PERRYVILLE -- It would have been hard enough for the Dexter Bearcats to beat the Perryville Pirates if they had played a perfect game. But to spot the Pirates five fumbles, three sacks, an interception and over 100 yards in penalties was just asking too much.

Perryville turned Dexter mistakes into points and the Pirates eliminated the Bearcats from the playoffs with a 28-6 win at home Friday.

With the win, Perryville (3-6, 2-0) locked up one of the two Class 3, District 1 playoffs positions, along with New Madrid County Central which destroyed the Kennett Indians, 64-7. The Pirates and Eagles will decided which team enters the playoffs as the No. 1 seed Thursday at New Madrid when the two teams clash in the regular-season finale.

As for Dexter, they were there own worst enemy and the damage started on the Bearcats' very first offensive possession.

"The bottom line is we made way to many mistakes," Dexter coach Aaron Pixley said. "We set them up real pretty the whole game. You can't do that and win.

"We stumped our foot the very first offensive drive in the first half and the other drive we just drove right down the field and scored," Pixley continued. "Defensively it took us a little bit to get going but we stopped them. They are big strong kids now, and they get after you. They were real good on first down, and that was the key to their first half performance. We started doing a much better job on first down in the second quarter and into the third and fourth."

Dexter won the toss and elected to kick to Perryville, which took the opening drive and marched 65 yards to score the game's first points on a 2-yard run by Josh Perreault, who finished with 137 yards on 34 attempts. The drive was vintage Perryville, which ran nearly seven minutes off the game clock on the drive.

Dexter moved the ball on its first possession, aided by a 32-yard Ben Mills to Jered Stephens pass, but the 'Cats couldn't push the ball into the end zone and the threat ended with 13-yard sack of Mills.

Perryville again was on the move, and with 8:37 remaining in the first half, Pirates quarterback Garrett Flentge found Brent Roth in the end zone. Dexter had double coverage on Roth, but the senior went high in the air to wrestle the ball way from two Bearcat defenders to make it a 14-0 game.

On Dexter's second possession of the game, the Bearcats drove the ball 67 yards and capped it off with a Mills to Ryan Windham 6-yard scoring pass to cut the lead to 14-6 after missing the point after kick. Mills would finish the night 16-of-26 for 221 yards and one interception, while Windham led all Dexter receivers with seven catches for 76 yards.

"It's pretty obvious that our mistakes set them up all night long," Pixley stated. "It's anybody's game at half time. Shoot. We were feeling good, playing a lot better on defense and we were stopping them. We went in at half-time and our kids were very alert, they were excited, they felt like they could play with them and do some things."

But the second half couldn't have gotten off to a worse start for the Bearcats.

Jerry Jarrell photos Action Friday night included: Dexter's Jered Stephens (No. 12) fights through the stiff arm of Perryville's Josh Perreault to make the tackle, while Perryville's Brent Roth (blocked from view) makes the catch despite the defense of Dustin Lane (No. 3) and Stephens. In another shot, Dexter nose tackle Curtis Hardin pulls down Perryville's Josh Perreault with the help of teammates. Dexter quarterback Ben Mills (No 7) gets off a pass, while Dustin Lane (No. 3), upends Perryville's Josh Perreault (No. 7). [Click to enlarge]

Perryville squib kicked to open the third quarter and Dexter misplayed the ball for a quick turnover.

"We had our hands team in there," Pixley said of the opening play of the second half. "I figured they were going to do that and we put our hands team in there. We had the right people in there, they squibbed it, it hit one of our front guys, and the ball bounced up and one of our guys fell on it and it squirted out and they fell on it. Next thing you know they have a short field and they score. I believe the next possession we line up again and they kick it a little deeper and Tyler Batchelor makes a good return on it to set us up, and I believe we fumble the ball right back to them on the first play. Next thing you know they are in a short field and I believe they caught us on that drive when we got sucked up on the run from a defensive back standpoint and caught a pass on us."

In the span of less than four minutes, Perryville had turned a 14-6 half time score into a 28-6 margin which the Pirates made stand up for the win.

"Like I said, everything points to our mistakes," Pixley noted. "No football game is played clean. There is no such thing as a perfect football game, but you've got to limit your mistakes, be focused and we just made to many and they capitalized on them."

Dexter, now 3-6 overall and 0-2 in district play, will finish the season at home Thursday night when the Bearcats will host Kennett.