Seckman 41, Hazelwood West 7 (Thursday)
A helpful report from Ray Halbrook of Live Stream STL this Friday pointed out that MSHSAA’s sudden rash of Thursday games is caused in-part by a shortage of referees. With enough programs who are happy to play (and enough Frosh teams who’re happy to reschedule), Thursday scrums are a solution to Missouri’s referee-shortage problem that comes with fringe benefits. Referees who study all year to screw up Crystal City’s calls – AHEM – refs who study all year to work on Fridays-only are glad to get the extra paycheck. Coaches whose games are on Thursday or Saturday are pleased to catch live action at their leisure for a change.
But if Seckman’s defense stays as good as its stayed for a long time, MSHSAA may have to take phone calls from administrators who’re angry about playing on Friday, then having to play Seckman with 24-hours-less recovery time after the Jaguars play on a Thursday. The fury inflicted by a 6-days-prepared Seckman defense is bad enough! What’s more, our referees who are working double-duty could get lazy and start making Imperial’s rivals punt the ball on 1st down. It’s gonna happen anyway, so why not?
SHS gave up a 95-yard bomb for a TD against Hazelwood West in the 2nd quarter. That one play accounts for 1/3 of Hazelwood’s total offense on Thursday, and over half of the Wildcats’ yardage outside of trash-time late in the contest. The 95-yard touchdown allowed gives HC Nick Baer a talking point for Jaguars practice in Week 9, since Pattonville High manufactured a couple of home-run touchdowns against Seckman this season as well. But those TDs also highlight the fact that no opposing offense has pierced Seckman for a meaningful scoring drive in CONSECUTIVE REGULAR SEASONS. Seckman hasn’t given up more than 2 scores within the same 48:00 of a 9-game campaign since Valle University scored its first-ever consolation points this side of Lamar High School. That was Week 1 of 2023, by the way. Seckman’s sack leader Lukaus Steinnerd (not everyone gets a name like “Don Draper”) was one of 4 Jaguars to bring down Hazelwood West QB Jabari Lofton, who was intercepted twice by the Jags.
Imperial’s offense had another slow start, and sloppy episodes trying to pass the bean. Funny part is that Seckman was still blowing-out another Suburban League host by halftime, as The Valley secures another conference title in a race that’s become academic, so long as Seckman doesn’t have to erase Eureka, Fox, and Pattonville in the same schedule. That’s how it goes when you’ve got a defense so powerful, it can just whitewash mistakes, and set its offense up for success as if it’s teeing-off with 100 Mulligans.
Northwest 42, Parkway Central 0 (Thursday)
Cedar Hill swims up to .500 as the Lions’ QB controversy is rendered a moot point in Week 8. Cohenn Stark did a solid job of tapping a “gimme” of a win that was sealed by 5 Northwest interceptions. Oakville, the school that Northwest-CH absolutely must beat to make a Week 11 berth into reality, scored a 35-14 victory over Webster Groves in Week 8 that kept the Tigers at #4 for now. However, the WGHS Statesmen’s pass blocking is a wreck, and they fell to Mehlville 2 weeks ago in a massive let-down that prompted a losing streak. We still think the timing is right for NHS to snag that all-important win over Oakville this Friday.
Festus 34, Farmington 0
It’s time to recalibrate just who the Festus Tigers are in 2024. Friday’s win on rival turf showed once again that Midmeadow Lane’s offense is explosive, dynamic, and fun to watch this year. But the FHS defense? Oh, Lordy. This defense is something special.
Our Friday Night Predictions have been nailing Festus R-6’s point totals while underestimating Black & Gold’s tacklers almost every time. That stops now. Farmington, which gained less than 200 yards against the 7-1 Varsity Tigers, actually came closer to earning its forecasted point total against Mason Schirmer’s unit than any other midseason foe, but the Festus Tigers made glorious Red Zone stands to preserve a shut-out in both halves of play. We can’t always count on Festus High to produce a 20-0 edge early in a contest, or on Leuntae Williams to live as large as the senior tailback just did, with 150+ yards and electrifying TDs on the Black Knights’ home turf. But a school record-setting defense makes R-6’s touchdowns more valuable than other teams’ touchdowns. Farmington was far-afield from its game plan as soon as the scoreboard went wrong, and a ball-control W wasn’t in the cards.
