Sikeston football team shocks Cape Central

SIKESTON, Mo. -- In perhaps the biggest high school football upset in Southeast Missouri this season, there was plenty of evidence to justify the result.

The Sikeston football team stunned 10th-ranked Cape Central 23-19 in a hard-fought game Friday night at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium, and for Tigers coach Nathan Norman, the outcome made perfect sense.

"Sikeston came out, and they played hard every snap for four quarters. And they beat us," Norman said. "They deserved to win. ... They limited what we did well, and then we tried to go and do some different things, which we normally can do, and didn't execute.

"So that's what you get. You get beat."

The Bulldogs (3-0) were outscored by a combined 103-14 in two meetings with the Tigers last season, including a 56-7 shellacking in the Class 4 District 1 semifinals. .

"It's a great win," Sikeston coach Kent Gibbs said. "We were a little bit of an unknown, to be honest about it. Cape's got a great program. They've got great coaches, great players. We hadn't really been put in that position so far, so you don't really know how you're going to respond. ... We just played hard the whole game, and I think if you play hard the whole game and are somewhat close, you're going to be in position to have an opportunity to win.

"That's just kind of how it turned out tonight."

Sikeston found itself in that position with 3:32 remaining in the game after Kway'Chon Chisom barreled his way into the end zone from 10 yards out to give the Tigers (1-2) a 19-16 lead. Chisom's score was set up by an 85-yard kickoff return by Al Young. However, a 15-yard penalty negated Young's touchdown and forced Central to begin its drive from the 18. Three plays later, Chisom found paydirt.

Cape Central's Al Young reacts after a pass interference call in the fourth quarter against Sikeston Friday at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium. (Chris Pobst/Standard Democrat)

The Bulldogs began their game-winning drive at their own 22. The drive appeared to stall on fourth-and-12 when quarterback Nathan Hampton's pass fell incomplete along the Sikeston sideline, but a pass interference call gave the Bulldogs a new set of downs.

"They played better than us. They should've won, but on two occasions, the officiating crew made a pivotal call that decided the outcome of the game. That aggravates you as a coach," Norman said. "Even though Sikeston outplayed us, we should've been out of it. It should've been over. It should've been done."

Hampton flipped the field two plays later with a 35-yard strike to a wide-open Jalen Mallory. Later in the drive, Hampton converted on fourth-and-10, delivering a 22-yard pass to Earnest Fobbs that moved Sikeston to the Tigers' 8-yard line, and Fobbs provided the game-winning score three plays later on a 4-yard run with 27 seconds remaining.

Hampton threw for 62 yards on Sikeston's final drive. He finished 10-of-18 passing for 102 yards.

"You're just thinking, 'We've got to score,' and you're trying to pick the plays. Coach [Corey] Adkisson did a great job and coach [Alan] Scheeter, getting their heads together in what we needed to do," Gibbs said. "I'll tell you what, Nathan Hampton did a nice job of just staying out of trouble. When he got in trouble, he got out of bounds or threw it away. We made the plays when we needed to make the plays."

Chisom ran four plays before time expired, including a pair of deep passes to Young in the final seconds, but the standout wide receiver was unable to come down with the ball or draw enough contact to warrant a penalty.

Norman called the final minutes of the game "very frustrating."

"They called pass interference on fourth-and-12, and then we throw the ball twice and there's contact and no call. I don't get it. I don't know," Norman said. "I don't get how the officiating crew can make two calls on the same team that determines the outcome of the game in the last minute, so that's very, very frustrating on top of being outplayed by Sikeston and them deserving to win.

"We could've gotten lucky, but we didn't. And they executed after that, and we lost. That's what happens."

Sikeston's Nathan Hampton runs for extra yardage after evading Cape Central's Lathan Daniels (88) Friday at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium. (Chris Pobst/Standard Democrat)

The Bulldogs did an exceptional job in containing Young, who finished with 24 yards from scrimmage on five touches, including a 12-yard touchdown reception at the 1:11 mark of the first quarter that gave Central a 6-0 lead.

"We wanted to try and control Al as much as we could. He's such a great athlete and the Chisom kid," Gibbs said. "... They've just got such great athletes."

The teams exchanged possessions twice in the second quarter before a booming, 51-yard punt by Hampton pinned the Tigers at their own 8, and on third-and-8, Chisom was called for intentional grounding after throwing away the ball deep in his own end zone, resulting in a safety.

