Cape Central wins second straight district title with win over Farmington

After an inauspicious start that resulted in a Farmington score, the Cape Central Tigers rolled to a 37-13 win over the Knights to win the Class 5 District 1 title on Friday at Cape Central High School.

The win was the second consecutive district title for the Tigers.

“It’s special,” Tigers coach Kent Gibbs said. “We had some rough spots during the year.”

The Tigers won the opening coin toss and elected to receive but their offense never took the field.

Farmington kicked the ball short of the returners and as the ball bounced around, the Knights pounced on it, setting up a two play, 26-yard drive to make it 7-0.

“Anytime you mess something up, another aspect of the game has to come through for you,” Gibbs said. “We had a lot of outstanding performances tonight. We didn’t start well but once we got through that little bit we did an excellent job.”

The opening drive for the Cape Central offense didn’t go as planned either as they were forced to punt, putting the pressure back on the defense.

Defensively they responded, forcing a missed field goal and giving the ball back to the offense who drove down and evened the game with a 17-yard touchdown from Zai’Aire Thomas.

“I think it was (big for us mentally),” Gibbs said. “We needed something to get us going. We were a little flat, shell shocked maybe and it gave us a shot.”

Just three minutes into the second quarter, Thomas’ fellow running back, KeyShawn Boyd joined in on the fun, breaking free for an 18-yard touchdown to extend the Tigers lead to 14-7.

“We’re just lucky to have two special backs,” Gibbs said. “Our lineman did a good job once the game got rolling and they caught fire.”

On its ensuing possession, Farmington was putting together a nice drive before being forced to go for it on 4th-and-10.

Cape Central’s Davarius Nunley got home on the 4th down play, sacking the quarterback and sending the crowd into a frenzy.

“We were a little concerned coming in about giving up big plays on third down,” Gibbs said. “We got several sacks tonight and we could have had a turnover but we didn’t quite get to it. They were aggressive and they did what they needed to do.”

The sack came with under two minutes to play in the first half and the Tigers managed to drive into field goal range, setting freshman kicker Joey Charlton up with a 40-yard opportunity that he drilled to give Cape Central a 17-7 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

“When he hits them right, he hits them good,” Gibbs said. “That was a momentum boost for us. Getting some more points on the board before halftime was big so we could go in with a 10 point lead instead of 7.”

After the two defenses traded stops to begin the second half, the Tigers were backed up at their own 1-yard line when Boyd reeled off a 99-yard touchdown to make it 24-7.

The Tigers offense stayed hot, facing 4th-and-16 Jathan Spain hit Thomas who nearly juked the entire Farmington defense on his way to a 30-yard touchdown making it 31-7.

With the win, Cape Central (9-3) advances to take on Eureka and on Saturday, Nov. 18.

“We talk a lot about practice and how we do things in practice,” Gibbs said. “We had a great practice week (this last week) and we’ll need to do the same no matter who we play.”