Festus Tigers at St. Genevieve Dragons
How one perceives tonight’s kickoff at SGHS is a matter of geography. Jim Powers of STLToday, who scored the excellent story on DeSoto’s “Tiger Stomp” and alma mater’s subsequent on-field revenge in 2018, told Off The Rails in a YouTube interview that Jefferson County has never looked stronger on the gridiron, that Week 1 is bound to be a banner week for schools south of the ‘Lou, and that Festus is the urban writers’ consensus favorite to win the Mississippi. Whew! Here TGG thought he might have been too kind and generous to Jefferson County teams prior to an uncertain-as-ever season, but those predictions are doozies.
Travel below the Meramec River, and folks are a little more anxious about the results of JeffCo’s out-of-conference scrums in Week 1, for obvious reasons. Keep heading south, and if you look at it from the POV of a St. Genevieve Dragons booster, Week 1 seems like a match-up the C3 team should win. Festus lost its generational starting QB to graduation, but Friday’s host QB Aiden Boyer could be poised for a banner campaign. Even if the FHS defense is faster and deeper than St. Genevieve’s offensive troop, the veteran Boyer could find tall, available receivers along the sideline against the “Lollipop Guild” R-6 secondary.
The Varsity Tigers, meanwhile, still have some things to figure out on offense and special teams. The Geek believes that sophomore QB Essien Smith will be the “Malcolm Perry” of Midmeadow Lane by the time all is said and done, a signal-caller who’s so dangerous when running that opposing coaches half-hope their DBs blow off pass-coverage and go after him. But the youngster’s velocity and accuracy issues at the Jamboree illustrate that 2-sport transfer Jeremiah Cunningham may have saved the Tigers’ fur behind center in ’22.
There’s something St. Genevieve did at Tiger Stadium last year that the Dragons may not do at home this Week 1, though, and that’s to win the line-of-scrimmage against the Black & Gold. Festus looks, feels, and sounds (POP!) a lot more like a genuine Class 4 operation in the trenches these days, which is bad news for the smaller-school attacks that did manage to flourish at times against a light-on-its-feet 2021 lineup. PREDICTION: TIGERS 28, ST. GENEVIEVE 17
Hillsboro Hawks at Sikeston Bulldogs
Hillsboro undertakes the most upside-down start of the 2022 season, with all due respect to the “upside down” I-55 Conference. Win tonight’s game by 50 points, and happy fans will begin to worry deep-down about HHS having another hot season-start and a poor finish. Grind out an ordinary 21-point win, and while coaches will scream and holler for a few days, boosters could actually conclude that HC Bill Sucharski is finally doing everything right. Victories in the regular season will be foregone conclusions if the ’22 Varsity Hawks stay healthy, and last year taught Leon Hall that style points are costly in the long run. As a corollary to that concept, you absolutely cannot win a District championship in August, so there’s no point in trying.
Sikeston’s rebuilding offense probably won’t be able to do much against the intimidating Blue & White front line, meaning that if nothing else, the guests will get a lot of turns in positive field-position to help buoy a nascent OL in its first go-around together. PREDICTION: HAWKS 38, SIKESTON 7
Seckman Jaguars at Valle University
The Geek previews this contest in Seckman’s preseason run-down. PREDICTION: ACTUAL HIGH SCHOOL TEAM 35, VALLE U. 14
Windsor Owls at Herculaneum Blackcats
This contest has been “tight” for all the wrong reasons way too often over the past several years, as 2 dull offenses dared each other to put some type of scoring drives together. This season, a growing WHS roster and a far more dynamic Class 3 side by the river flats could “put together” a barn-burner. PREDICTION: ALBINO BIRDS 28, BLACKCATS 27
Crystal City Hornets at Chaffee Red Devils
TGG must be careful not to look at Crystal City’s opponents as static commodities in 2022. Chaffee’s done its usual round of confident player and coach-interviews in SEMOBall (where else?), and can boast of a nice winning streak against the Varsity Hornets. But the crux of tonight’s prediction is that CCHS was already better than Chaffee’s starting-11 last August. The Hornets simply got tired due to having even less kids available than the number of student-athletes on Chaffee’s scant depth chart. That’s not going to happen this time, meaning that to show up as the superior team in Week 1, the Red Devils would have to have grown and developed just as much in the offseason as the Sunken Place kids have, AND added a few more substitutes from the frosh team. A glance at Chaffee’s HUDL page shows that neither scenario has occurred. PREDICTION: HORNETS 34, CHAFFEE 12
Grandview Eagles at Paris Coyotes
Paris played awful defense for pretty much all of 2021, making the Coyotes an interesting match for Grandview’s strength-and-defense oriented lineup this season. The Week 1 hosts could be playing in a rare low-scoring contest after a litany of “53-26” style defeats. PREDICTION: EAGLES 16, PARIS 7
Brentwood Eagles at St. Pius Lancers
The vibe will be far more lively at Hill Valley, as a C1 program that surged late in ’21 takes on senior Dabrien Moss and the biggest, burliest SPX starting front seen since the playoff run behind alum-QB Mickey Karoly. PREDICTION: LANCERS 33, BRENTWOOD 28
DeSoto Dragons at Bishop DuBourg Cavaliers
The Jefferson County Leader has touted the DeSoto Dragons as having the best offensive line in the Mississippi Conference this season. But, even so, The Geek thinks that the unit might play OK in Week 1. PREDICTION: DRAGONS 32, DUBOURG 6
Mehlville Panthers at Fox Warriors
TGG also spent some time looking at Fox vs Mehlville in the Warriors’ preseason write-up. PREDICTION: WARRIORS 17, MEHLVILLE 14
Northwest Lions at Sullivan Eagles
There’s a whole article dedicated to the whole Northwest schedule here at Mississippi Magazine, with half or at least 6 & 7/8ths of a mind as to what’s brewing in Cedar Hill. PREDICTION: LIONS 31, SULLIVAN 22
Jefferson Blue Jays at Fredericktown Blackcats
The Geek often squints at Jefferson-Fredericktown match-ups and sees a relatively close scrum taking place. Then the Varsity Blue Jays win by 102 points, and everybody’s eyes are wide-open. The only difference in 2022 is that Fredericktown has beefed-up its lineup just as Jefferson High loses an aces downfield-passing threat in former QB Drew Breeze. As a result, fairly strong Class 3 teams should be able to stack the line without fear of getting burned quite as often, containing JHS to a lot of 3-yards-and-dust plays.
Fredericktown ’22 has no such formula to beat Jefferson’s fine defense. PREDICTION: BLUE JAYS 24, FREDERICKTOWN 9