DEXTER -- Friday was nothing short of a defensive battle, as Dexter snapped its seven-game losing streak to Park Hills Central on Friday at Charles Bland Stadium.
The Bearcats won 13-7, as the defense allowed just 130 yards of total offense -- 51 yards passing. Brock Simmons led the way on defense, finishing with six tackles, and Braxton Foster had two sacks.
With the rainy, cold weather taking a toll on both teams, playing stellar defense and rushing the football efficiently were both needed.
"In the rain, it's tough on everybody involved, which kind of slows down your passing game," Dexter coach Aaron Pixley said. "That's kind of been the area we've struggled in anyway, so we needed to run the football. I think we ran the football well enough and played great defense, and we had to do that on a night like tonight against a very good team, a physical football team, and, you know, I'm just proud of our guys."
Dexter had 162 rushing yards with Haden Hillis -- who returned last week from a collarbone injury -- leading the charge. Hillis had 70 rushing yards on 18 attempts.
Offensively, the key play of the game was the play that put the Bearcats in front.
After rolling out of the pocket, Hillis looked to be dead in the water, as a hoard of Rebels surrounded him waiting to tackle him. Hillis, though, was able to maneuver his way back to the opposite side of the field and took it to the house for an 8-yard score with 7:28 left in the third quarter.
Hillis contributed on both Dexter scores, as he found a wide-open Ernesto Rivera in the back of the end zone in the second quarter to tie the game heading into halftime.
For Park Hills Central coach Kory Schweiss, offensively, the Rebels have struggled all season -- with Friday being no different.
"A lot of it had to do with the mishandling of snaps and mishandling of handoffs," Schweiss said. "I'm not even blaming the weather on it. I think our kids just have to do a better job in that aspect. We've had trouble with it all year, and it's Week 8. So, we're going to have to do something different. I don't know what that's going to be yet; we're going to have to talk about it this weekend and see. Obviously, there's going to be some changes made."
Holding onto the football in inclement weather can be a tricky task at times.
For Pixley's bunch, it was something that was a struggle to begin the game, but one that ended up improving after he noticed what was wrong and switched to a different look.
"We were fumbling a little bit early whenever we were under center," Pixley said. "So, we thought, 'OK, we're going to go get in the shotgun and catch the snap.' What most people don't know (is) this is a new center for us. Our center got hurt last week. We have to move another kid in there, who normally plays guard for us, and I felt as the game went on, his snaps got better. So, it was easy for our quarterback to handle the snap and work from there.
"That's so important on a night like this; you just have to get the snap. If you get the snap, then you can run a play. If you can't get the snap, then it's tough to run a play, and we managed to hold on to the football there, especially in the second half."
Dexter's defense was able to get the Rebels out of sync for nearly the entire game, making it very difficult for them to create positive plays.
The Bearcats were everywhere on the field -- especially in the second half -- forcing the Rebels to turn the ball over four times.
"They hit somewhat of a nice play on us early in the second half," Pixley said. "Then after that, we did a good job of reading our keys and we did a good job in pass defense. I just felt like our defense in the second half played the best they've played all year. We've actually played good defense this year. Just we're on the field all the time because our offense has struggled."
The Bearcats were looking to rebound after a 44-0 loss to Kennett on Oct. 5.
"We knew we couldn't come out and play with the same effort we played with last Friday night against Kennett," Pixley said. "We felt like we didn't compete, and we wanted to come back tonight and make sure we competed, and you know, have a chance in this game, and that's what our kids gave us."
A strong defensive unit, Dexter (3-4) has only given up 21.4 points per game, continuing the trend on Friday against a Park Hills Central team that also poses a strong defense.
The Bearcats have struggled against against Park Hills Central recently, losing 36-20 last season.
"For us, anything's big," Pixley said. "Any game's big for us to win. We are a program that's kind of in transition here, and trying to get back to a certain mindset we once had. I think that every day, little by little, we're starting to get that, but we're not there by any means -- not even close.
"We played the way Dexter football normally plays, whenever they're competitive. They played with a lot of heart, we were physical and we played with determination -- not just from our players -- but our sideline was up the whole time. On a night where you could sit there and freeze to death, we were good, our kids were good, nothing bothered them and we just kept playing."