How does TRIFECTA work as an acronym?
True Revival In Football Excellence Commands Total Awe.
Hmm. Not bad.
Neither was Friday night in Jefferson County. ‘Specially not if you happen to reside next to one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Riverside schools from the Mississippi, I-55, and Suburban League have swept through District play to produce a trio of historic titles.
Don’t look now, but the Fox Warriors are a victory away from playing for a Class 6 grail in Jefferson City. Speaking of Jefferson, the Varsity Blue Jays fulfilled The Geek’s “NCAA”-style prediction with half of a dozen dunks on the NMCC Eagles, senior Colby Ott taking the honors 5 times and nipping at MSHSAA’s record book with a monster performance.
Then there was the District Final at Midmeadow Lane, and a display of claws that we didn’t even know the Festus Tigers had this season.
Festus 27, North County 6
For a fleeting moment, it felt like R-7 was bound to suffer from stress that R-6 would manage to avoid. Black & Gold had spent 24:00 of a District 1 Final wasting golden chances to pull away, but NCHS was nonetheless losing 14-0 and dealing with a key injury. Meanwhile, the Jefferson Blue Jays happened to have scored 3 touchdowns to 1 from New Madrid’s Eagles at halftime, but the game taking place just down Highway 61-67 had the vibe of a slugfest between 2 handy offenses.
By 8:45 PM, Blue Jay senior Colby Ott shook-up the Class 2 postseason with a 30-point tour-de-force to smash the hottest upstart in C2D1.
And the sky turned gloomy above Midmeadow Lane.
It would be poetic but inaccurate to say North County was always destined to keep the score tight in Week 12. Hearts of Varsity Raider fans had to have sunk early in Q1 when the slowest-starting team in the Mississippi scored on the 1st play, then dashed into the Red Zone again. 2 possessions later, WR Karter Kacec limped off the field after getting toppled by a Tiger in the flat.
Cayden Glaze’s opening TD had a historical bent. In 1991, the Herculaneum Blackcats reached Class 3’s Semifinals with a win over Caruthersville that was sparked by Chris Glaze’s 85-yard TD return of the opening kickoff. The family tree has borne vintage fruit, and Cayden’s instant gallop set a tone for the boys’ best 4-quarter rushing effort in 7 weeks…29 years later.
Tear-jerker highlights dried up quickly. Glaze’s gritty 2nd-quarter TD run produced a 14-0 lead, but Kaian Roberts-Day dropped a football with which he would still be running, WR Issac Stucke fumbled a potential touchdown pass on the 1-yard line, Glaze’s next long jaunt was nixed by a penalty, and following a rash of turnovers by both teams, the Buccaneers broke through for a short-field score to close the deficit to 8 points.
There followed a 4th-quarter play that stands as a triumph for the Varsity Tigers and an eyesore for MSHSAA TV and the stuffed shirts of local pigskin. Week 12’s PPV stream ran smoothly in the 2nd half and featured the familiar, seasoned voices of Ray Halbrook and the Live Stream STL crew. The broadcast grew tense as NCHS trailed 14-6 in the final frame. Then, gifted a surprise 1st down in plus-range, FHS snapped the egg to QB Cole Rickermann, who rared back to pass, annnnnnddd…
Call it the Hose Play. Video and audio became affixed on a hose, or a protective coating for a cable of some kind, presumably in a storage space in the press box. Black & Gold padawans punched their cell phones as volume keys were abused across the county, but Alex Neisler’s voice was as absent as the gridiron. Faint cheering could be heard in the background. Once the Hose got its 90 seconds of fame and the stream was restored, announcers were too shell-shocked to explain that #12 had hit Collin Doyel on a post pattern, and that the senior pin-balled into the end zone to give the Tigers a 2-score advantage.
It happens to the best of them. NBC is responsible for the “Heidi Game” in 1968, in which a skinny young QB named Joe Namath led the New York Jets in an overtime American Football League battle that captivated the nation. Except as Joe Willie dropped back to attempt a 4th-quarter pass on the Oakland Raiders, NBC switched from the AFL game to “Heidi,” a gooey kids’ movie with a little girl picking flowers in Switzerland. Millions of angry viewers flew to make calls as Heidi sang and danced and ate chocolate. They say that late at night, you can still see smoke wafting out of the old switchboard at NBC Sports headquarters, because of the chaos that ensued during the Heidi Game.
