Still perfect in league play; Jackson begins SEMO North defense Friday

The Jackson football team will get a rare treat on Friday: a chance to play a team from Southeast Missouri.

The Indians will begin the SEMO North Division slate with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Sikeston.

After opening the season with St. Louis-area squads Roosevelt and Vianney along with Hillcrest Christian of Jackson, Miss., Indians coach Carl Gross said it will be nice to play a team Jackson fans and players can actually recognize.

"When you play Cape, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, our fans keep up with those teams," he said. "It's just nice to have these regional rivalries."

For the second straight season, Jackson enters its Week 4 meeting with Sikeston as the only SEMO North Division football team with a victory. Jackson (1-2) has suffered its two losses at the hands of private schools.

"The great thing about our conference is we play the kids that live in Sikeston, the kids that live in Cape, the kids that live in Poplar Bluff," Gross said. "We're not playing the kids that live in a 50-mile radius."

With Jackson the lone Class 5 school in the area, it is unlikely their schedule will change any time soon. That makes Jackson's conference games even more important to Gross and his squad.

"The thing we're going to do is we're going to encourage them we still can have an undefeated season," Gross said. "We can have an undefeated season in the conference."

The Indians did just that last year during a 7-3 campaign.

Central coach Lawrence Brookins, whose team also plays a schedule featuring teams from the St. Louis area, said the conference schedule is a big deal for his squad.

"They get juiced up for conference games," said Brookins, whose team was 1-2 in conference play last year and 2-8 overall. "I've tried to downplay it as just another game between us and Jackson, or us and Sikeston, or us and Poplar Bluff. The longer I've been here, I realize it is a big deal."

Jackson likely is the favorite to capture a second straight SEMO North title. The Indians have dominated the conference over the past decade, losing just eight of its last 30 conference games. Jackson has eight wins against rival Central over that span, and seven apiece against Poplar Bluff and Sikeston.

Even with its 1-2 start, Jackson's early season play would have to be considered stellar compared to the rest of the division. The Indians have been outscored on the season by a four-point margin, 70-66, while the rest of the conference members have been outscored 315-78 in nine losses. Sikeston played Charleston to a 14-8 loss, the closest the other three teams have come to a victory.

Poplar Bluff has allowed an average of 43 points a game, Central is averaging less than five points a game while giving up more than 32, and Sikeston is giving up just under 30 points a game.

Gross said games are not played on paper, and he said his team will not be overlooking any of its conference opponents.

"I guarantee you with the Indians right now, we're not taking anything lightly," he said.

Inexperience and youth is a common theme among the four North teams. Only three first-team all-conference selections from last year returned.

"We're all pretty young," Brookins said. "At the same time, we're getting to the point of the season that excuse doesn't hold water anymore."

This year's early struggles are nothing new for the conference. Last season, Sikeston, Central and Poplar Bluff combined to go 8-22. After four straight winning seasons, Central had the low-mark in the conference with a 2-8 record. Jackson's win total nearly matched the other three conference teams.

"It's a cycle; it is," Gross said. "Teams are going to go through it. You just kind of rely on the kids in your community, and we've been lucky here."

Jackson will have to limit its mistakes if it wants to begin conference play 1-0 this season. The Indians turned the ball over five times in a 35-14 loss to Vianney after committing six turnovers in their season-opening loss to Hillcrest Christian.

On paper, Sikeston appears to be a good place for the Indians to rebound. The Bulldogs have struggled mightily over the past two seasons with nine of their last 10 defeats being by margins of 20 points or more.

Gross said the Indians will talk about limiting turnovers and other mistakes.

"We will stress it. We'll talk about fundamentals," he said. "We've had fewer penalties each week. Last week, the turnover bug hit us."

After losing nearly all of a dominating offensive line from last season, Jackson has had some mixed results in its running game so far this season. In its opening loss, Joel Penrod and Josh Wheeler combined for nearly 150 yards. Penrod rushed for 190 yards on 38 carries in the win against Roosevelt. Against Vianney squad, Penrod was limited to just 20 yards, but Trae Smith, seeing his first game action of the season after missing two games due to injury, led Jackson with 52 yards in mainly fourth-quarter duty.

"This year that's where we're the most green at," Gross said of his offensive line. "But we've shown remarkable improvement on the offensive line."