Grandview 47, St. Vincent 25
Where to begin covering a slate like Week 8? St. Pius X clinched an I-55 Conference title, Seckman High School paved its way to Suburban League glory with a 20-13 victory over Fox, and of course, TGG’s favored (if not always favored) Farmington Black Knights take credit for tackling a Festus team caught “shorthanded” just as NHL penalty boxes are open for business again.
None of those schools outplayed their Friday Night Predictions by 50 points. The Grandview Eagles did, whipping the St. Vincent Indians from pillar to post in a 47-25 win that defines the GHS pigskin revival of 2018-’21 like few victories before or since. 7 days after Grandview’s worst outcome of the season so far, the Birds of Prey dismantled a rival that had beaten the Senior Night hosts 135-12 in 3 previous games.
Don’t think that Friday’s outcome is a sign of weakness from St. Vinny’s. St. Vincent held Park Hills Central, the best team in St. Francois County by a wide berth, to just *40* points in Week 1 despite taking several more turns on defense. The Varsity Indians posted 3 straight shut-outs in midseason, beat Class 4’s Perryville Pirates 36-0, and came within yards of beating St. Pius X for a league title. St. Vincent was keen enough on a Week 8 victory that the Indians successfully tried on-side kicking in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, leading to 2 of 3 short-field chances that offset a ball-hawking night for Grandview’s defense.
GHS fumbled on its maiden snap-from-scrimmage, and there wasn’t a soul on Winchester Avenue who didn’t think another blow-out loss could be in the offing. Grandview did manage to slug its way downfield and score on a subsequent drive, but following a successful XP attempt, the Eagle offense had scored exactly 1 point more than it had helped manufacture for St. Vincent. It wasn’t until QB Clayton Riddle – who followed a miserable Week 7 start with a gem on Friday – found Eric O’ Brien on a 50-yard TD pass that the stadium began to bubble with buzz about a potential upset.
Ryan Ruble played a phenomenal 2-way scrum and was the star of a sequence that ended Friday’s suspense in the 3rd quarter. Ruble had just helped lead his offense to a 35-25 edge when St. Vincent mounted a mighty drive, threatening to close to within a field goal headed into the final 12:00. Instead, the senior DB acrobatically picked-off a fading pass in his own end zone and scampered 105 yards for a TD (and probably an I-55 Conference record) to make the score 41-25. At least 5 Big River boats ran aground due to canyon-clapping cries from Eagle cheerleaders during Ruble’s pick-6, and the press-box windows were lucky to survive too. But hey, Grandview’s best play of 2021 was worth some collateral damage.
That settles it. Jefferson High isn’t 7 touchdowns better than Grandview. Not even close. The Eagles just needed a jolt of confidence, a dose of characteristic pass-defense, and some timely turnovers to finally assert themselves with a signature win. HC Dave Dallas sounded as shell-shocked on Regional Radio as you might expect, as he’s leading a new brand that’s gone 6-4 in its last 10 games. Dallas took unorthodox steps to turn Riddle and other senior Iron Men into handy pass-rushers on Friday, but he won’t need any tricks to steer GHS past Chaffee in Week 9 and take the Birds of Prey soaring into the MSHSAA postseason.
Original Byline Date: October 17th, 2021