The attitude of Missouri football programs toward storm-impacted games has changed more than once since most of us were kids. In 1991, the Herky Blackcats traveled to Festus to try to follow up on a terrific upset bid at Midmeadow Lane the previous year. The contest wasn’t especially close or captivating, as Festus won by a few more points than the margin of 1990’s squeaker. But when a sudden thunderstorm struck in the 2nd quarter, the Tigers and Blackcats simply huddled up in their respective locker rooms, using the time to administer game-plans and pep talks, and not acting too concerned about how long the cyclone needed to pass over. Quarter 4 finished at about 12:30 AM. “Both teams were determined to play,” HHS coach Stan Helms told reporters the next day.
Another old-time Herky tale is even more instructive. Later in the 1990s, The Geek witnessed an HHS-Fredericktown “Blackcats vs Blackcats” battle at Herculaneum’s field that was played under a sky filled with so much lightning, it was like a Christmas tree was up in the clouds illuminating the Dunklin smokestack. Concerned women went up to Tom Kavlick, the MSHSAA referee and Herky football fan (don’t worry, he threw so many flags on Herky that “Helms Yelling At Kavlick” became a catch-phrase) and asked if the event should be suspended during the lightning storm, for the safety of the crowd and 50+ “Blackcats” on the gridiron. Kavlick barely took notice of their worrisome frowns, while relaxing with his back against the bleachers. “Aww, it ain’t like it’s strikin’ the stadium, is it?” he said.
Then came the “politically correct” era of Y2K, and a separate batch of coaches who followed MSHSAA’s instructions to the letter of the law. If a game was 56-7 in the 4th quarter, and a storm struck the area, the teams would patiently wait on a “30-Minute Delay” that lasted all night, pack up and go home, and then come back to the field to play things out at the next available time. One of The Geek’s first Mississippi Conference assignments was a game that was already lopsided in the opening half, got suspended due to stormy weather, and finished on a weekday next to a (full) freshman contest between the same programs less than 4 days before they were due back on the field to play in the next “week”‘s action. We took it as a fact of life in a state that hurries its pigskin along in summer.
As of today, our football brands have become more like winter residents of New York City, just ignoring a weather crisis and getting on with life. If a slow-moving storm hits a Week 1 game that’s already in the 2nd or 3rd quarter, head coaches instantly start trying to think of ways to avoid having to deal with the rest of the scheduled contest, and get Week 2 in motion already. Teams now seem to think that their “worst case scenario” involves Week 1’s game getting dragged out to 1 AM, or (worse) having to finish on Saturday, Monday, or Tuesday. The ordeal of trying to stay focused on one opponent while preparing for Week 2’s rival at the same time is a nightmare. Admins of teams who trail when the storm strikes are willing to gamble that Week 1’s outcomes won’t mean all that much later.
Rolla gave up the ghost and agreed to let a 20-6 Festus lead turn into a final, even though 7:00 stood on the Game Clock. Grandview and Chaffee’s “weather suspension” turned into an even more surreal scene, as the CHS Red Devils piled onto their bus and got the heck out of Dodge (or at least Dittmer) in record time once the Grandview-Chaffee bout reached Quarter 4 with the score 21-2 in favor of the Birds of Prey. There was little talk of a restart, just quiet agreement that the score would stand. Chaffee’s coaches had to weigh their slim hopes of a comeback against the harm of an extended Week 1.
Then there’s Hillsboro and Country Day’s suspension of Week 1, which may or may not have actually ended the contest. More to come on the Hillsboro controversy from Labor Day weekend on scroll.
Photo Credit: Mary-Jo Koetting Nicks
Northwest 14, Sullivan 12
In some ways, Northwest’s upset of Sullivan is Jeff County’s biggest football story of the week. At least if you only count bouts that already went final on Friday, or on Thursday in Cedar Hill’s case. We’ve talked a lot about how the very top teams in the Power Poll have proven, absolutely, 100%, beyond a doubt and forevermore, that our Dirty Dozen is relevant in the Missouri landscape, and even in the national landscape if you look at the county’s football schedule in 2024. But as any coach will tell you, you’re only as good as your weakest link. Northwest-CH, a caboose of the JCPP for years running, the team that ran on a double-digit losing streak late into last season, hurled the first “lightning bolt” of Week 1 by knocking off a program that should have been in the 2023 state playoffs.
