The Fort Osage Indians reeled off 46 straight points as they knocked off the Cape Central Tigers 56-20 Saturday afternoon at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

The Tigers trailed 7-6 just over a minute into the second quarter when senior quarterback Morgan Diamond connected with freshman wide receiver Marquel Murray for a 25-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 13-7 lead.

Things began to unravel for the Tigers after that as the Indians returned a punt for a touchdown and rushed for a pair of 4-yard touchdowns in the span of four minutes to take a 28-13 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“(Fort Osage) has a really good football team,” Tigers coach Kent Gibbs said. “We made some mistakes in the second quarter that got us behind the 8 ball. We missed a read and we let them return a punt for a touchdown and you can’t give up scores like that. You can’t make mistakes. I’m disappointed we got beat, but I’m not disappointed in our kids, and I’m not disappointed in our season at all.”

With Fort Osage set to receive the second half kickoff the Indians orchestrated a near five-minute drive that resulted in a 7-yard touchdown run from quarterback Greg Menne to stretch the Indians lead to 35-13.

Football: Cape Central falls to Fort Osage

Megan Burke ~ Southeast Missourian

 

The offense would keep coming for the Indians courtesy of a 58-yard touchdown from running back Ryver Peppers, and on the ensuing Tigers possession the Fort Osage defense got in on the scoring with an interception return for a touchdown to make it 49-13 Indians.

Despite the loss, Gibbs made sure to remind his team how proud he was of them.

“It’s unbelievable what they accomplished this year,” Gibbs said. “I’m so proud of the seniors that didn’t leave us. They stayed with us through the rough times and became real leaders for us this year. I’m just really pleased with all the kids.”

The Tigers finished the season with a record of 10-4 following the 2021-22 season that saw the Tigers go 2-7.

“The kids just shut out the noise and kept working,” Gibbs said. “People will say what they say about how we shouldn’t have been here, but at the end of the day we were and that’s what’s going to be remembered from now on.”

The Tigers will graduate six seniors in Morgan Diamond, Keontae’ Dixon, Marshon Edwards, Clayton McClard, Theon Mackins Jr. and Soren Janzow.