That was the De Soto head coach’s metaphor about the Dragons being seen as equals with Festus and Hillsboro. De Soto hadn’t beaten the Hawks in a decade, but ended that streak last fall with a 14-8 win. Before Friday night’s 38-20 victory at Festus, the Dragons hadn’t beaten the Tigers in 19 years.
Johnson can pull up a chair and rest easy that he’s on par finally with his two closest geographic opponents in the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division. It had been so long since De Soto had beaten Festus, Johnson was on the Tigers’ sideline on Oct. 6, 2000 the last time the Dragons won. He was student-teaching at Festus at the time.
“It’s a sense of accomplishment,” Johnson said about the win against Festus. “We set goals in life and try to attain those. We ask our guys what they want to accomplish and that helps them focus. After we beat Festus, as coaches we talked about having a seat at the table. We had not competed with Festus and Hillsboro for a long time. I didn’t want just one good team. I wanted a program that could be thought of as a team to beat in the conference every year.”
At 3-0 in the MAFC Red, De Soto has to beat Hillsboro to win the conference for the first time since 2010. The Hawks are 2-0 in league play with games against North County on Friday and the Dragons on Oct. 11. After starting the season 0-2, the Dragons have won three straight. Johnson was asked about the turnaround.
“It’s the maturation process. I don’t think it’s anything more than that,” he said. “We had a lot of kids out there who hadn’t played Friday night football. There was going to be a learning curve. We turned the ball over against Perryville the first week and the players who were new to the varsity made those mistakes. There’s no other way around gaining experience than getting out there.”
After Festus coughed up the ball on two possessions in the first quarter,
De Soto capitalized with points following both turnovers. The Tigers are missing running backs Austin Anderson and Jaden Rystrom to injuries, which has devastated Festus on both sides of the ball.
“Look at the beginning of the season and our last two games injuries have taken two key contributors from the defense,” Festus head coach Russ Schmidt said. “We’re not executing on Friday night right now. We were down 10-0 and the kids didn’t flinch. Caden Glaze has had several long runs called back because of penalties.”
When they’re right and healthy, the Tigers can roll over teams with a devastating running attack. Johnson said assistant coach Mike Genge had a good game plan to stop it, although Festus outrushed
De Soto 207-167.
“Coach Genge has been doing this a long time and he’s seen a lot of football and schemed against a lot of offenses,” Johnson said. “He knows what teams want to do. When you play Festus and Hillsboro, they attack you in a lot of ways. He had each kid thinking about a couple of things instead of looking at the broader picture. We had to coach our tails off to get them into attack mode.”
De Soto senior quarterback Briar Fischer is working toward earning first-team MAFC Red honors. Fischer completed touchdown passes against the Tigers to a running back (Dominic Punjani), fullback (Garrett Hardin) and wide receiver (Ethan Reissing). Johnson said he was impressed with Fischer’s ability to use all of his skill players.
For the season, Fischer has completed 61-of-121 passes for 1,019 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions. His younger brother, Levi, has a team-high 13 catches for 188 yards. Senior Kameren Brooks has 12 receptions for 144 yards and Reissing 11 for 159.
De Soto’s other two TDs were scored on a 3-yard run by senior Jacob Kerbler and senior Landon Burnett fell on a Festus fumble in the Tigers’ end zone. Kicker Bradley Hunt was 5-for-5 on PATs and booted a 22-yard field goal.
“We played terrible in the third quarter and let them back into the game,” Johnson said. “We threw an interception they returned to the 5-yard line. Then it was a mixture of running and throwing the ball when we needed to.”
In an effort to get junior Collin Doyel the ball more, Schmidt moved him from QB to wing back. Senior Austin Coale and sophomore Cole Rickermann split time under center. Coale also punted, kicked and played defense. Schmidt said he was spent by game’s end. Rickermann threw a TD pass.
“We looked at the three quarterbacks we had and Collin is our most athletic kid and we need him on both sides of the football,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said he never gave much thought to his team’s dominance over the Dragons.
“It’s pointless. Yeah, I’m aware of it,” he said. “So what. We were fortunate to beat them 19 straight years. We don’t preach that or much is spoken about it. We don’t circle games on our schedule like that.”
Johnson said it’s hard for the players on both sides to not talk about what had been such a one-sided matchup, especially in the era of social media.
“They’re buddies. We only live 10 miles away,” he said. “They go back and forth on social media. Around our place, it’s a no-brainer. When you haven’t beaten someone in 19 years, it’s hard not to think about it.”
Blue Jays shut out Hornets
Jefferson improved to 2-1 in the I-55 Conference and 2-3 overall with a 54-0 win at home against Crystal City on Friday night.
Senior Brandon Perry caught four of quarterback Colton Richardson’s eight completions for 92 yards and a TD. Richardson passed for 176 yards and rushed for 42 on six carries. Dylan Schnitzler had two rushes for 53 yards and a score. Kicker Will Breeze made 6-of-8 PATs.
Linebacker Dawson Jakoubek had seven solo tackles, and one for a loss. Jackson Combs had six tackles, a fumble recovery and a sack. Perry and Richardson also recovered fumbles. Safety Colby Ott returned an interception for a TD.
“Defensively, we flew around, trusted each other, and tackled very well,” Jefferson head coach Alex Rouggly said. “I am extremely pleased with how much better this side of the football continues to get week in and week out.”