Dexter FB in a (much) different place facing a familiar foe this time

What a difference a year makes, and that is really applicable in the case of the Dexter High School football program.

Last season at this point, the Bearcats had lost a couple of games in a row and were traveling up to face Ste. Genevieve in the opening round of the MSHSAA Class 3 District 1 Playoffs.

“Don’t think that we don’t remember that,” second-year Bearcat coach Chad Jamerson said recently when recalling where his team was mentally a year ago.

Dexter is in a vastly different place this season, having won 7 of 9 games for the program’s best season since 2011, and once again, Jamerson’s kids will face the Dragons, but this time it will be in Dexter at Charles Bland Stadium today at 7 p.m.

“A home game,” Jamerson said with a smile. “I’ve seen this place packed. The New Madrid game (earlier this season) was packed, and it was one of the best atmospheres that I’ve been a part of.

“Let’s fill this place up. Let’s get these Bearcats fired up.”

Last season, Jamerson was in his first year with the program, and many of the Bearcat athletes, who have been superb this fall, were skinnier, slower, weaker, and much less experienced than they are today.

“We’ve played really well all season,” Jamerson said. “Seven and two is a heck of a place to be right now, considering where we were at this time last year.”

That group went up to Ste. Genevieve and got drubbed 56-17 to close the program’s 11th straight non-winning season (the Bearcats utilized a forfeit win in 2021 to finish 6-5). However, an arduous off-season and a whole lot of maturity and experience gained on the field this fall, have made this year’s game, of which the Bearcats are the higher seed, much more intriguing.

“While we were moving in the right direction,” Jamerson said of last year’s team, “the barometer was low in judging how the morale was.

“To be in a good place right now is exciting for the coaches and players.”

The Dragons (7-3) have done this fall what that program usually does, which is win its fair share of games.

Ste. Genevieve, which is coached by former Jackson High School assistant, Jay Pope, has now put together 12 winning seasons in the past 13 years. The Dragons have been very solid offensively, as they usually are, but defensively, Pope’s team has been stellar.

Ste. Genevieve has lowered its defensive average from 28.5 points allowed per game to a mere 16.6 allowed this season.

Conversely, Dexter has improved immensely on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Jamerson’s team has produced 38.6 points per game, which is more than two touchdowns better than a year ago.

“You talk about spreading the ball around,” Jamerson said following a 78-8 thumping of Malden, “we had eight different guys touch the ball. That is really the goal of what we do offensively.

“Everybody knows of (Bearcat junior) Lee-Michael McDonald and (senior) RJ Farmer, but we try to make sure that everybody gets kind of an even number of carries, because we want to force, and put pressure, on the defense to defend all areas of the field.”