Northwest’s big Week 1 upset was like a mirror image of the “Water Works” game at Webster Groves (via Kirkwood) last season. In the Sullivan game, Northwest fell behind 0-12 by halftime, and it was easy to forget that Cedar Hill even played on Thursday instead of Friday (TGG did). You figured that a green, but well-organized Sullivan squad would continue to have its way on defense, and outclass the Lions again over 48:00. But the upstart fought back with multiple sacks in the 2nd half and a star turn from sophomore Cohenn Stark, who scored the winning TD and snagged 7 solo tackles. The Northwest Lions are visiting Mehlville in what should be no more of a chore of a potential winning road trip in Week 2. Just imagine if Cedar Hill comes home at 2-0! “Homecoming in July” indeed.
DeSoto 21, Freeburg 13
Thursday’s other “upset” final wasn’t really an upset, as The Geek simply got the 2024 forecast of each team wrong. We nailed DeSoto’s point total in the Friday Night Predictions, but totally whiffed on the fact that Thursday’s other Mississippi Magazine kickoff would be so old-fashioned, it was almost as if the heaviest Missouri rains had fallen a day early. Make no mistake, DeSoto’s offense has come a LONG way in a short time, and Coach Schmidt has erased any notion that he’s “not an X and O guy” by installing a fancy version of his Delaware Wing-T offense that set records at FHS. DeSoto’s debut was fantastic, and gives Joachim Junction a rare chance to go to 2-0. But don’t even ask TGG about Freeburg’s playbook and tactics, which were so one-dimensional and clumsy as to suggest a boarding school’s strategy, as opposed to an Illinois team coming off an 8-3 season and several big-time victories over Large Schools in 2023. DeSoto’s linemen take tons of credit for fighting off a strong, deep program with the kind of blockers Poplar Bluff suits up. On the flip side, the real Poplar Bluff plays like Poplar Bluff, not Missouri Military Academy, and can complete 2-in-5 passes on occasion.
Seckman 40, Parkway West 14
Seckman’s powerful opening win will impact the Festus Tigers’ debut slot in the 2024 Jefferson County Power Poll. Not because Festus didn’t beat Rolla for the full 48:00, but because for the second Week 1 in a row, the Seckman Jaguars let the Tri-State community know that there’s a Class 6 contender in place of the “Windsor 20, Seckman 19” lightweight that once dwelled in The Valley. Seckman compiled 400+ rush yards against a Parkway West program that licked Ladue 44-7 as late as fall of 2022. Better yet, SHS’s heroic field crew might just have it all ready to host Week 2’s scheduled showdown vs Fox.
Festus 20, Rolla 6 (4th Qtr, Win Awarded By Mutual Agreement)
Festus vs Rolla is an example of a bout that was never really “complete,” but is now settled and on the books as a Festus High win anyway. Festus was scatter-shot with the ball and fabulous without it, as a D-Line that appeared to be made of granite held Rolla to less than 5 non-penalty aided 1st downs, giving Essien Smith all the chances he needed to finally stack some TDs on the board. Midmeadow Lane’s defense made such a blistering statement in its 2024 debut that Rolla essentially gave up the effort right after scoring a long-bomb touchdown. The Rolla Bulldogs broke the shut-out on a TD pass just following a 45-minute lightning delay, then recovered a Smith fumble to retain the momentum. But the Tiger defense frustrated their next turn so badly that Rolla had 4th-and-forever near its own goal line when lightning appeared on the horizon again. Faced with scant chances of scoring 2 touchdowns, and a potentially costly stay-over in Tanglefoot until Saturday or Monday, Rolla chose to waive the final 7:00 and headed for home. It wasn’t pretty, but maybe Black & Gold’s defense wanted it that way. The FHS defensive line made a heavy-hitting Option offense look like The Citadel vs the SEC.
Grandview 21, Chaffee 2 (4th Qtr, Win Awarded By Mutual Agreement)
Did the Chaffee Red Devils leave at the first sign of a delayed game because they were embarrassed? We know how keyed-up and overwrought Chaffee’s underdog program can get about its opening few games, never the best idea when a team is looking to improve and find success any way that it can. CHS’s coaches should be savvy enough to know that last year’s Chaffee-Grandview matchup was very different than Friday night’s, as the ’23 Eagles were just trying to keep 11 healthy players on the field at that point, and Chaffee’s ’23 senior class was high on a feeding frenzy. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in losing by 3 or 4 touchdowns to a healthy Grandview host full of 225+ pound blockers and tacklers.