Central's first possession of the second half ended with the game's only turnover when Justus Faulkner intercepted Chisom's pass and returned it to the Tigers' 33. Sikeston scored nine plays later on a 2-yard run by Keshawn Ellis, giving the Bulldogs a 9-6 lead -- their first of the game -- at the 5:41 mark of the third quarter.

"We turned the interception into points, and that's big to do," Gibbs said. "We told the kids that we've got to be productive in the red zone. We weren't the first time, but we were able to come back and do that."

Penalties were a problem for Central throughout the game. The Tigers racked up 62 yards on eight penalties, while Sikeston drew its first yellow flag on its final drive and was penalized for only 15 yards.

"We played hard, but we didn't play smart. ... We've got to get tougher," Norman said. "You can't let a good football team hang around, and we let them hang in there and hang in there."

Central regained the lead later in the third quarter when Young retrieved a toss from the backfield, rolled right and found Blake Harris in the back of the end zone for a 21-yard strike, putting the Tigers back on top 12-9 with 2:31 to go in the quarter.

"We don't like to dial it up, but we had to," Norman said. "It really wasn't there. They had him covered. ... He made a great catch. He went up and competed and got the ball."

The Bulldogs combined for a modest 132 rushing yards on 46 carries, led by 50 yards from Victwon Riley. Fobbs added 11 carries for 44 yards, Ellis tallied 25 yards on seven rushes and Hampton added 13 yards on nine carries, including a 1-yard keeper that gave Sikeston a 16-12 advantage with 5:03 remaining in the game. Fobbs led all Bulldogs receivers with five catches for 56 yards.

Cape Central's Aaron Harris (22) runs over Sikeston's Shawn Blunt (9) Friday at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium. (Chris Pobst/Standard Democrat)

Aaron Harris, who ran for 102 yards and a touchdown in Central's win over St. Charles West last week, turned in another solid performance. The 5-foot-11, 195-pound sophomore finished with 18 carries for 116 yards but was bottled up by the Sikeston defense on several occasions.

Harris also starts at middle linebacker, and Norman believes Friday night's game was a good learning experience for his young tailback.

"He's a beast. He's tough," Norman said. "It's unfortunate that we have to play him both ways like that, and he's playing two positions that it takes to be a man. He does a great job. It's just tough."

As time winded down, several Central players fell to their knees in disbelief, and Norman is optimistic his squad will be able to use the loss as motivation to continue to improve.

"It can motivate them, and if they want to be good, it will motivate them. But if not, they've got a long season ahead of them. That's it," Norman said. "That's in life, any kind of competition or sporting event. You can learn from a loss, or you can accept it and lose again. And that's what we don't want, but as coaches, we're going to fight and fight and fight to get them better every week.

"Good teams will do that, so I told them, 'Hey, you either get on board with us, or you get out. This is your opportunity.'"

Central 6 0 6 7 -- 19

Sikeston 0 2 7 14 -- 23

C S

First downs 8 15

Rushes-yards 34-151 46-132

Passing yards 61 102

Passes 6-10-1 10-18-1

Punts-average 2-36 3-36.7

Fumbles-lost 3-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 8-62 3-15

First quarter

C -- Al Young 12 pass from Kway'Chon Chisom (kick failed), 1:11

Second quarter

S -- Safety, 1:53

Third quarter

S -- Keshawn Ellis 2 run (Nathan Hampton kick), 5:41

C -- Blake Harris 21 pass from Young (run failed), 2:31

Fourth quarter

S -- Hampton 1 run (Hampton kick), 5:03

C -- Chisom 10 run (Cole Knight kick), 3:32

S -- Earnest Fobbs 4 run (Hampton kick), 0:27

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Central, Aaron Harris 18-116, Chisom 10-28, Trevon McClard 2-6, Young 3-4, Tyler Banks 1-(-3); Sikeston, Victwon Riley 15-50, Fobbs 11-44, Ellis 7-25, Hampton 9-13, Phayzun Fobbs 1-1, Justus Faulkner 3-(-1).

PASSING -- Central, Chisom 5-9-40-1, Young 1-1-21-0; Sikeston, Hampton 10-18-102-0.

RECEIVING -- Central, Harris 1-21, Young 2-20, Harris 1-10, Tevyn Wright-Hunt 1-6, McClard 1-4; Sikeston, Riley 5-56, Jalen Mallory 2-37, Logan Hampton 1-9, Deterio Newman 1-0.