Jefferson County Power Poll – Week 2 of 2022
#1 – Hillsboro Hawks
The Gridiron Geek has been moved to speak in his native French, analyze hard-rock Friday night sound-system strategy, and even ponder the gravitational effects of 100 growling HHS graduates stomping on the bleachers in unison, all to try to figure out how the Varsity Hawks manage to vault into a #1 local ranking so often.
You don’t always see it coming. In 2019, the Hawks debuted failing to score a single point against the Sullivan Eagles in a rain storm worthy of “The Best of Times,” then went on to get blown-out by Farmington in Week 3. Since the DeSoto Dragons had beaten the Blue & White in the teams’ previous meeting, The Geek was prepared to rank Hillsboro as low as #6 in the county and #4 in the Mississippi Conference. 8 days and a massive win over favored Festus High School later, the Hawks emerged yet again at the top of the Magazine’s rankings. HHS would later pass up the Tigers like Woody Wabbit – whoop! – in the rankings again as the 2021 season progressed.
Griffin Ray’s team simply held serve by beating the rebuilding Sikeston Bulldogs in Week 1. Boosters can agree that watching the new-look offensive line successfully execute run-blocks was a more heartening way to prevail than if the Hawks had scored on a bunch of play-action passes on 4th down and 4. Number 1 rankings never occur in a vacuum, though, and Leon Hall certainly had some help in creating Mississippi Magazine’s somewhat unexpected Week 2 order of merit.
Seckman would have waltzed into the #1 spot this week with any kind of Week 1 victory over Valle U.’s best roster ever, and Festus could have likewise slipped up to #1 with a definitive W over St. Genevieve. But alma mater’s defense laid a giant egg in its first try, Seckman’s monster truck blew out several tires and a muffler in Valle’s ear-splitting statement win, and whoop…there’s HHS on top. Some of the final scores just mentioned may have been surprising indeed, but the Hawks at #1? That isn’t.
#2 – Seckman Jaguars
High School football’s reputation for being “predictable” has got to be among the dumbest myths of the sports world. Just days ago, the Seckman Jaguars were ginned-up for what promised to be a landmark season, boasting that Jackson High wouldn’t have it so easy the next time Varsity Indians met Cole Ruble’s squad in MSHSAA Class 5 playoff circumstances. Those circumstances will never come to pass, for Seckman has been promoted to Class 6 to play in a District with CBC, and the shock and dismay of the Jaguars become evident in the 4th quarter of Week 1’s scrum as SHS mentally broke down in the face of a surging comeback.
The bad news is that everyone in Imperial, including the Varsity “Jags,” now must quickly adjust to the psychology of an 0-1 record, and to the labor of competing as a heavy District underdog once again. The good news is that the Class of 2023’s strength and ability alone will carry Seckman to a few easy Fridays in the season’s early-going, giving the student-athletes plenty of time to set their teeth and begin preparing for new challenges in November. SHS can probably throw its helmets out on the field and defeat Northwest in Week 3, for instance. Nick Baer is the type of skipper who’ll blow a gasket if the Jaguars underachieve against some of September’s cupcakes, but the last thing Baer should be hoping for is for kids to overreact to the Valle University game by working-out like crazy and peaking too soon.
#3 – Festus Tigers
The FHS defense was fried, baked, roasted, and toasted by quarterback Aiden Boyer and the St. Genevieve receiving corps last weekend, giving R-6 few prospects of stopping an even better QB-to-WR combo in Week 2.
When coach A.J. Ofodile scheduled Valle U. and Jackson this season, however – teams the skipper describes as “standard bearers” of Missouri pigskin – he wasn’t of the delusion that all of the Tigers’ 3 units would immediately start to overpower the aristocrats. Rather, it will be fun to see if at least 1 Festus unit, most likely 2022’s dynamic offense, can make some hay against an opponent that we now know is at least as good as the area’s Class 6 stalwarts. The only wart when anticipating a nice performance on offense for the 2nd week in a row is that Valle U., if pushed again to the brink of losing, could potentially open-up and explode for the worst kind of scoring record on enemy turf. Not a record in the brief history of Tiger Stadium, but a record set over all of history’s worst opposing point-totals at Midmeadow Lane.
#4 – Fox Warriors
You wouldn’t have imagined – back in 2020, anyway – that Fox head coach Brent Tinker would ever be pleased to see the Red & White ranked at the modest rung of #4 in the county by any local pundit. But the way last autumn and the offseason of 2022 has gone, this time around he just might be happy with it. Fox vastly out-performed its prediction last Friday while Northwest underachieved, giving the Warriors some kind of moral victory over its chief rival in yet another season that the teams don’t meet.
