Farmington slips by SHS

Friday, October 31, 2008
Sikeston head coach Kent Gibbs yells instructions to his team Thursday night in Farmington. (Photos by Matthew Bain, Staff)

Bulldogs finish 2008 season with 5-5 record

FARMINGTON -- The Sikeston Bulldogs football team's season ended in a barn burner, as they fell to the Knights of Farmington 27-26 Thursday night in Farmington.

The Bulldogs (5-5) came into Farmington fired up and ready to play. Sikeston's defense was able to stop the Knights offensive juggernaut for three-and-outs on their first two offensive possessions. The Bulldog offense was able to move the ball early and gain some first downs but were eventually forced to punt by the Knight's defense.

Sikeston's Eli Jackson looks for running room against Farmington Thursday night.

The struggle began to heat up in the second quarter just four seconds into the period Sikeston's Ray Clark punched it in from two yards out to cap a long Bulldog drive, unfortunately the extra point blocked.

On the ensuing drive, the Farmington (8-2) offense snapped into action as they raced down the field in a 1:44 to score on a 7-yard run and added the extra point to go up 7-6. Eli Jackson provided Sikeston's next touchdown from six yards out with 2:39 left before halftime. Jackson, who provided 187 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries, ended the season with 1,464 rushing yards.

The two-point conversion attempt to go up by seven points failed. Farmington was able to add another touchdown with 0:48 in the half to take a 14-12 lead to the locker room.

The Bulldogs opened the second half with a bit of a strategic gamble as they attempted and recovered an onside kick.

After trading possessions, Sikeston provided the first score of the second half on a 4-yard touchdown run by C.J. Council with 7:25 left in the third quarter. Charlie Bohannon's two-point conversion pass to Tyler Combs put the Bulldogs on top 20-14. The Knights were able to answer 41 seconds later on sophomore quarterback Zach Hibbits' 46-yard strike to Bryan Krause. Hibbits was 14-of-20 through the air with 182 yards, while Krause had six catches for 105 yards. A Farmington extra point allowed them to take the lead 21-20.

Sikeston answered on the very next play from scrimmage when Jackson broke a 57-yard touchdown run. The two-point run failed, but the Bulldogs led the Knights 26-21 with 6:34 left in the game.

Farmington was able to answer on the next drive on Zachary Oyler's 46-yard touchdown run. The Knights attempted a two-point conversion to go up by three points. After the failed attempt they held a 27-26 lead.

The Bulldogs marched 59 yards down the field to find themselves in a fourth-and-two situation with just over a minute to play. Bohannon's bootleg run was stopped short and Sikeston turned the ball over on downs. Farmington just had to take two knees to win the district championship.

Farmington head coach Todd Vaughn, whose team went 3-0 in district play to capture the title, said that the Bulldogs came ready to play Thursday night.

"They (Sikeston) came up here and played great," Vaughn said after his teams close win. "Hat's off to them and their coaching staff. Their coaches did a good job of having them ready to play. They did some good things offensively and gave us some problems. Coach Gibbs is doing a good job and that program is getting better and will just continue to get better."

Vaughn said Sikeston's offense presented his team with "problems."

"Offensively, we moved the ball really well," he said. "Our problem was we couldn't get our defense off the field. A good example is when Sikeston had that five-or-six minute drive there in the start of third quarter. We got the ball back and scored quickly, but our defense was out there too much tonight."

Vaughn praised his defense for stepping up at the critical moment of the game on the Bulldogs' final drive.

"Our defense struggled at times tonight," he said. "But really stepped up on the last three plays. I tell them to make plays that can win the game and that's what they did."

Vaughn went on to comment about the level of competition in Class 4, District 1.

"You look at our district and every team can play," he said. "Sure we have gone 3-0, but none of it has been easy. It is not going to get any easier next week."

Sikeston head coach Kent Gibbs said his team gave the contest all they had.

"We talked to our boys all week long about 'leaving it all on the table,'" Gibbs said. "I thought we did that. We played hard against one of the best teams in the state of Missouri and played them within a point. It just didn't work out for us. It wasn't from lack of effort, that's for sure. I'm just proud of our kids, I'm proud of our coaching staff, I'm proud of our program."

Gibbs feels his offense put forward a very good performance.

"We all did well on offense tonight," he said. "We blocked well this evening. We went to a tight formation and decided we wanted to pound the ball at them. We did that well. We had a 19-play drive, you can watch a lot of high school games and not see that. We kept our composure and did some nice things up front. All of our backs and Charlie (Bohannon) did well. We just came up short."

Gibbs pointed to the fact that his defense limited one of the area's best offenses to four scores.

"It's hard to say who stood out on defense," he said. "Because I felt everyone played well. They (Farmington) made some plays and that's a credit to them. To be real honest, to hold them to 27 points was pretty good. Not many teams have been able to do that. We knew we had to stop them, and we did stop them on five or six possessions. We did give up some plays, but by in large we played a good defensive game. We did the other things we needed to do, like recovering the onside kick. We just came up short."

Gibbs noted Bohannon as one of the primary senior leaders of this years team.

"Charlie Bohannon completely transformed himself in a positive way this season," he said. "We asked him to step up and do some things and he accepted that. He is a real team leader for us. He has battled injury and still done everything we have asked him to do. That is what a leader is."

However, Gibbs was quick to point out that all the seniors made important contributions.

"When you talk about seniors it's easy to talk about Charlie (Bohannon) and Gabe (McClung) and the guys who started for us," he said. "But, I'll tell you, Meyer Neel and Blair Bohannon worked very hard and bought in to the team concept. They showed leadership as well. All our seniors were great."

Gibbs said that the program took a big step in the right direction this year.

"5-5 was not where we wanted to be this year, but it is a great step for us," he said. "There were several other games we could have won this year. Maybe we have gotten over the hump these last two weeks in learning how to prepare and play for four quarters and to do what we need to do. We need to carry that over into every level of the off season. One thing about this team this year is I felt we got better every week. If you do that you have a shot to play in the end, and that's what we did."

When asked for a final comment on the season, Gibbs simply answered, "I'm proud of our coaching staff and all their hard work. I'm just so proud of our kids, I know that's a coaching cliché, but that's the truth."

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: