The Festus Tigers may be limping into the District playoffs, but as the third seed in Class 4 District 1 they have a bit of a layup in their opening matchup. Last week’s 52-0 loss to Jackson obviously didn’t inspire confidence, but the Tigers have a chance to rewrite the script of their season against the 1-8 Sikeston Bulldogs on Friday.
Festus finished out the regular season with a 4-5 record, but they were trending upwards until Week 9, having won back to back games convincingly against Pacific and Farmington. Also, falling to the Jackson Indians is something that nearly every team does, and should be relatively easy to look past with the playoffs on the horizon.
As for the Bulldogs, they have a had a dreadful year, with their only win coming against Dexter in the second week of the season. They managed 45 points in their lone victory, but the offense has been a legitimate problem outside of that contest. They have scored more than 15 points just one time in their other eight games, and struggle with offensive consistency.
The defense hasn’t been any better unfortunately, as they’ve allowed at least 32 points in every game this season and have given up over 40 a whopping six times (including a 68-13 shellacking at the hands of the aforementioned Indians). They’ll have to get incredibly creative on offense and plug some pretty sizable holes on defense if they want to have a shot against the Tigers this week.
As for Festus, their offense was clicking before the speed bump against Jackson in Week 9, and they will likely lean on their talented duo of Jeremiah Cunningham and Essien Smith at Quarterback. The pair has shown to be adept with their arms and their legs, and should pace the rotational offense by looking to go-to receiver Arhmad Branch and stud Running Back Hayden Bates.
If the big-play talent shows up for the Tigers at home this week, they should be well on their way to moving on to the next round of the playoffs. It will take focus, perseverance and determination, but that is certainly something in Head Coach AJ Ofodile‘s squad’s wheelhouse.
Kickoff is Friday, October 28th at 7pm.
Good luck Tigers!
