Semoball

Caruthersville football team uses strong second half to pull away from Dexter

Dexter's Gabe Jackson (35) tackles Caruthersville running back Demarco Slaughter (27) in the backfield on Friday at Charles Bland Stadium. (Scott Borkgren/Daily American Republic)

DEXTER — There were signs early that Dexter wasn’t as focused and there were billboards advertising it late.

Down a touchdown at halftime, Dexter physically and mentally wilted in the third quarter while Caruthersville pulled away for a 42-13 win.

“One problem fixes all of it, it’s about being tough and aggressive,” Dexter coach Kevin Goltra said. “I think they’ll be completely focused next week and be a different football team. I think this can do one of two things. It can end your season, end up going 4-6. Or that pause right there and that wake up call can sometimes be a positive thing. I think our kids have a lot more fight left in them than they showed tonight.”

Maybe there was a hangover from the emotional win over Sikeston last week, or distractions from homecoming and the Stoddard County Fair, or the 90-degree heat on the first day of fall, or maybe everything dog piled into a frustrating loss.

“Not making excuses, we weren’t focused enough,” Dexter quarterback Ben Sindle said. “We had too many distractions. We have homecoming tonight, we’ve had the Stoddard County Fair going on all week. Not making excuses because we got it handed to us tonight. We need to bounce back, get our focus back because this wasn’t us.”

Caruthersville scored 21 points in the third quarter. Including it’s score in the final seconds of the first half, the Tigers went from being tied to forcing a running clock in 16 minutes and change.

For Dexter, it was arguably the biggest piece of adversity it has faced this season and the team did not respond well.

“They need to learn how to react to adversity,” Goltra said. “You don’t react to adversity by sticking out your bottom lip or pouting, or bickering on the sidelines or having baby fits. You deal with it by punching the other team in the mouth, which we did not do. We didn’t respond. When we get that done, starting on Monday, that will go a long ways to helping our football team this year.”

Dexter’s problems with Caruthersville started innocuously enough.

In the middle of the second quarter with the game tied at 7, Dexter defensive end Gabe Jackson sniffed out a jet sweep and brought down Demarco Slaughter for 10-yard loss.

Second and 20, quarterback Charles Golliday dropped back and hit running back Adrian Rodgers on a middle screen. It’s the kind of down and distance type of play call the Bearcats have sniffed out consistently.

Sikeston tried the same type of play on its final pass of the game last week and lost four yards. Bo McMullin had a pick 6 on a halfback screen last year.

This time Rodgers scampered through the secondary for 20 yards and a first down. It was then, with 30 minutes left in the game and the score tied, that the first heads started to drop on the Dexter sideline.

“If we make that play, then we have a lot more momentum and I think at halftime you see a different football team,” Goltra said.

The next play, receiver Bryce Strawn took another screen and busted three straight spin moves for a 75-yard touchdown that was called back for offsetting penalties.

Caruthersville, though, still marched for a 16 play, 7-minute touchdown drive that bled the Dexter motors dry.

It capped heartbreakingly enough, too. Caruthersville was second and inches from the goalline, no timeouts left, 35 seconds on the clock.

The Tigers lined up with the entire Dexter sideline yelling “sneak!” And that’s exactly what they did. Golliday pushed ahead, but for no gain.

Third and inches — tick, tick, tick, tick — Caruthersville hurried back to the line and again Golliday took the handoff. But instead of trying to push ahead behind the center, he ran around the left tackle and into the end zone.

“You could see it at halftime, the eyes of the players and stuff. You could see they were struggling. Tired, exhausted, but they have as many kids going both ways as we do and their kids weren’t dying like ours were,” Goltra said.

Caruthersville got the ball after halftime and scored in six plays, then added two more touchdowns in the final 3 minutes of the quarter for 21 points in the frame.

Golliday’s touchdown pass to Terrius Rodgers with 8:11 left in the fourth quarter started the running clock for a crowd that went from packed to sparse in the span of 30 minutes.

The Tigers held the ball for 28 minutes to Dexter’s 11 and wore out the Bearcat defense in the second half.

Caruthersville running backs Rodgers and Nicholas Moore both ran for 44 yards. Golliday added 38 yards and Slaughter took a half dozen jet sweeps for 28 yards. All four averaged between 3.7-4.7 yards per carry.

Golliday, who threw four interceptions last week against Kennett, was 14 for 20 passing for 193 yards and a touchdown with no picks.

Dexter had two big spots of momentum and they were on back to back plays.

Down 7-0 late in the first quarter, Corbin Strong blocked a punt to give Dexter the ball at the 50.

On the first play of the drive, Dexter revealed a trick pass play it installed during the week and Sindle found Ernesto Rivera for a 50-yard touchdown.

“It was a good play, good play call at the moment, too,” Sindle said.

On the play, Dexter lined up in the wildcat, but with Sindle out at wide receiver. He went in motion and took the handoff like jet sweep.

The defense bit and Sindle hit Rivera on a seam route up the middle.

Dexter tried it a little later, but this time the Caruthersville blitzed two linebackers up the middle, messing with the play’s timing and motion, and Sindle’s pass was a couple steps too long.

“When it worked it was pretty good. I liked it when it worked,” Sindle said.

Sindle finished 2 for 7 for 59 yards and a touchdown. Rivera caught both passes.

Caleb Hoggard finished with 74 rushing yards on 22 carries for Dexter and Corbin Strong spelled him with eight carries for 37 yards and a touchdown.

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