Poplar Bluff's defense, from left, Greg Coble (10), Kerey Smith (37), Zach Ferguson (33) and Ward Watts (66) celebrate following a broken pass by Smith during the preseason jamboree Friday in Farmington. (Brian Rosener/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By BRIAN ROSENER ~ DAR Sports Editor

FARMINGTON -- Poplar Bluff's old quarterback who's now the new coach turned his signal-caller loose Friday night in the preseason jamboree.

Todd Bullington threw for 225 yards -- more than half his total from all of last season -- by completing 7-of-11 attempts against Cape Central and St. Clair.

Greg Coble scored twice, the first on a 59-yard run as the quarterback against Cape Central and the second on a 70-yard pass from Bullington.

"Greg has taken a lot of reps as backup (quarterback) but he's also a great receiver, which I love to throw to," Bullington said. "He's nice and tall and he can go up and get the ball."

Kerey Smith scored the first touchdown for the Mules, ending a 12-play drive to start the night, while the defense gave up a touchdown on a drive that featured two punting situations.

"I feel pretty good about what happened," first-year coach Shane Kearbey said. "We were looking for effort more than execution and I feel like they came out and gave us a great effort.

"It's something we can really build on for next week against New Madrid."

Kearbey's offense gave the Eagles and everybody else on Poplar Bluff's schedule plenty to think about.

"I think we can be pretty exciting," Bullington said. "If everybody can stay healthy, I think we can do great things this year."

Along with Bullington's air show, the Mules ran for 154 more yards to average 10.2 yards per play in 36 snaps.

Zach Ferguson, who ran for over 1,000 yards last year as a sophomore, picked up 29 yards on seven carries while Kerey Smith ran for 10 yards on five attempts. Pete Bryant's only carry was a 22-yard gain while Aaron Ellis, 6 yards on three carries, and Caleb Conover, 13 yards on two carries, got reps in the backfield.

Last year during Poplar Bluff's 5-5 year, Bullington threw for 416 yards in completing 37.5 percent of his passes before leaving the final game with a shoulder injury. On Friday night, the senior completed his first four passes against Cape Central and hit five different receivers.

"He's got his arm back," Kearbey said. "He had a couple of deep balls and he was throwing the intermediate balls pretty good so he looked pretty good tonight."

Bullington gave credit to his coach for giving the passing side of the offense more reps in practice this fall.

"Now we get more reps in practice, we can complete more passes," he added, "we're going to beat them deep a little more and keep them honest."

Bullington hit Ben Knuckles twice for 51 yards while Ellis caught two passes for 30 yards. Colby Geringer caught a pass for 18 yards while Ferguson finished with 73 yards after nearly turning a screen pass into a touchdown against St. Clair.

Coble had 145 yards of total offense, running five times as quarterback, and hit the receiver in his only pass attempt but it fell incomplete. Last year as a sophomore, Coble had four catches on defense.

"We're just kind of seeing what we can do with him," Kearbey said. "He's just an athlete and we're going to try to use his abilities to make us as explosive as possible on offense."

Poplar Bluff's defense shut down conference-rival Cape Central in the first series. The Tigers didn't get a first down and managed only 19 total yards.

At one point, Smith broke up a pass with a big hit that might have moved the chains on fourth down, Ellis followed by stopping Central's running back at the line then delivering another big hit after the defensive line forced the quarterback to scramble. Knuckles later broke a long pass by leaping high over the middle.

"(The defense was) very solid," Bullington said. "That's going to be big for us."

Following a break while Central and St. Clair played, Kelton Thompson fell on a fumble for a turnover on the Bulldogs' first snap. The Mules forced St. Clair into fourth-and-5 twice but each time the quarterback scrambled for the first down on what appeared to be a broken play. St. Clair scored on a 7-yard run on the 10th play of the drive.

"That's the problem with a jamboree, it's game-like but it's not game-like," Kearbey said. "It is what it is, and we're going to go back and look at the film and make some improvements."

The evening ended with Coble being stripped of the ball as he fought for the goal line. As a St. Clair defender ran it back for a touchdown, a hit behind the play drew a flag and a group of players had to be separated.

"There's a fine line of being overly aggressive and being out of control " Kearbey said "We want our guys to play with a lot of passion and a lot of fire, but we've got to stay within the confines of the rules."

The Mules open the season at 7 p.m. Friday at New Madrid before traveling to Union the following week. Poplar Bluff's first home game is at 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 13.