T5 – Northwest Lions
The Geek doesn’t have to tell you the bottom has dropped out of the Jefferson County gridiron field, because nothing could be further from the truth. The “bottom” has gotten tougher – a LOT tougher – in a very short span of time. Consider that all of Grandview’s triumphs in 2021 didn’t do much to vault the Birds of Prey above all of Mississippi Magazine’s other improving small-school brands, though if The Geek had seen another year of Windsor falling to tiny programs by lopsided scores, the Magazine would never have ranked WHS above Winchester Avenue.
The middle? Oh, snap, the middle is another story. The #5 through #7 slots of the Power Poll are bound to become a mess until somebody out there does something worthwhile with a pigskin. Northwest may have lost to a low-end Class 4 team by a handful of points in Week 1, but St. Pius X lost by multiple scores to an even smaller one. DeSoto can’t climb 7 slots in 2 active weeks by beating-up on poor Bishop DuBourg. Jefferson lost to Fredericktown – Fredericktown! – last Friday night.
Is there a team out of the top-4 we can finger as a favorite over Northwest? Crystal City isn’t ready to tackle Class 6 and may not be quite prepared for C4’s Gateway Tech in a few weeks. Windsor’s not beating Northwest if those teams played (maybe the way it’s going for both schools, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea). Grandview graduated a generational class of athletes. Cedar Hill is at #5…by default.
T5 – Herculaneum Blackcats
Ah, but there’s an upstart on the river flats that could take-on a vulnerable large school and win right about now. Both of Week 1’s outcomes in St. Genevieve showed what a terrific downfield-passing QB can do for a modern MSHSAA team when there’s enough speed on the outside to go around. Herky’s got so many skill players loaded-up around QB Jackson Dearing that tailback Jordan Foster’s big rushing night for Windsor barely made a dent in the proceedings on Joachim Avenue.
Lucas Bahr can boast of the prodigious Jeff-Co stat line of the week with 200+ receiving yards, proving that Herculaneum’s aerial flourishes from 2021 were no passing fad for the oft-cautious ‘Cats. Most encouragingly, Herky fielded 20+ contributors on defense alone, even though the game was largely devoid of “JV” garbage time or a running clock as the wary Blackcats looked-out for a Class 4 comeback. Depth on defense means that HHS can back-up its revitalized offense without putting too much pressure on Dearing to take chances on early downs. Crucially, the team-effort on ‘D could help keep Bahr’s wide receiving corps from suffering fatigue due to mandatory 2-way duty on each series, keeping the passing attack fresh for a 2:00 drill that’s likely to decide an I-55 corker along the way.
#7 – St. Pius Lancers
There’s always a lot of squishy grass and thick mud at the Hill Valley gridiron. Mississippi Magazine is giving the Varsity Lancers a chance to rub some of it in The Geek’s face on September 23rd by putting Herculaneum at #5 and the 0-1 Lancers underneath, as of 3 weeks prior to a potentially fateful Herky-St. Pius clash.
#8 – Jefferson Blue Jays
JHS needs a get-well game and just might get it in Week 2, as the Cuba Wildcats debuted by losing to modest Owensville 50-0. Of course, flip the page 12 weeks from now, and Owensville might be a Class 3 playoff favorite, while Cuba contends in its own division. That’s how deceptive Week 1 outcomes can be.
#9 – Grandview Eagles
The Birds of Prey must go above any losing teams left on the ledger, and deserve all the credit in the world for upholding the new standard of Eagle football with an encouraging blow-out in Week 1. But now, GHS will need to keep developing, and fast, to stay ahead of a 747 aircraft taking off right beneath it on the Power Poll.
#10 – Crystal City Hornets
This ranking goes in the “futures” category at your stock exchange. DeSoto, given the Dragons’ upperclass OL in 2022, could more-than-likely beat Crystal City’s fledgling lineup with brute-force tactics in the dullest low-scoring game imaginable. But the Hornets would out-execute the Dragons, and the OL’s cut blocking might make Windsor’s defense wish it had Herculaneum’s pro-style offense back again.
Crystal City will certainly play Herky in the regular season, and could potentially play St. Pius in the District playoffs, giving CCHS all kinds of opportunities to show it belongs with the big-shots. The Gridiron Geek is planning to blog Gateway Tech vs Crystal City live from the ‘Lou on September 24th, a day after SPX and HHS get together for a nice friendly visit.
#11 – DeSoto Dragons
It’s not a great year to host the Sullivan Eagles, but at least DeSoto gets to welcome a “fellow” 1-0 team as opposed to a school that’s already got a better W/L record.
#12 – Windsor Owls
My, how those Regional Radio features can be deceiving. Windsor looked like a million dollars in 2022’s summer training-camp vid, with HC Jeff Funston proclaiming how much deeper, quicker, and better-prepared his underdog was this season. Now the Albino Birds have coughed-up a loss to a little-brother that’s as bad as St. Pius’ season-opening stomp on WHS circa 5 years back, and Funston takes on the unenviable task of convincing his players that it wasn’t all just for show.