Farmington’s head coach Erik Kruppe was expected to bemoan the Black Knights’ missed goal-line chances after the loss. Instead, he praised Farmington’s kids for not losing 60-0. That was the most eye-opening part of Friday night insofar as the Black & Gold is concerned. Here was a Class 5 District contender that wasn’t upset about its offense not punching-in rush TDs against Midmeadow Lane, in fact, they were just happy to reach the 1-yard line in the first place! Folks may or may not be watching the #1 Festus team ever, but we’re almost certainly having a look at R-6’s best defense since the 1950s, with due respect to Bob Hollmann’s lineups.
Baylor 48, St. Pius 7
Wow. WOW. WOWZA! The St. Pius Lancers traveled about 12,463 miles to play the #19 ranked team on MaxPreps on Friday, and found a way to outplay their Friday Night Prediction by 43 points, while earning a “Rocky Balboa” level of respect from one of the hippest Varsity Football crowds that The Gridiron Geek has ever seen. Homecoming at Baylor was great for 2 teams, not one.
St. Pius the Tenth had 10+ good reasons not to schedule a scrum it couldn’t win. Frank Ray ignored all of them and took a Moon-shot by taking the Lancers to see Tennessee’s champs, and the outcome was an outbreak of pure joy. Baylor was glad to play all of its strings of young college prospects at Homecoming, but each of the Red Raiders’ squads had to work harder than we anticipated. The Geek’s “84-0” prediction for Baylor wasn’t a practical joke – it was based on Baylor’s top 22 kids scoring TDs every 2-3 minutes, like Valle against Grandview in the 2010s, to build about a 63-0 lead prior to a 2nd half in which Baylor’s sophomores would be sure to outscore St. Pius too. Instead, in one of Jefferson County’s true displays of courage on the gridiron, Danny Degeare’s offense gritted its teeth, mounted a late drive, and scored a TD that provoked a long, heartfelt standing ovation from Baylor’s absolute sweetheart of a Homecoming crowd. It was like Rocky fighting in Moscow, except that Ivan Drago & friends were nice guys.
Nothing’s perfect. 5 minutes or so at the start of Friday’s gala made it look like Baylor had that “100-0” scoreboard in its sights. SPX couldn’t stop Baylor’s starting QB Briggs Cherry on easy mid-range passes, and the Red Raiders scored their first 2 touchdowns as expected. Then the Lancers fumbled a pitch deep in their own territory, and the score was 0-21 in a flash. Make no mistake, people who were unfortunate enough to have taken Mississippi Magazine’s score-pick seriously had to be facepalming while watching the YouTube from Baylor. 21-0 right away?! Was the “84-0” pick conservative, not crazy? How would St. Pius avoid embarrassment?
Facing another quarter-and-a-half against Baylor’s amazing seniors, the Varsity Lancers minted a respectable final score with equal parts caution, daring, and guts. It wasn’t long before St. Pius had local viewers’ eyes bulging and their heart-rates increasing, when Degeare’s offense m-m-mounted a drive to midfield against Baylor’s s-s-senior roster! Degeare found an open WR (another miracle) and drew what looked to be a clear Pass-Interference call at the 45-yard line, but the officials called a foul on the pass-rusher while whiffing on the other one. St. Pius then earned another 1st down with one of those short-yardage rushes that we hoped they would have. Baylor’s scoring slowed down after that. The Red Raiders even ran out of time trying to build a prohibitive 45-point lead by halftime. Degeare was so effective against the Baylor first string that his best carry was foiled by the officials missing the fake, whistling for a 1-yard run on what was really another nice gain across midfield. Baylor scored just 14 points in a 14:00 span.
Hill Valley’s fledgling squad managed to keep the 3rd quarter scoreboard 0-0. When the Lancers’ fine quarterback leaped over the pylon to outscore Baylor 7-6 in the final frame, Degeare didn’t get a “golf clap” from the Baylor crowd. Baylor’s kids, whose wholesome party vibe was one of the coolest things anyone could watch on YouTube last Friday evening, gave Degeare and 2024’s Lancers a REAL standing-O that endured a long time, and it blended with the cheers of the brave boosters who followed the Jefferson County team into old-time SEC pigskin country. Baylor does not have a home-and-home commitment with SPX after all, but the Baylor School faculty was so pleased with St. Pius that they’re still invited Hill Valley back for another scrum soon. That opening 5:00 was ugly, yet the Lancers spent 43:00 learning how to play ball – successfully! – vs Varsity kingpins of the south.
Friday’s event drove home the point that “punished” Hill Valley is having MORE FUN than any team that’s still welcome in the JCAA, like a child who was told she had to “stay inside” and play in Elon Musk’s house. Prior to the 4th quarter, the Baylor Red Raiders had ALL of the lights in the stadium cut, while the Homecoming crowd lit candles and held on to miniature Chinese Lantern lights. Soon, a light show commenced in which Baylor’s bulb towers were made to look like those “Doo-Doo-DOO-Doo-DOOOOO” spaceship communication lights from Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” You don’t get that when visiting Bayless.