Besides, Chaffee’s lopsided focus on baseball should have had its coaches looking for a dugout with a tarp in it, instead of the team bus home. We hope that Chaffee’s eagerness to settle Week 1 was just part of Missouri’s overall trend, and not due to a temper tantrum at 19 points down.
Country Day 21, Hillsboro 14 (3rd Qtr, and No One Can Agree On Anything)
If anyone wonders why TGG has a soft spot for St. Pius X, it’s because a “privileged” private school isn’t really so privileged when it builds sports teams out of neighborhood kids. In fact, such programs take on the same burden as public-school rosters when they go up against the Cardinal Ritter-s and Country Day-s of the world, who can be found bringing in athletes from dozens of towns in St. Louis county. Hillsboro fielded a crew of neighborhood boys that took on the best private-school teams in the region last fall, and eventually triumphed with a watershed 34-12 win over Lutheran North in the Class 4 playoffs. Neutral spectators (and yes, Jeff County qualifies, since we have a private school smack in our midst) can still agree that with all the advantages STL’s less (by)law-abiding private campuses have in sports, the last thing anyone needs is for Missouri’s gridiron to hand them yet more advantages on Fridays. Like just deciding when a game is over, and deciding that they won.
That’s exactly what the Country Day Rams did at Hillsboro on Friday. Or, at least, it’s what they tried to do.
Country Day took a 21-0 lead into halftime at Leon Hall. Perhaps feeling overconfident (both of a win over Class 4, and of the temporarily fair weather), the Varsity Rams gave up a long run to Preston Brown. Then they gave up a long run to Chris Duncan. Suddenly, it was 21-14 for MICDS with scarcely half of Quarter 3 gone by, Blue & White’s crowd roaring to life with a football game finally on its hands. That’s when lightning finally appeared, and Leon Hall’s scurrying ticket buyers had to roll their eyes at MSHSAA’s standard “30 minutes” announcement. There’s almost never any football after the 30 minutes.
Hillsboro High was right in line with the slow-moving storms that suspended many Missouri games. There would be little opportunity to finish the scrum on Friday night. But when HHS’s administration talked to the MICDS coaches and admins during the lightning delay, they were told that Country Day expected the score to stand as a 7-point victory without playing another down. “Our players are going on vacation for Labor Day weekend, so we’re not available,” is the second-hand quote from MICDS that has been going around. It would have been appropriate for Country Day to ask to scrub Friday’s game off the ledger as a no-contest in that case, since the Rams were still leading by a touchdown. (Imagine a TRAILING coach saying, “You know what? Let’s call it a draw!” and you will understand why that factor is important.) It is not at all appropriate to walk away from a 21-14 scrum in the 3rd quarter and declare yourself the winner, as MICDS just did on Saturday morning.
Saturday of Week 1 came with the weirdest, freakiest MSHSAA scoreboard info that anyone’s ever seen. Country Day self-reported the night as a “21-14” win on its schedule, and listed itself as “1-0” and co-leading Class 5, District 3 alongside Chaminade, McCluer, and Hazelwood East. Hillsboro was diplomatic in response but held its ground, putting out a statement to explain the rare circumstances and describing the status of the game as in-flux. Bill Sucharski chose to list the Country Day game as a “0-0” tie on his team’s own schedule page. Then came the real shocker on Saturday afternoon. Without a statement to go with the move, MSHSAA (or somebody) changed the site’s official – and presumably Bonne Terre supervised – scoreboard to read “Hillsboro 13, MICDS 0” – FORFEIT.
Has any league’s official site ever listed 3 different win/loss/tie outcomes from the same game??? Heck, it’s hard enough to find examples of 2 different win/loss outcomes reported. We’re sure that the Stanford Cardinal called it a “win” when that infamous Marching Band interference play gave Cal a victory in The Big Game, and there’s the iconic “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29,” but that’s about it. Whispers have persisted that HHS could convince Country Day to show up and play on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, but that looks like a pipe dream at this point. MSHSAA has an important ruling to make.
There is a chance that MSHSAA has simply forfeited Country Day in Week 1 for its actions. It would be the simplest way to explain “Hillsboro 13-0 (F)” appearing on the state scoreboard. Without adding more negativity to a controversial summer in local pigskin, The Geek will proudly say that’s exactly the right decision for MSHSAA to make, IF the Country Day Rams have really refused to play out the Hillsboro game on any day, and tried to hand themselves an official victory for (barely) winning 31:00. It would certainly send a message to any and every school not to try that kind of a stunt and expect a clean W.
