Dexter, Missouri - The Dexter Bearcats looked confident on Friday at the annual Football Jamboree held at Kennett.  Dexter tied with East Prairie, lost to NMCC and beat Kennett. Though no real score is kept during a Jamboree, most teams try not to show or give away their plays prior to opening kick-off of the "real" season.

As usual the Bearcats have a rather tough schedule this year.  For Coach Kevin Goltra, this will be his second season as head football coach at Dexter High School.  For the seniors it will be their last season as a Dexter football player and when they take the field on Friday night it will be the "last" first game of the season and perhaps the last time they will face the almighty Ste. Genevieve Dragons.

Coach Kevin Goltra is looking forward to his second year as a Bearcat.  He's had all summer to build a continued relationship with the players, teach them a some new offense and defense and hit the newly remodeled weight room.

"I thought we performed well on defense at the Jamboree," stated Goltra.  "We had some opportunities on offense if we wanted to exploit the defense, but that wasn't our goal.  Our goal was to work on our fundamentals and assignments.  We have some work to do with our blocking responsibilities on offense, but i was pleased overall.  We are much better team than we were last year."

"All of our defensive players had big plays in the jamboree.  At least every starter made a big play.  As for offense, I thought all the backs ran hard and Trout made a couple of nice catches.  We were trying not to show much on offense at the Jamboree, so there was there was flow to the play calling.  I think after fixing some blocking assignment issues at practice, we will be headed in the right direction."

Dexter will face the Ste. Genevieve Dragons in their home opener at Charles Bland Stadium on Friday, August 18, 2017.  The ShowMe Times will bring LIVE stats on the website.  Go to www.showmetimes.com and click Sports.  Hopefully there will be some Facebook LIVE as well and of course tons of photos that will be posted after the game.

The last few seasons Ste. Genevieve has dominated Dexter on the field both at home and away.  In 2015 the Bearcats lost to Ste. Gen 42-7, in 2016 Dexter suffered a 35 - 6 loss.  Last season the Coach Goltra's defense held the Dragons scoreless in the first quarter.  It's most definitely time for redemption!  Historically Ste. Genevieve leads Dexter 15 - 3.  This will be Coach Ken Weik's third year with the Dragons.  Game time is 7:00 p.m. at Charles Bland Stadium.  This is a non-conference game.

About a dozen seniors will start on the varsity team this year.  They are Austin Adams, Zach Cartwright, Landon Henson, Gabe Jackson, Trevor McDonald, Bo McMullin, Spencer Owens, Kris Rinehart, Ben Sindle, Nick Trout, Marcus Woodson, and Christian Yarber.

Juniors are Luke Boyer, Shawn Chambers, Jett Featherton, Braxton Foster, Nate Gargas, Colton Gibson, Eric Hahn, Caleb Hoggard, Justin Kenley, Hunter Lawrence, Ernesto Rivera, Seth Rogers, Brock Simmons, Jeremy Stearns, and Dalton Warren.

Sophomores are Matthew Agey, Ryder Foster, Austin Guy, Trey Johnson, Mason Keena, Brice Moore, Ricky Myers, and Austin Steele.

Freshman are Peyton Driskill, and C. J. Greene.

Dexter will compete in Class 3, District 1 with Park Hills, St. Pius of Festus, Ste. Genevieve, Kennett, Potosi, Fredericktown, and New Madrid County Central.