Festus 28, North County 15
TGG doesn’t pretend to understand defense as well as he understands offense and special teams, even though Mississippi Magazine will always argue that offense (i.e. scoring points) and defense (i.e. “stoppin’ a team from scorin’ quite s’ much” in the immortal words of Sam the Lion) are equally important. They have to be, because the pair of tell-all numbers on a scoreboard carry equal weight.
You’d have had a hard time explaining that axiom to a Bonne Terre spectator on Friday night, as North County stemmed the tide of a potential visitors’ blow-out, but then flopped on turn after turn in excellent field position, scoring just 1 out of 3 touchdowns needed for a comeback before exiting the postseason.
But the Buccaneers weren’t marooned by a bad offense. In fact, North County tailback Jobe Smith earned praise from opposing coach A.J. Ofodile as one of the toughest prep players that the long-time MSHSAA veteran has ever seen. The Festus Tigers simply did what The Geek flatly said they were NOT about to do, suddenly playing defense like it’s the 2020 or 2021 playoffs all over again.
Remember Week 1, when St. Genevieve’s visiting cheerleaders squealed themselves hoarse on 5-6 complete Aiden Boyer bombs in a row? How about the following Friday, when Valle U. snuffed-out a Midmeadow Lane comeback by making a blind back-shoulder catch look routine in the 3rd quarter? It’s not as if Festus played better ‘D in midseason, giving Hillsboro its first Turbo Clock triumph over Midmeadow Lane since the most-recent version of a Mercy Rule came to pass. Even Pacific’s dull attack looked mighty sharp vs the Black & Gold.
Smith rushed for 162 of his team’s 374 yards in Week 6’s double-digit defeat of the Tigers. 5 weeks later, Smith’s similar rush yardage on home turf accounted for a ghastly 65% of North County’s total output. What’s changed in 6 weeks for the Festus R-6 defense, to go from a “smelly” unit in conference games to a playoff effort that’s mixing-up all the right chemicals and getting Juicy Fruit?
For one, the defense is blitzing. A lot. It didn’t take longer than NCHS’s opening series for Larry Wilson – ahem – a Tiger safety to shoot through a gap and put the Raiders in 3rd-and-long. Mason Schirmer and Carter Cupp ran well-timed stunts into the middle of the North County OL, wreaking havoc when QB Jack Moore attempted to move around the pocket, Landen Yates and Trey Lacey were outstanding on the back end as the “Lollipop Guild” snagged 2 interceptions by midgame, helping QBs Essien Smith and Jeremiah Cunningham build a 28-7 lead on high-velocity bombs to Will Reese and Arhmad Branch, the latter senior WR crossing the pylons 3 times in his best-ever pigskin performance to date. The linebacking corps was all over Moore with 6 combined sacks, while DE Xavier Gould was credited with at least 3 assisted QB sacks on KFMO’s broadcast.
The opening half ended with a crucial sequence that showed how dynamic Ofodile’s team could soon become. TGG felt it was only a matter of time before Brian Jones’ coaching staff adjusted to FHS blitzing up the middle, and sure enough, the Raiders pitched-out to Smith on a 4th-down Red Zone play which caught the boys totally off-guard, and probably should have gone for a TD. Schirmer, still a sophomore in years if not in athleticism, demolished the entire weak-side play by himself, bringing down the ball-carrier and a free blocker. Decades ago, The Gridiron Geek watched as the seminal St. Louis Blues defenseman Chris Pronger stopped a 2-on-1 break from the Chicago Blackhawks by knocking both skaters down, then waltzing casually over the blue line with the puck in tow, as if to whistle. Schirmer may not have whistled after crashing the whole North County drive singlehandedly, but the 6’3″ underclassman’s equally mind-blowing tackle set up the Tigers’ 2:00 drill to do something neato.
Festus used the 1:00 clock (and 3 available time-outs) like an NFL team would, foregoing any T/O calls even as the timer ticked under 45 seconds. That’s not so risky when you’ve got a “Bill Belichick and Ed Hochuli” relationship and pinpoint accuracy on a game timer, but it feels reckless enough to use time-outs in the final :15 seconds of a half with slow-poke Missouri referees working the field. KFMO announcers wondered why Ofodile didn’t call at least 1 time-out as Smith ran and passed on a series of cautious plays to the short-side.
