Cape Central scrapes by Poplar Bluff, advances to C5D1 final

Cape Central senior Zai'Aire Thomas celebrates with his Tiger teammates following a rushing touchdown against Poplar Bluff on Friday, Nov. 8.

Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

CAPE GIRARDEAU — Zai’Aire Thomas and the 20 other Cape Central football seniors made sure to soak in every last moment during their final home game at Tigers Stadium.

It was not a perfect win, but it was a perfect send-off for a program gunning for its third straight district title.

Thomas ran for 215 yards and three touchdowns to lead Cape Central to a 28-21 victory over Poplar Bluff in the Class 5 District 1 semifinals on Friday night.

The win cements the Tigers’ spot in the district championship game next Friday.

“It feels good coming in here and really changing the whole organization,” Thomas said. “Just changing it to a winning program again just like 2014-2015. It feels good to be the group that brought that back and leave on a good note.”

Cape Central (10-1) didn't need to be flawless to beat the Mules, who were 4-1 on the road this season entering Friday night. The Tigers just needed their lethal rushing attack.

Thomas averaged nearly 24 yards per carry against Poplar Bluff (5-6) and the Tigers piled up over 370 yards rushing against a Mules team that was only allowing 16.3 points per game in its previous three.

“I don't like games like that, but Poplar Bluff did what they had to do,” Thomas said. “They couldn't stop us offensively, so they kept the ball for a while. Great game plan. But I mean, when you're a good team, that's what people are going to do to you.”

All-state running back Keyshawn Boyd returned to the field and looked like his old self, rushing for over 100 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Senior quarterback Deklin Pittman ran for 55 yards and only had four pass attempts, as his primary duty was to hand the ball off to Thomas and Boyd and watch them run wild.

“The thing you want to always do — and any football coach will tell you this — is just get better every week,” head coach Kent Gibbs said. “We’ve had some games that we kind of rolled over people a little bit. And no disrespect, that's just what happened. Jackson thumped us, and, to be honest about it, we've grown since that. I feel like our kids have really worked and understand what it takes if you want to keep playing past week 10. So, I feel good about what our kids have done. I feel good what our senior bunch has done. And we got them another ball game.”

Poplar Bluff wanted a rock fight and did a good job turning it into one.

The Mules owned the time of possession battle and used extensive drives to keep the dangerous Cape Central offense off the field.

Cape Central roared to an early lead in the first quarter as Boyd rumbled into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown for a 7-0 lead. Poplar Bluff responded on the ensuing drive, capping off an eight-minute, 70-yard drive with a Devin Ferguson 1-yard rushing touchdown to knot things at 7-7.

The Tigers jumped in front again on the second play of the second quarter when Thomas jolted up the middle of the line of scrimmage, juked out a Poplar Bluff defender and coasted in for a 39-yard score.

But, again, Poplar Bluff had an answer.

Senior wide receiver Dylan Hall evened the score at 14-14 when he beat the Tiger defensive back in man coverage and hauled in a 25-yard touchdown reception.

On the ensuing Cape Central drive, Thomas broke free from his own 38 and raced 62 yards to the house on an end-around carry to give the Tigers a 21-14 advantage at the break. Thomas later put the game to rest with an 12-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.

Poplar Bluff senior quarterback Jay Edmundson found speedy wide receiver Xzavir Jones on a 65-yard throw late in the game, setting up a Ferguson rushing touchdown, but a failed onside kick iced things up for Cape Central.

“I don't feel like we played bad,” Gibbs said. “I feel like Poplar Bluff played really good as we expected they would play. We told our kids at halftime, ‘Hey, man, you're going to have to battle. This thing's not gonna be easy.' And we did. I thought our defense got some really important stops. We kind of shut it down a little bit offensively. We need to a better job of finishing when we’ve got the opportunity, but, at the end of the day, we lived and we advanced to next week.”

Next up: Cardinal Ritter.

“When you're playing district playoff games, no matter who you're playing, no matter if you've played them before, it's 0-0,” said Gibbs, who has now led the program to its fourth district finals appearance since 2019. “They’ve got the same desire that you've got to advance.”

The Tigers will face Ritter for the district championship next Friday in St. Louis at a time TBD.

“We’ve just got to do what we've been doing the last few weeks,” Thomas said. “Just got to go in there and play our game. I mean, don't let anybody stop us from doing that.”