Live Stream STL has spent much of 2020 building its comedy brand with shows like “The Coach’s Box.” That’s a stroke of luck, because the best way for Halbrook’s fine (and sorely-needed) enterprise to move forward from the Hose Play is to embrace the funny. There is only one Heidi Game, only one Hose Play, and the legend of the former incident became solid “sneaky” PR for NBC over time. Everyone can relate to the Hose Play who’s gone to a concession stand only to miss a turn of events.
Doyel’s maiden TD was exactly the kind of explosive turn of events R-6 needed. But things looked a little off on “off”-ense Friday night, because of a lack of touches for 1st-string receivers Doyel, Cayse Martin, and Daylen Wagoner. Cole Wagner was missing from the run game too, and KRD didn’t get many more chances. Once the Raiders were forced to open up in the passing game, we discovered what had been keeping the Tigers’ fastest players so busy.
A.J. Ofodile made a brilliant depth-chart decision for the District Final, loading-up the defense with the 11 biggest, fastest, and most-experienced athletes he could cobble together, led by a Demolition Duo of Luke Greenstreet and Desmond Davis up front. As a result, the offense was tasked with scoring out of a “package” that did not include several top playmakers, but Ofodile knew Festus could score from everywhere on the field, while NCHS would have to execute long drives to win.
Long drives were all-but-impossible against a Tiger defense with all hands on deck. It took a while to prove that, and the lack of TDs for either team had a crowd of VIPs at Midmeadow Lane on edge. North County took the kickoff and moved across midfield with the score 21-6, QB Nolan Reed looking to extend the game and keep the Raiders in it to the bitter end.
It took The Geek 3 quarters (and change) to figure out why Rickermann was playing such a cautious game, even “eating the ball” and refusing to throw check-downs across the hashes. Once Doyel – playing defensive back – defended another pass, the Black & Gold game plan came into full focus. Rickermann couldn’t play like a maniac. He was probably on the defensive depth chart somewhere. All of the Tigers’ focus was on shutting the Buccaneers down, to prevent a replay of the come-from-behind anxiety of Week 6. Did the pep squad figure it out when TGG did?
Maybe, maybe not, but that “Home 21” on the scoreboard seemed a mite low for a winning cause, considering only 8:00 remained in the scrum. Still, the dangerous Raiders happened to take a sack, and a penalty, and heck, maybe the defense could fool around and just win it right then.
Then the Raiders had 3rd and a mile to go. NCHS seemed uncertain of what plays to call, neglecting to switch into a hurry-up mode and letting valuable minutes tick by. Maybe the defense could just win it right then.
THEN THE RAIDERS HAD 4TH AND 9 YARDS TO GO, AND MAYBE THE DEFENSE COULD JUST WIN IT RIGHT THEN!!! Reed scrambled to his right and found a 1-on-1 match-up, but for once, Brian Jones’ coaching worked against Bonne Terre, as the junior threw a ball where only his WR could get to it. In the end, nobody could get to it, and Midmeadow Lane sighed with relief, only to be surprised yet again.
The top-string FHS offense marched onto the field, and began to execute a wide-open playbook with Doyel and Martin streaking up the turf. Black & Gold coaches had treated most of the District Final like an NFL game, content to sit on a 2-touchdown lead and dare an opponent to drive 80 yards. But in the final 3:00, Ofodile took a lesson from the greatest prep and NCAA skippers. When an opposing defense lets down and you can get a game over with, you get a game over with, no matter how little time remains on the clock.
After a terrific option play netted 30+ yards, Doyel got the game over with, by making a leaping grab of a Rickermann strike at the goal line, then accidentally finding his feet before standing in proud attention like Samus Aran from “Metroid” and handing the egg to a MSHSAA official.
Take that, Mother Brain.
They say that a QB is his coaches’ brains on the football field, and Cole Rickermann is as versatile as they come. Maybe that’s because his coaching staff can make like the Buffalo Bills for 45:00 and then turn suddenly into MSHSAA outlaws, blowing-up fireworks before the final gun sounds.
Buckle up, Union Wildcats. You’ve got a bunch of clever old dudes to deal with, on top of their 2-time champion charges in Black and Squint Yellow.
