By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Despite a 3-7 record, the Carl Junction football team was competitive in a lot of games last fall, especially in the first half. The Bulldogs just couldn’t finish.
“We played a lot of young kids and we played a lot of kids both ways and it didn’t bode well for us in the second half against teams like Webb City, Nixa, Joplin and Carthage,” head coach Doug Buckmaster said. “Matter of fact we were 0-0 with Carthage towards the end of the third quarter and just couldn’t hang on. We played a lot of sophomores but also a lot of juniors and seniors who hadn’t been starters before. We were inexperienced all the way around for the most part. I was actually pleased with how we competed.”
Buckmaster is entering his 10th season at Carl Junction and has to replace five graduated seniors who were All-Conference players in the COC. Kyler Perry was a unanimous selection at punter, Josh Cory was a second team Class 4 All-State (second team COC) defensive end, Carter Kennedy was a second team COC outside linebacker, Darris Hill was a third team COC offensive lineman and Michael Phipps was a third team COC defensive lineman.
The Bulldogs do return eight starters on defense, though: senior defensive back Ayden Bard (also a second team COC returner and All-District DB), senior outside linebacker Chance Benford (third team COC and All-District), junior defensive back Kyler Stewart, sophomore defensive back Tony Stewart, senior outside linebacker Arlen Wakefield, junior linebackers Johnny Starks and Bentley Rowden, and senior end Braxton Dodds.
“Our strength last year was special teams and our defense and we return a large majority of that defense,” Buckmaster said. “That’s a good sign when you have eight starters returning there but we did lose some good seniors.
“We should be strong at the linebacker, inside and outside and with our defensive backs, we return a lot of those kids,” he said. “We did lose three guys up front on the line but we feel like we have kids stepping into those positions who are going to play hopefully very well for us. We’ll find out real quick where we’re at defensively and offensively.”
DOWNLOAD THE O-ZONE APP NOW!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FOR APPLE
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID
Senior Donnie Keith should be a valuable addition as a defensive tackle. He’s 6-1, 290 and started as a sophomore but didn’t play last year. Buckmaster said he has a chance to play in college. Senior Cayden Bollinger, a 6-2, 205 pound end, also comes back after missing most of last season with an injury.
The Bulldogs had their ups and downs offensively last season. They scored at least 33 points in three games, and 6 or fewer in four, while averaging about 19 points per game for the season. Starting quarterback Kyler Perry played with a hand injury the first three weeks and then missed the rest of the season, returning briefly as a receiver. That left Nathan Planchon, now a senior, and Dexter Merrell, now a junior, as the team’s quarterbacks.
Merrell will be the starting quarterback this year and Planchon will play in the slot.
“He’s a very good player, a 5-8 quarterback,” Buckmaster said of Merrell. “He’s not that prototype drop back passer. He can do that but the offense is going to be tailored to fit Dexter’s best attributes as a quarterback this year. We still plan on throwing the football but we’re going to go about it in some different ways than we have in past years. He’s a tremendous runner, a very physical runner with great quickness and as far as throwing the football he’s improved 100 percent from a year ago at this time.”
Benford (6-0, 190) returns at tailback and so does Stewart (5-11, 180), who was the team’s No. 2 back before getting hurt and missing several games. Benford is a physical, downhill type back while Stewart has explosiveness and big play potential, Buckmaster said. Wakefield and junior Johnny Starks will also play running back. All four of those backs will start on defense and Buckmaster hopes to rotate them on offense to keep them fresh.
The team returns three starting receivers: junior Kyler Stewart, Bard and Planchon. Carl Junction has senior Ross Craig back as a starter on the line.
The special teams unit that was a strength last year returns junior kicker Xavier Perkins, who does a great job kicking off, and junior kicker Constance Graham, who’s accurate from about 35 yards.
Carl Junction will host Carthage, Nevada and Monett for a jamboree and opens the regular season at Ozark. Buckmaster said that finishing in the middle of the pack or higher in the COC would be a win for the Bulldogs as a Class 4 school.
“Are we going to be a competitive team or are we going to be an average team? I don’t see us being an average football team,” he said. “We’re the only Class 4 school in the COC and we play against three 6A schools and six 5A schools. We don’t play a Class 4 school until the first round of districts. If we can stay healthy through the regular season I think our team would have a chance to maybe make a run in the Class 4 playoffs. Hopefully that comes to fruition. I really believe in these kids that they can do some good things.”
