as many veterans as they did last year, but they are still a good unit upfront. We've watched some film on them the other day. They've got a lot of team speed and they know how to use it.They run a spread and try to get to the edge on you so we have to be able to defend it. I think it was good we saw the speed we saw tonight because Sikeston was fast. I think that will help us going into next week."