Pirates run over Bearcats

Jerry Jarrell photos Dexter quarterback Ben Mills (above) is forced to scramble, while Morgan Hedrick (No. 41, right photo) hauls in a fourth-quarter touchdown pass and Gary Summers (No. 10, below) steps in front of a Pirates receiver to make an interception during Friday night's 40-17 loss by the Bearcats on the road at Gosnell, Ark. [Click to enlarge]

GOSNELL, Ark., -- Dexter coach Aaron Pixley said he wasn't expecting any surprises from Gosnell as he led his team south across the state line into Arkansas for Friday night's game.

Unfortunately for the Bearcats, the Pirates didn't disappoint.

The Gosnell Pirates did what they do best...run the football. And when the dust had cleared, it was the Pirates that were celebrating a 40-17 win over the Bearcats.

Gosnell churned out 446 yards of total offense, including 380 on the ground. Zach Perrin accounted for 150 of those yards on 22 carries. Three other Pirate ball carriers had over 50.

And while the offense was clicking, the Pirates defense was putting on an equally impressive show, holding the Bearcats to just 10 first down and 211 yards of total offense. A big chuck of the 'Cats offense came late in the game against the Pirates' second-team.

"They didn't surprise me one bit," Pixley said after the game. "We got whipped on both sides of the football. We've got to work on everybody doing their job at the same time. We can't have half of them doing it and the other half not.

"We've got to get in sync and we've got to work together," he continued. "I think we stayed together. I didn't see any team breakdown by any means. But at the same time, they are a good football team. We knew they were good."

Dexter only trailed 14-3 at the half and was very much in the game.

Dexter scored the first points of the game on a 33-yard field goal by Dylan Acevado. The attempt was set up after Wesley McCollough picked off a Isiah Love pass and returned it 16 yards to the Pirates 32 and Ben Mills connected with Morgan Hedrick for a 16-yard pass.

Gosnell answered with two first-half touchdown, the second coming after Mills was intercepted by Dewight Thomas and returned to the Dexter 29 yards line. Four plays later, B. J. Allen took it in from six yards out.

Gosnell dominated the second half scoring 26 unanswered points for a 40-3 advantage.

Dexter added two fourth quarter scores, one a 33-yard strike from Mills to Hedrick, and the other a Mills to Gary Summers pass covering 30 yards.

Gosnell ran the ball 48 times and mixed in 16 pass attempts. Love completed five for 66 yards, but was picked off twice.

"It's hard to tell from the sideline just what your defense is doing because it's so boggled up in there," Pixley commented. "I felt like from a pass coverage stand point, I thought we did a nice job. We had a couple of picks in there (McCollough and Summers). But obviously giving up 380 yards rushing is not going to win you to many games.

"They have a lot of kids back from a good team last year," Pixley continued. "They are starting to spread it a little bit, maybe a little too much because they have the personal to really get that double tight, double wing and be great at it.

"Their offense line is big, strong and they get off low and they blew us out of there. But I had some young kids in there do. We just didn't match up physically up front. We've got to stay together. We've got to practice better, we didn't have a great week of practice, and we need to continue to get better at things, stay positive and play Sikeston as hard as we possibly can.

Dexter will be at home next Friday against the Bulldogs.