Cape Central football team tries to nail down third straight district title

For the Cape Central football team, the road to the Class 4 quarterfinals no longer runs through the Hillsboro Hawks.

The Tigers and Hawks waged annual meetings for the Class 4 District 1 titles since the eight-team district bracket format was adopted by the Missouri State High School Activities Association before the 2012 season.

Hillsboro won the first meeting, while Central won the next two encounters with the Hawks, eventually advancing to the state semifinals in 2013 and the championship game last year.

The Farmington Knights put an end to the Hawks vs. Tigers theme with a surprising 40-14 victory over top-seeded Hillsboro in last week's semifinals.

Fourth-seeded Farmington (6-5) will test the two-year reign of the third-seeded Tigers (7-4) at 7 p.m. today at Central High School.

The Tigers reached their fourth consecutive district title game by avenging a loss to second-seeded Sikeston with a 41-12 thumping.

While Central's 29-point win in dominating fashion was not a shocker -- the Tigers had beaten Sikeston twice in 2014 by a combined 103-14 -- Farmington's handling of Hillsboro, which entered 8-2, qualified more as an upset.

"We knew they had gotten better and were hot right now," fifth-year Central coach Nathan Norman said. "A little surprised, but not much."

Farmington has won three games in a row since suffering back-to-back losses to Central and Vianney in Weeks 7 and 8, respectively.

Senior quarterback Brandt Busenbark ran for three touchdowns and threw for a fourth as the Knights scored on five of their first six possessions against Hillsboro and bolted out to a 40-0 lead by halftime.

Busenbark completed 12-of-15 passes for 138 yards and rushed for a team-high 93 yards.

Junior receiver Tappan Westbrook hauled in an 18-yard TD pass, while senior Brayden Krause scored on a 51-yard run.

In their earlier meeting, the Tigers prevailed 41-21 against the Knights despite surrendering two kickoff returns for touchdowns in the first half, which ended with the teams tied at 21-21. The halftime score was not indicative of the domination of the Tigers, who outgained Farmington 211-35 on the ground in the first two quarters.

Central standout senior Al Young broke off a 59-yard TD run to put Central ahead for good midway through the third quarter, and the defense blanked the Knights in the second half.

Central held a 438-159 advantage in total yardage, with Young, Kway'Chon Chisom and Aaron Harris all topping 100 yards rushing in a 390-yard ground attack. Chisom scored three TDs in the game.

"We're trying to look past the first game and just worry about us and worry about us getting better and focus on Cape Central getting better this week," Norman said. "Sikeston is a good example. We played them last week, obviously we beat them, and they beat us earlier in the year, and that's how we're handling it with the kids. We're telling them, 'Hey, that first game doesn't matter. What matters is what happens this Friday night.'"

Central entered that Week 7 game with a 3-3 record and has gone 4-1 since, with the lone loss coming against Class 5 state-ranked Chaminade.

In the four wins -- Farmington, Riverview Gardens, North County and Sikeston -- Central has racked up an average of 441 yards of offense while it has surrendered just 162.2 yards on defense. The Tigers are averaging 8.2 yards per rush in those games -- Central averages 7.2 ypc on the season -- while the defense, spearheaded by senior tackles Patrick Buck and Lamarcus Johnson and junior defensive end Samuel Lemons, has held the opposition to just under 3 ypc.

"Our defensive front has played well, and our linebackers have gotten better," Norman said. "They're reading their keys and playing their assignments, and we've done better tackling overall across the board."

The Tigers' defense has yielded five offensive touchdowns overall in the four wins, with a couple of them being the late, meaningless variety.

The Tigers ran on 63 of 68 offensive plays against Farmington, and on the season, the Tigers run on 85 percent of their offensive plays.

Harris has a team-leading 1,203 yards rushing (6.8 ypc), while both Young (8.7 ypc) and Chisom (8.4) are around 800 yards. Young has been on the receiving end of 30 of Chisom's 46 completions for 712 yards and 13 TDs.

"I say it every week," Norman said. "We need to take care of the football. We need to play assignment football, read your key, play containment defense and we've got to come out with great effort. Whichever teams does that will be the team that wins."