SIKESTON OPENS WITH STUNNING PERFORMANCE (PREP NOTES)

SIKESTON -- In perhaps the biggest upset in the region this year, Sikeston put together an almost perfect game Friday night, knocking off North County -- the No. 2 team in Class 4A -- 36-35 Friday night.

"It's certainly a huge win because they're such a good football team," Sikeston coach Charlie Vickery said. "There's no question we were huge underdogs. We told our team going in that nobody thinks we can beat them but us. We told them to go out there and have fun and play some football."

And play some football they did.

Sparked by Justin Robinson's 226 yards on an unbelievable 43 carries, Sikeston won the game with 13 seconds left when Adrian Porter deflected a pass on a 2-point conversion.

It was the first time in four years that North County has lost a district game, the last coming when Jackson beat them in 1995.

Robinson scored three touchdowns in the game.

Robinson is now 81 yards shy of setting the single-season record of 1,771 held by Tiger Boyd in 1991. He is 228 yards off the career mark of 3,012 set by Mark Blissett.

It wasn't even close

DEXTER -- The general consensus going into Friday night was that the Fredericktown-Dexter game would be a toss-up.

The Black Cats did all the tossing.

Fredericktown (5-3) held Dexter to just 66 yards of offense -- and a 1.1-yard rushing average -- while racking up 356 of its own in a 28-0 romp of Dexter (5-3).

"We thought it would be a hard-fought game too," Fredericktown coach Kent Gibbs said. "We took them out of their offense early and they couldn't regain their composure. We shut them down and got after it pretty good. I think we're playing our best ball of the season. Our defense is playing real well and our offense is starting to click."

Fullback Steve Francis led Fredericktown with 134 yards on 25 carries, while quarterback Clay Hendrix ran for 105 yards on 12 carries.

Gabe Killian caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Francis and Luke Nicholson recovered a fumble in the end zone for the other score.

Statler makes statement

IMPERIAL -- Shawn Statler ran for 240 yards and four touchdowns on 29 attempts Friday night as Perryville's offense erupted for a 48-34 win over Windsor.

And, at least for one play, Statler's arm was as effective as his legs. The Perryville tailback also threw a touchdown pass to quarterback Tyler Abernathy.

Statler also had kickoff and punt-return touchdowns called back on penalties.

In all, Perryville racked up 443 rushing yards, 135 of which was produced by Josh Hudson.

"Our team can pretty much do what it wants to do, but we have to play up to our abilities," Perryville coach Jerry Tucker said. "When we do that, we're a very good football team."

Perryville led just 27-20 at halftime, but the Pirates lost a fumble once in their own end zone and gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians

ST. LOUIS -- Disappointed somewhat with his team's performance Friday night -- a 35-14 win over Vianney -- Carl Gross knows he is lucky to have three play makers on his team.

"I thought we had three guys who stood out," Gross said. "Tory (Meyr), Mario (Whitney) and Chris Stockton. Those guys really played well. Our kids knew that we didn't play as well as we could've. We were just happy that Tory, Mario and Chris jumped on the bus. When things got tough, those are the guys we turn to and they made the plays."

Gross added that Friday night's game was his team's worst defensive performance of the season.

But the big plays from the Big Three put the Indians over the top.

Meyr had yet another huge night for Jackson.

He caught just two passes, but they went for 71 yards and two touchdowns. The safety also intercepted two passes.

Whitney, who is being used as a tailback and a wide receiver, caught two passes for 70 yards and ran the ball 12 times for 95 yards. All told, he scored three touchdowns.

Stockton was 6-for-14 for about 170 yards, using his elusiveness to turn busted plays into big plays.