It was because the skipper saw something that KFMO didn’t – that the Bonne Terre secondary was dangerously creeping closer and closer to where the plays were heading, and forgetting about a “lonely end” named Branch, virtually hiding out-of-sight among Festus’ entourage of backups in yellow jerseys. Smith called for a quick snap and launched a balloon-ball throw to the WR along the boundary. But the Goodyear blimp wouldn’t have given NCHS time to recover, and Branch shot upfield for a touchdown like Johnny Weissmuller swimming across the Nile.
North County mounted a comeback bid in the 4th quarter – of course. You had to expect it. For a few moments, the scrum took on the flavor of 2020’s playoff battle against Bonne Terre, in which FHS let a glorious chance to pull-away slip out of grasp, leading to a tense final 2 quarters. But after a spontaneous, funny (and effective) fake punt sprang the Raiders to a heartening TD drive, Moore navigated the Raiders across midfield again and launched a long bomb for Kooper Kekec – only for Midmeadow Lane’s sophomore safety Brady Nolen to grab another interception. Nolen instantly veered inside the hashes for a crowded-field return, pinballing and zig-zagging all the way back to the line of scrimmage!
In a strange aftermath, Nolen was penalized 15 yards for “unsportsmanlike conduct” on some kind of verbal exchange with the referee after the INT. What could have been said after the game was decided – and the tension relieved – that wasn’t uttered during the actual tense moments of the 3rd and 4th frames? If officials had in mind that a “viral video” brawl was about to erupt, they were hoodwinked when each team’s linemen ended the game by hugging each other. Nolen would later pick-off Jobe Smith in another weird turn of events, as Jones relinquished his no-huddle offense to Smith’s arm and legs with the battered quarterback Moore forced to sit-out the last few minutes of a prep career.
Now, what about the aftermath of 2022’s first statement-win? Did the upcoming Hillsboro vs Festus championship game just officially get interesting? It’s really a trick question – HHS vs FHS is such a fierce rivalry that anything can happen whenever the schools clash on the gridiron. As local Show-Me Bowl alumni Chris Glaze likes to say, throw everything out the window when Tigers meet Hawks. Having both teams on a nice winning streak coming into the rematch turns the drama “up to 11,” but it’s the emergence of the Festus linebacking corps as a disruptive force – finally – that could make Friday’s scrum into a tight tussle.
Hillsboro 57, Farmington 0
There’s less to report about the #1 vs #4 mismatch at Leon Hall, except that the Varsity Hawks showed again that they’re the top team from Jefferson County in 2022. Farmington presumably focused on stopping upperclassmen Jaxin Patterson and Payton Brown, holding the swift A-backs to “only” about 100 yards each. That left room for Austin Romaine to star primarily as a runner for a change, with “Fresh” simply taking over the semifinal in the 2nd quarter and finishing with 200+ yards and multiple scores on (gulp) 7 carries against the Black Knights. Preston Brown scarcely put the egg in the air, but the Pistol quarterback added 57 yards to Hillsboro’s 600 – yes, 600 – rushing yards in Friday night’s epic blow-out.
HHS is now ranked 3rd in Class 4 behind likely Quarterfinal opponent St. Mary’s and a Kansas City school called Center, not to be confused with the Centre Praying Colonels of children’s sports-book lore who put Midwestern college ball on the map back in the day. The Geek imagines “Center High School” handing-off up the middle the entire time, and never throwing toward the sidelines or running a play out-of-bounds. It would be funny if Center instead utilized the A-10 playbook, and strung 10 players wide across the gridiron with only a single lonely bloke – you guessed it – right in the center. But ask local referees who’ve handled A.J. Ofodile’s games – no one’s sure quite how legal such tactics are in good old Mizzourah.
Marquette 42, Seckman 14
Our blog has compared Seckman’s romp through the regular season to Herky’s point-a-minute team from 1998, hoping that SHS wouldn’t succumb to the “Country Day Effect” against a District gauntlet of SLUH, Marquette, and CBC. Thankfully, that didn’t happen…but Seckman’s semifinal loss reminded TGG of another Herculaneum championship bid from 7 years prior.
