Semoball

Kennett football program learning how to handle adversity

Kennett senior defensive back Jordan Jarrett writhes in pain after injuring his left leg against New Madrid County Central on Friday in New Madrid.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

The Kennett football program is in a strange place this Friday, which is that the Indians are having to rebound from defeat.

The Class 3 13th-ranked Indians (5-1, 3-1 SEMO Conference Central) fell at New Madrid County Central 34-29 last week, and first-year Kennett coach Andrew Webster had a succinct message for his team afterward.

“Up until this season,” Webster said, “we’ve had two regular seasons without a lot of adversity.”

Not only are the Kennett players and coaches having to figure out how to mentally put the New Madrid County Central game behind it and focus on this week’s opponent, a quickly improving Dexter squad, but Webster may be facing the Bearcats (3-3, 3-1) without his top offensive (and maybe defensive) player.

Senior running back and defensive back Jordan Jarrett suffered a deep bone bruise late in the first half of Friday’s game at New Madrid and missed the entire second half. He is questionable for Friday’s game with Dexter.

“New Madrid is considerable better than they have been,” Webster said. “We knew it would be a good game. There was a lot of adversity, and for the vast majority of it, we handled it really well.”

The Indians rallied to take the lead with just under three minutes remaining, but the New Madrid offense was potent throughout the entire game and scored late for the win.

“What do you do moving forward when you have adversity,” Webster said of his post-game message. “You have to face it head-on.”

The Indians were done worrying about the Eagles by Sunday morning when the Kennett coaches dove into the Dexter game planning, according to Webster.

“We try to do that 24-hour thing,” Webster said. “We’ll be sad until (Saturday night) and we’ll get back to work and go from there.”

The loss of Jordan is seismic for the Indians, who will now rely on junior running back Daniel Boatman and senior Hayden Higgins, among others, including junior quarterback Tanner Pierce, who is a threat with his arm and legs.

Pierce had to overcome his own adversity against the Eagles.

He hadn’t thrown an interception all season, which is his first as a varsity starter. However, he threw two picks, both in the end zone, against New Madrid. But to Pierce’s credit, he continued to compete and ultimately orchestrated the late scoring drive, which he capped with a run, as well as scoring the go-ahead (29-28) two-point conversion.

“Oh man,” Webster said, “he battled tonight. I’m proud of Tanner. He has never really seen a varsity (defense). As a (junior varsity) quarterback, we ran him a lot because he is such a good athlete, and they won every game.

“This is the first time we’ve seen him face any adversity and I thought he handled it like a man. Those (interceptions) are tough things, and he could have crumbled, and he didn’t. I was proud of him.”

Kennett has owned this series with Dexter in recent history.

The Indians have won five consecutive games against the Bearcats by an average margin of 33 points per victory. However, Dexter is playing well of late.

The Bearcats opened the season with three consecutive defeats but have won its last three games.

“They have a really good senior class,” Dexter coach Aaron Pixley told Semoball.com of Kennett. “Their juniors and sophomores play well with (the seniors). They do it all well. They run the ball extremely well. They throw it very well. They play great defense. They have really good linemen, very aggressive linemen on both sides of the ball. Good linebackers. They’re just a pretty complete team. … We’ve got to play mistake-free football.”

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