Dexter football defense lacks experience up front

Members of the Dexter High School football coaching staff are (from left) Nate Stevens, Drew Pixley, head coach Aaron Pixley, Greg Lummukka, James Sneed and Tashan Bittaye.

DEXTER STATESMAN/Kyle Smith

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a series of three articles previewing the upcoming Dexter football season.

The Dexter Bearcats will feature plenty of new faces on the defensive side of the ball this fall.

The Bearcats, who allowed an average of 33 points per game last season, return only five players with starting experience, and two of them will occupy new positions.

Defensive backs CJ Greene, Braxton Greenfield and Camden Riley return, while Ryan Collier and Alex Townsend are moving to linebacker.

Coach Aaron Pixley said the secondary may have the most experience at the varsity level, but they struggled last season allowing 113.8 yards per game and 13 passing touchdowns.

“When you look at our history last year, we have a lot of improving to do with those guys coming back because we had a tendency to give up some big plays in the air,” Pixley said. “It seems like already throughout the summer, they’re starting to figure those things out. A lot of it was youth and inexperience. We’re playing good teams with good quarterbacks. Hopefully, that experience they had after they got thrown in the fire last year will help them this year.”

Collier and Townsend will move to an area of strength of last year’s squad that finished 1-8. The Bearcats lost three starting linebackers — Ryder Foster, Austin Guy and Mason Keena — to graduation.

Guy, who has signed to play football at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Foster and Keena were the team’s top tacklers last season. Guy led the Bearcats with 112 tackles (64 solo), Foster had 75 (44) and Keena had 45 (24).

Just like the linebacking corps, the defensive line returns no starters.

“No one with ample playing time,” Pixley said of his current linemen. “We’ll be rolling with a new group of kids. We’ve got some younger kids who are pretty aggressive. We’ve got to keep lifting those weights and keep getting stronger. We really feel like they are going to be pretty good one day.”

Kaden Kennedy takes over for Parker Vanslyke at punter.

The Bearcats struggled on special teams last season.

“In not being very strong in those areas, it helped lead to some losses for us,” Pixley said. “Anytime we had a bad snap here, a blocked punt, this and that, it seemed like it led to a score for the other team. To this point, we’re a little better in those areas. Hopefully, it’s looking up.”