Shotgun-spread coaches talk about how delicate a passing game’s success can be. But an intricate run-game is arguably on even more of a razor’s edge against elite opposition. The Geek recalls watching Herky qualify for the 1991 Show-Me Bowl with a sophisticated Wishbone attack and a deep defense full of high-motor effort, not unlike what Seckman has had in its arsenal this season. The Blackcats took the field against powerful Chillicothe in Columbia, received the title game’s opening kickoff, and embarked on a trademark sustained drive, the triumvirate of Scott Croom, Charlie Stegall, and Jason Ramsey leading the way for HHS. Right then, up jumped the devil – a fumble that gave the eventual champions a quick extra turn at midfield. You could see the air come out of the Blackcats at that moment, as the kids wondered if it wasn’t going to be their day. (It wasn’t.)
Perhaps the opening half had “Herky ’98” (or “Hillsboro ’21”) written all over it. Cole Ruble scored on a thrilling long run to give Seckman an early lead, followed by a “landslide” of 3 Marquette TDs in the 2nd frame. But the Jaguars weathered the storm well enough to press past midfield on the 3rd quarter’s opening series, seeking to cut the Mustangs’ 21-7 lead in half. Ruble accelerated to untold speeds on the drive’s option rushes, racing away from one Marquette defender along the far hash-mark like Ayrton Senna coming out of a chicane. For a few minutes, the Imperial kids forgot they were playing “the Number 2 seed Marquette” and just executed as they had all season. That’s when “1991” happened again, as an explosive run for Ruble around right-end turned into a fumble and a Mustang recovery, a true rarity for a QB with record-setting rushing attempts and tackles broken in his 4-year Varsity career. Marquette scored on the short-field drive, bringing the night’s suspense to a close with about 18:00 left on the clock.
Ruble, as skipper Nick Baer seems to have manipulated after-the-fact with a nice sentimental roster move in the 4th quarter, scored a 60-yard TD on his final play as a Jaguar. That must have impressed SEMO scouts who were looking on. But the county’s brightest gridiron star is leaving behind more than just an inspiring legacy of success while heading off to the FCS, a college football division that seems to get better every autumn. Seckman High School pigskin will now take a necessary step backward without Ruble running the show, but there potentially won’t be as nightmarish of a drop-off in 2023 given the number of sophomores and juniors who’ve shined for Seckman’s top-level lineup late in the season. Matter of fact, considering that no freshmen played a significant role for the Varsity Jaguars in 2022, the team could field as many as 30+ upperclassmen alongside a crew of promoted JV and frosh standouts next year. Those recruiting numbers are directly attributable to the current squad’s epic W/L record over the past 2 seasons, and possibly even tied to the Jags’ exploits in 2020. It’s hard to imagine that any multiple-sport athletes “on the fence” about suiting-up for Jaguar football decided not to play after watching the school upset Park Hills Central in a 2020 classic.
Rank-and-file prep students are disappointed when their teams don’t go to state. But what hurts football recruiting is when kids go to a game and see the home team get blown-out, and what helps recruiting is when the same kids get to see lots and lots of scintillating conference wins on campus. Parents won’t get to freeze in the stands through an emotional playoff run, but the warm-weather goals of SHS football have been attained. There will be no more summer practice squads that have “1-9” stamped on their foreheads. Seckman has earned itself a Friday Night Lights tradition of winning, which ensures plenty of talent will come up the pike. However, to reach .500 in the regular season and/or the playoffs in 2023, the Jaguars must benefit from an off-year in the Suburban League…and hope to be moved out of a District so tough that 2021’s champions were ranked #6 in ’22.
Duchesne 55, St. Pius 0
It would be one thing to lament St. Pius getting blown-out by Duchesne in Friday’s semifinal. Conversely, the Lancers didn’t really get to play a game, self-destructing in the opening 5:00 and spotting the powerful Pioneers a 21-0 lead before the scoreboard lights could get warmed-up.
There’s nothing positive to draw from the box score or the footage. It’s best to simply scrub the scrum from memory or focus on the silver linings. St. Pius X essentially “took one for the team” by losing to Duchesne, a Class 3 contender that’s been stupidly seeded in Class 1, and which will be headed out of the division again after Duchesne wallops Brentwood by at least 28 points this weekend.