Jefferson 42, New Madrid County Central 20
Author’s note: The Geek has no idea how he got through this recap and didn’t write any copy like “It Was All New Madrid’s Fault,” or “Ott’s Tectonic TDs Shook New Madrid.” Some questions can never be answered. But the 2020 Jefferson Blue Jays answered any questions about whether JHS is here to stay as a pigskin power, just 8 short years into the countryside school’s Friday Night Lights campaign.Â
Call it the 61 Sweep.
With Fox already berthed in the C6 state bracket, it was up to Festus High and Jefferson High to complete the trifecta of District titles in Week 12. Like the FHS-NCHS meeting, the JHS-NMCC scrum also answered a key question fans of Tri-City football had been chatting about.
There is nothing wrong with Colby Ott that another 5, 6, or maybe 7 more touchdowns in the playoffs can’t fix.
New Madrid answered quickly when QB Drew Breeze found Ott for a 55-yard score in the 1st quarter. But the swift JHS rusher was on fire, scoring twice more in the 2nd frame, then adding 2 long 3rd-quarter runs for TDs to salt the trophy away. Alex Rouggly’s talisman ran for 163 yards, made 13 tackles on defense, and averaged almost 25 yards on 3 special-teams touches.
That’s called dominating a game on all 3 units. Ott was quiet in Week 11 with less than 10 touches, but like Coach Ofodile and the FHS Tiger staff, Blue Jay brass knows when to let up on the gas pedal when victory is otherwise assured. You didn’t need the upperclassman’s 16 carries to beat Kelly, but they sure came at a good time on Friday night.
MSHSAA records are incomplete and don’t go back far enough, but we can say for sure that Colby Ott notched new program records in Week 12. Neither of the Graves brothers ever scored 5 times in a playoff game, or a championship game of any sort. In fact, Ott was a bobbled downfield throw away from earning an amazing 6th TD as a passer vs New Madrid, on what Rouggly described to The Geek as a “halfback pass.” (There are no “halfbacks” in a Flexbone offense, so TGG assumes that the coach prefers saying “Halfback Pass” to “We asked an A or B-Back who was not the QB to attempt a pass.”)
As for the visitors, the Varsity Eagles threatened to mount a comeback every so often, but were snowed-under by the Jays’ yards and explosive snaps. The myth that an “old-fashioned” power offense (Jefferson’s playbook was authored 60 years after Curly Lambeau pioneered the Spread Offense) is not explosive is a product of selective media attention that draws notice when an unbeaten Flex team is beaten 12-7 in a championship game but ignores the numerous 55-14 victories on its ledger. No restricted group of fans had more fun than JHS supporters cheering a truly-explosive host offense on Friday, and a great many parents of Shotgun-Spread teams in MSHSAA sat sadly watching their QBs lurch-and-chuck all night with minimal success.
For instance, pundits will look at Breeze’s 3 completions on 4 passes, and think, “Them Blue Jays only know how to run.” But for those who have followed fierce 11-on-11 rushing teams like Fox and Jefferson, Breeze’s stat line says that Jefferson sure knows how to throw. 3 out of 4 for 101 yards and a TD? No need to look elsewhere on the box score. Eagle defense was too bamboozled to handle Midline Option and still get back to defend the downfield ball.
How prestigious is Jefferson High School’s maiden District crown? Did the school waltz through a bracket made easy by MSHSAA’s new promotion-system for division killers? No, not exactly. In fact, 2020 might have worked out a little tougher for Class 2 and Class 3 schools. Private-school promotions haven’t helped Herky avoid facing a bracket with Lutheran North, and COVID-thinned District fields only help bring into focus how deep the classifications have gotten. In layman’s terms, Jefferson hasn’t had it easy this year.
JHS lost only one conference game and would have gotten a “soft” Week 10 opponent in most circumstances. Instead, the Blue Jays faced rival St. Pius in a District QUARTERFINAL, then had to play a stiff Kelly side in Week 11. C2D1 was a wide-open tournament. Only the Blue Jays’ execution sewed it up.
Neither the Tigers, Warriors, or Blue Jays enjoy the kind of reputation Ladue enjoys in the MSHSAA playoffs. But it’s going to be a treat watching them try to build one.
Original By-Line Date: 11/10/20