The trouble with a loss becoming a tie becoming a forfeit-win is that the process may be distracting well into Week 2, the very thing that all riverside prep teams appear to be trying to avoid like the plague each summer. Hillsboro, at 1-0 or 0-0 or 0-1 or whatever it is, must begin preparing for SLUH instead of worrying about MICDS. Otherwise, Week 2 may have a far less debatable outcome.
Windsor 22, Herculaneum 21
Let’s stop treating the Albino Birds like an afterthought in the drama of Jefferson County pigskin. Every so often, Windsor plays in a game that not only stands as the week’s most thrilling finish, but which can mark a critical inflection point for 2 local teams trying to find their identities. Windsor and Seckman played a “Battle of Imperial” in 2019 that ended with Windsor prevailing 20-19 in controversial fashion, and Seckman coach Nick Baer screaming at MSHSAA’s referees while (simultaneously) trying to keep his inconsolable Varsity Jaguars from threatening them.
No one from Herky – that we know of – contemplated throwing fists with a referee on Friday. Otherwise, though, the finish at Blackcat Drive couldn’t help but remind spectators of 2019’s Windsor vs Seckman finish, in which nobody could agree whether Seckman’s last attempt at a scoring drive was ripped-off or simply botched.
Windsor’s winning TD on Friday night – scored with 0:01 left to give head coach Lee Freeman’s new squad a surprise 1-0 record – was hardly a ball-spiking type of touchdown. Windsor’s running back Landen Robbins dove into the goal line (not so much “over” the goal line) like he had contempt for it, and Blackcat coaches ran onto the field screaming that A) Robbins’ knee went down short of the line, and B) that HC Blane Boss had called a time-out before Windsor snapped. Calling a T/O with under :05 left would have been a smart move from Coach Boss, no doubt, since Freeman had passed on his final time-out in an effort to catch Herky’s defense in a package he preferred. If Dunklin had gotten its time-out before the play, Windsor would have simply let 15 seconds off the clock for nothing. But there’s Video Review to be found in Missouri prep football.
Windsor pigskin sank into the sand of Rock Creek after winning 2019’s barnburner. Seckman, the “loser,” turned into a winner. 5 years later, WHS has a chance to make that episode right by honest-to-goodness building on Week 1’s momentum.
Caruthersville 41, St. Pius X 20
2024’s freshman backup Evan Eckrich HAS A FUTURE as the starting QB at St. Pius X. That is all, for now.
(The Geek considered whether it was kosher to give SPX Football a one-liner on such a momentous weekend as the Lancers’ first foray into independent status. Then he recalled that history’s shortest (published) poem is actually very good, and makes a righteous point about how everyone is always equal in important ways. All 9 letters of the poem are found below.)
“Fleas”
Adam had ’em.
Sikeston 29, Crystal City 18
It’s one thing to build a roster of 24 players, it’s another to get them all to the starting blocks for Week 1. Crystal City took the field with only 16 kids dressed out on Friday night, blowing an early lead thanks to fatigue and mental errors in midgame, and having a late comeback bid fall short when the defense and special teams ran out of gas. It seems that CCHS’s crazy number of incoming transfers, totaling 7 or 8 defending on whether you count Jacob Loveless as “incoming,” led to a scenario in which Week 1’s Hornets didn’t have enough all-together practices logged for Coach Sims to put his full roster, or anything close to it, in uniform. Crystal City clowned any idea that the C1 school “shouldn’t be scheduling Class 4,” in fact a Class 1 lineup-of-16 walking onto a campus like Sikeston’s, and taking a 12-0 lead, is remarkable. Sims, however, must do everything he can to cobble together a roster that exceeds TGG’s waterline of 17 Iron Man players, before rival Louisiana visits for a Week 2 tilt.
Fox 34, Mehlville 6
If the Fox Warriors weren’t such a ball-control team, we’d probably have to criticize them for not being able to Turbo Clock the Mehlville Panthers in 48:00. Brent Tinker is probably “tinking” in Fox’s coaches’ lounge (if there’s a dry one) with a celebratory iced coffee, though, given that Fox and Mehlville actually played 48 damned minutes on Friday. Not every pair was so lucky.
Jefferson 33, Priory 16 (Saturday)
Jefferson was trailing Priory 13-7 at halftime, but made great blocking adjustments at halftime, leading to a series of long Blue Jay rushes and the coup-de-grace from Cooper Frisk with about 16:00 to go on Saturday. JHS goes into Week 2 against a championship Park Hills team that looks less invincible after posting merely a 22-13 win over modest Owensville High.