A bigger opponent stood across the field from Mexico on Friday night.

Mexico vs MICDS Photo Gallery

Class 5 MICDS (Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School), which is a private school in St. Louis, defeated the Bulldogs 45-7 on Senior Night at Hawthorne Heights. Mexico allowed 266 yards, including 188 yards and four touchdowns through the air, as it trailed 36-0 in its regular season finale.

Head coach Steve Haag said the results ended lopsided this week, but the opportunity to play an opponent of this caliber hopefully will lead to better results in Mexico’s realm, especially the teams in its district. The Rams (7-2) are led by Missouri Football Coaches Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Fred Bouchard and some Division I athletes, like Iowa lineman commit Luke Allgeyer.

“It’s a different world where they are,” Haag said. “When they go there, they’re into it. They’re into whatever they’re doing because it’s simply like a college. That’s what we want. We want to be challenged.”

Haag said Mexico (4-5) can’t improve as a team if it only beats lesser competition as it needs to face the elite competition as well. He knows that MICDS is noticeably bigger, but the Bulldogs are capable of handling that still.

“Just because they’re bigger doesn’t mean we can’t block them,” Haag said. “In the first half, we moved the ball well, but we just made mistakes. We jump offsides, we don’t cover the right guy and they catch a touchdown in the end zone, we don’t block the right guy and we lose yardage on that first drive. It’s little mistakes like that.”

Mexico did move the ball some against a team that Haag said is “better than any team in our district.” The Bulldogs finished with 149 yards of total offense, including 113 rushing yards and a 28-yard touchdown scamper down the sideline by quarterback Kaden Benne in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.

Whenever Mexico encounters crucial moments, like when districts arrive this Friday, Haag said he wants the game to feel slower. If the game slows down, it becomes more manageable. Sometimes, that starts with facing an opponent difficult to manage like MICDS, who ran its offense at a fast pace and regularly spread out its receivers while using two mobile quarterbacks.

“You’ve got to match,” Haag said. “You have to match their 11 guys. If you don’t, you’ve got to play super sound football. At times, we just didn’t play sound football like we let the quarterback get outside where he can scramble or you let a receiver open and he’s going to find him.”

MICDS is a type of a team Mexico would have to beat to win a state championship in the future, Haag said, but he believes the Bulldogs are capable of winning at least a playoff game. Mexico plays at North Central Missouri Conference rival Kirksville (9-0), who is undefeated and ranked third in Class 4, at 7 p.m. Friday in a No. 2 and No. 7 seed matchup.

Mexico gave Kirksville a tough game two weeks prior at Hawthorne Heights, losing 28-13. The Bulldogs were within one possession in the fourth quarter before Kirksville scored the decisive touchdown with Jace Kent, who had a huge day of 294 yards and four touchdowns.

“We took advantage of mistakes like we got a defensive touchdown on another interception,” Haag said. “We’ve just got to stop counter. We just couldn’t stop the run game. We’ve got to be able to tackle and stop those counters. If we can, we have a chance.”

It certainly helps having some seniors not only healthy but contributing in a big way. For example, Daunte Cline didn’t return from injury until the Fulton game three weeks ago and is back as a fixture in that defensive line. Hunter Cuno played in his third week back from injury against MICDS, coming off a massive performance of 164 yards and three touchdowns at Moberly.

“You want to be at full strength as much as possible,” Haag said. “When those guys go down that you’re going to count on, you shift pieces around. Other guys get options to play, and that’s good but you still want o be full strength. The more 18-year-olds you can put on the field, probably the better team you’re going to have.”

Haag said that the result from Senior Night’s game wasn’t what his seniors wanted but believes they learned some lessons from it. The more than 10 seniors Mexico honored before game time learned lessons on the field concerning the game but also life. He hopes they go on to have fulfilling lives with achieved goals and families and would love to stay in contact with them, not as football players, but “good human beings.”

“The one thing you want out of a senior class is you want people to contribute, and all of these seniors contribute,” Haag said. “A majority of them are four-year football players, and that’s what we want. The biggest thing about the program is we want them to be proud of being part of the program. The program is always in debt to them for sacrificing their summers and after school to practice.”