Bearcats refuse to go away easily vs. star-laden Eagles

DEXTER – Second-year Dexter High School football coach Chad Jamerson isn’t into moral victories, but the motivational job that he did with his Bearcats early in their battle with Southeast Missouri-power New Madrid County Central on Friday would have left famed motivational speaker Tony Robbins speechless.

New Madrid County Central did what it does to most teams, and overwhelmed the Bearcats with athleticism and size, eventually, for a 38-27 win at Charles Bland Stadium. However, it was how the game unfolded that was so impressive for Dexter, even in a losing cause.

The Class 2 No. 12-ranked Eagles (3-0) came off the bus firing on all cylinders – as they are prone to do – and looked to be leaving the Bearcats in the dust for the sixth consecutive time, as the visitors scored 26 unanswered points in the opening 9:49 of the game. The onslaught included an 81-yard scoring strike from one of two Eagle quarterbacks, senior Julian Courtois, to the other (sometimes) quarterback, senior BJ Williamson on the very first play of the game.

“I reminded (the Bearcat players) of who they were,” Jamerson said of the massive hole and his advice. “I reminded them of all of the hard work that they had put in.”

His words worked – as did a handful of defensive adjustments – as Dexter clawed its way back to, shockingly, a 26-21 margin early in the third quarter. The Bearcats would have actually taken the lead had they not fumbled away a touchdown through the back of the end zone late in the second quarter.

“We had some stuff schemed up that worked,” veteran New Madrid County Central coach Tyler Fullhart said of the fast start. “We had to get a little more creative as the game went on. But Dexter is a really good football team, and I knew that coming into this.”

What the Eagles had “schemed up” was to get the ball to senior wideout Jadis Jones.

Jones finished the night with five scores on seven receptions, all of which totaled 287 yards.

When Jones wasn’t catching touchdowns, Williamson was doing everything he could to keep Dexter at bay.

Williamson, who split reps with Courtois at quarterback, threw eight completions with five going for touchdowns.

He passed for 298 yards, ran for 142 yards, and had the game’s opening score on the 81-yard reception.

“We want to create our own luck,” Jamerson said. “Tonight, we just did not do enough to create lucky situations for ourselves.”

The Bearcats tried valiantly, though.

Three times, the Eagles, who played without star senior runner Kayden Minner, who is out with a knee injury suffered last week, advanced the ball inside the Bearcat five-yard line, only to come up empty. Two times with defensive stops by Dexter, and another time on a New Madrid County Central fumble at the one-yard line.

“Our kids take a lot of pride in playing good defense,” Jamerson said. “We bend a little bit, but we try not to break too much.”

The Dexter defense also forced four fumbles by Eagle players and recovered a couple of them.

Even when the New Madrid County Central offense was overpowering, as it was most of the night, the Bearcat made plays defensively.

Of the six extra point attempts by the Eagles, the Bearcats stopped five of those run and pass plays.

“As coaches,” Fullhart said, “we’re going to have to sit down and figure out what can we do. I think (the missed extra points) are a testament to how good Kayden Minner is.”

As star-laden as the Eagles are, and they are, Dexter was not without some productive players of their own.

With the overflow crowd hushed following the explosive New Madrid start, Bearcat junior Lee-Michael McDonald gave the Dexter fans some life, as he took a kickoff 74 yards for the Bearcats’ initial touchdown late in the opening quarter.

That score was followed by short scores from senior runner RJ Farmer and junior Jett Grams, which trimmed the Dexter (2-1) deficit to 26-21.

Grams rushed for 66 yards, while Farmer added 54 and McDonald 49.

Nolan Alford hauled in 61 yards in catches for Dexter while Logan Pullum (43 yards) and McDonald (38) also contributed.

Williamson wasn’t simply focused on his offense, though, he led the Eagles with 10 tackles, including two for a loss, and picked off Dexter quarterback Jackson Howard once.

The New Madrid defense had four interceptions and a fumble recovery, as sophomore defensive back JaKwon Jones had a pick of Howard and senior defender AJ Ruff had two interceptions.

Jadis Jones added seven tackles in the win.

Williamson added two more scoring passes to Jones, one late in the third quarter and another on the first play of the fourth quarter to stretch the Eagle lead to 38-21. However, Farmer answered from short yardage with 6:11 remaining for the final margin.

Bearcat senior Landon Weathers and Alford had seven tackles apiece to lead their team while Jason Hervoyavich and Farmer had six stops each.

“I do feel like our kids played hard and executed the offense a lot better at times than what we have the last two weeks,” Jamerson said. “I don’t feel like we left as many points on the board. We just made those mistakes.”

New Madrid accumulated 569 yards of total offense while Dexter had 355 (195 yards rushing).

Dexter will visit East Prairie on Friday at 7 p.m.

New Madrid County Central will travel to Doniphan on Friday at 7 p.m.