But the real silver-lining story for Hill Valley is that much of the team is still so young, the “sacrifice” of losing in a rigged game did more than just improve the Class 1 and Class 2 landscape’s fairness for future generations at SPX – the ’23 roster is set up to enjoy a peachy scenario thanks to the emergence of 3-4 sophomore linemen and linebackers who’ll plug gaps in the Lancer defense. Graduating skill players like Dabrein Moss and linemen like John Leicht, Karter “Bone Girth” and Alex Moises will hurt – it has to hurt. But on the flip side, SPX pretty much always produces 7-10 wins with a senior QB taking snaps, and quarterback James Smith now has a solid backup in junior Brennan Ervin.
What a banner year 2023 could be for Tri-City pigskin! Festus and Jefferson are poised to be outstanding, Crystal City and Herky will be building on their best seasons-to-date in modern times, and St. Pius will boast yet another upperclass member of the Smith bloodline firing complete passes…and presumably crushing The Geek in H-O-R-S-E games on Sunday morning like his big-bro used to do.
University City 20, Herculaneum 14
TGG’s trademark “silver lining” reports on playoff losses seemed SOL (Sold On Layaway) after Herky tragically blew a halftime lead to lose to U-City on Saturday afternoon. Mike Maloney, Jackson Dearing, and Lucas Bahr will each graduate with the Class of 2023, renting a hole in the Blackcat offense just as defense reaches untold heights at Dunklin following decades of struggles. Herculaneum’s schedule will not get any easier on a younger lineup next season, given that every opponent on the slate is poised to continue developing in ’23 outside of Bayless (which graduates Mark Patton) and maybe St. Vincent. Not a barrel o’ laughs.
But all that Mississippi Magazine needed was to get back to basics. Looking at Herculaneum’s schedule and scores again, it’s astounding that the Blackcats not only posted their first 6-5 season of an era, but had a chance to win all 11 of the games in the 4th quarter. St. Vincent barely held on against Herky, St. Pius X needed 500 yards in penalties to stave-off a Blackcat comeback, and even CCHS posted a deceptive “32-14” win over Herky High School in a scrum that actually hinged on a spinning, wobbling, free-to-recover ball on the 2-yard line. Festus, Jefferson, Seckman, and Fox were all thumped in ’22 – but never the ‘Cats!
The Geek can imagine no kind of campaign – not even a championship season – that would help Herculaneum’s youth recruiting efforts more. You know how it goes on a small-school playground; similar to political debates on Fox or MSNBC, the “winners” are the people who say the loudest, dumbest things often enough. Decades are reduced to blips in time, and debates about “good” and “bad” on the football field scarcely need more than a 2-word vocabulary. Grade school kids either witness the home team losing badly all the time, or they don’t.
Try to imagine a schoolyard bully on Blackcat Drive trying to talk a kid out of playing Little League, now that the Felines haven’t been Turbo Clocked by anyone short of Class 4’s current Show-Me Bowl favorites since September of last year!
Bully: Ha, ha! You shouldn’t play football for Herky! We get smashed by all of the teams around here! LOSERS!
Student-Athlete: When?
Bully: Umm. Uhh. Back in…umm. Uhh. Loser. I mean, I don’t…it was back in…yeah. You know what, I was wrong. You should go out for the team. I’m gonna go pick a pointless fight with somebody else now. Sorry.
Student-Athlete: Watch out for that bony math kid. I saw him waste a guy with a protractor.
Bully: Hey, thanks.
It takes time for Little League rosters to have an impact on the Varsity, of course. Herculaneum’s ’23 offense will serve as an ultimate rebuilding job for HC Blane Boss, who now loses virtually every player who handled the egg this season. However, if the Blackcats’ sizable 2023 sophomore class (or, the junior class-to-be) can build on the edge-rushing feats of ’22 seniors James Mouyassar and Jordan “Mister” McMahon, then the HHS defense could buy an inexperienced offense much-needed time to develop without taking any brutal 50-point defeats, and potentially post some Ws against I-55 and out-of-conference opponents.
Sure, only a single Jefferson County team will make it to the state playoffs this season. But the dark eras of defeat at Herky, Crystal City, and Grandview have ended, making it inevitable that our local small-school programs – still the heart and soul of Friday Night Lights – are going to match Fox, Festus, and Hillsboro’s state-wide relevance with captivating playoff bids of their own in the years to come.