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Kennett falls to Poplar Bluff on Senior Night
KENNETT, Mo. - It was Senior Night at Kennett, as the Indians hosted Poplar Bluff for their final home game of the season.
The Indians were unable to defend their home field one last time for their seniors as Poplar Bluff beat the Kennett 39-0
With a 45 minute opening quarter, It was all Mules. They scored five touchdowns in the first quarter for a 33 point cushion over Kennett.
Head coach Jeffrey Mannon said they wanted to implement the things they focused on in practice during the first quarter. Everything seemed to work in Poplar Bluff’s favor after doing so.
“The last two or three weeks we have just focused on execution at practice,” Mannon said. “We scripted the first few plays of the game and it left the guessing process out and allowed us to come out and go at 100 mph. We’ve been saying ‘All gas, no brakes’ all week and i was pleased with how they came out and executed.”
The first touchdown of the game was a 20 yard catch by Poplar Bluff senior Hunter Clifford. Clifford also served as the Mule’s kicker, earning an extra point and giving his team a 7-0 lead over Kennett.
Sophomore Xzavir Jones caught the next 30-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 14-0.
An Poplar Bluff interception gave the Mules possession again after this play. This led to another scoring drive and a one-yard rushing touchdown by junior Caden Jenkins. This would push the score to 21-0 with four minutes left in the first quarter.
Jones came back later to run in a 10-yard rushing touchdown and extend the lead to 27-0.
To end the scoring in the opening quarter, sophomore Devin Ferguson put the score at 33-0 after scoring a touchdown on a punt return.
Jones would score his third touchdown of the night in the second quarter to make the score 39-0, this would become Kennett’s worst deficit of the first half this season.
Kennett came out with more determination in the second half. Their efforts held the Mules scoreless through the third and fourth quarters. However they would still fall to the 30-0 lead created in the first half.
With this win, Poplar Bluff will lift their record to 3-5 heading into the final week of the regular season. Head coach Jeffrey Mannon was proud of his players' efforts opening up the game.
“Our kids did a great job,” Mannon said. “They came out and executed in all phases of the game. It was really exciting to watch. We’ve been working on a bunch of fundamental stuff, just getting our kids back to basics. Hats off to coach Webster, he’s got his kids playing hard and they [Kennett] didn’t quit and fought hard the whole game.”
The Mules suffered in the middle of the season, going on a three game losing streak before picking up their second win over Sikeston in Week 6. The one point victory put Poplar Bluff at 2-4.
According to Mannon, he was happy to find his third win before heading into Week 8 and post season play.
“We got Hillsboro next, and that will be a big game for us,” Mannon said. “It will determine where we finish in the standings and they are real physical, so we have been focusing on being physical and making sure we tackle and execute on offense. It’s just the same old basic football, but we treat each opponent as a new threat and hope we are ready for them.”
Kennett will travel to Cape Girardeau Central next week. It will be their last chance to pick up a regular season win this year before starting postseason action. The game will start at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 25.