JCAA administrators – while politely removing the darts from The Geek’s photo on their wall – would say that they don’t have the budget for that kind of Friday Night Lights fanfare. But the Red Raiders did not utilize a Steven Spielberg budget on Homecoming Night. The live stream was commentated by 2 Baylor School alumni and was directed by AI instead of a real person, which you could tell because of the constant butting-in of Green Screen shots of the players, which gave the YouTube the flavor of a shoestring ice hockey or basketball broadcast out of Europe. (Regional Radio spent more $$$ on a live crew for Valle U.’s games on occasion.) Meanwhile, gels for coloring your field’s stage lights cost about $23 for a pack at Hobby Lobby.
Baylor’s infinitely great vibes (and its football excellence) aren’t produced by SEC-level fundraising dollars but through love and dedication. That’s a more important key than any football lesson the St. Pius Lancers brought home with them.
St. Vincent 42, Grandview 20
St. Vincent is fast becoming the local team that everyone’s bound to be cheering against, unless they’re from Perryville. On the other hand, maybe we should all be cheering – HARD – for the St. Vincent Indians to keep dominating. It depends on how you look at it.
St. Vinny’s just wiped out Grandview’s hope for a 6-3 season, and it’s probably going to wipe Class 1, District 1 off the scoreboard too. But if that happens, the Indians’ status as a private-campus program will cause Tim Schumer’s squad to get promoted out of Class 1, and perhaps even all the way to Class 3, thanks to St. Vincent already having won a District title last November. If you’re skeptical of your Alma Mater’s chance to win a District championship in Class 1 or Class 2 *right away* – but you’re optimistic for 2024’s prodigal class of freshmen or sophomores – then it’s good to cheer for St. Vincent to win another Show-Me Bowl title on behalf of a neighboring county. It’d be great for Perryville kids…but it would get St. Vincent out of everyone’s hair for a minute.
Parkway North 35, Fox 14
Jude Pribish is finally getting on track late in the season, rushing for over 100 yards to lead the FHS Warriors against Parkway North. For the rest of this week’s recap, though, just see any Fox recap from a scrum against a slight favorite over the past 3 seasons. We’re getting tired of seeing these scores, especially with Arnold’s offensive backfield actually starting to click.
Chaminade and St. Genevieve 107, Hillsboro and Jefferson 56
2 proud local defenses are coming apart at the seams. It’s a mystery to this reporter in both schools’ cases. We can’t believe that Preston Brown, for all his skills, was so phenomenal at safety and cornerback for Hillsboro in 2024 that it made the difference between a really good defense and a lousy one. Likewise, it’s tough to fathom a Jefferson unit led by Landon Weiss, and manned by JHS blockers who ARE winning the line-of-scrimmage on many turns with the offense, are losing in the trenches so drastically when on ‘D. It’s too much to chew on with Sunday morning breakfast, so we’ll wait to focus the ‘scope in Week 8’s Power Poll.
Scotland County 44, Crystal City 20
Crystal City’s regular season is a mirror image of that “cheering for St. Vincent” deal in the 2024 playoffs. You want the Varsity Hornets to win games, just for the experiences, and not to fall short with stiff legs like in Friday’s long trip northward. But it’s undeniable that Crystal’s current slot in the District playoff standings is a sweetie, giving the team a best-chance to eliminate an adversary in Week 11 and play on Championship Weekend. The currently #3 seeded Van-Far Indians have endured a couple of “circumstantial” losses of their own in ’24 despite going 6-2 versus an easier schedule, and must avoid their own loss to SCHS in Week 9 to have hopes of hosting instead of visiting Crystal City in a probable District semifinal showdown on November 15th.
DeSoto 20, Potosi 13
Woo-Hoo again! Let’s all yodel for the DeSoto Dragons getting to 4-4, and likely to 5-4 for the first time in what feels like forever, thanks to Herculaneum backing right back up into its slump against Perryville on Saturday. North County seems like a potentially lethal District matchup for DeSoto again after clobbering St. Clair to regain the Raiders’ footing, but there are scenarios in which DeSoto can win again in Week 9 and still seed #6 for a matchup against Perryville or Hillsboro. The former opponent would be welcome as an overrated host that the Varsity Dragons could drub with a good performance; the second would be cool simply because Hillsboro and DeSoto had such a cathartic time playing each other in Week 7’s comeback win for the HHS Hawks.
Fredericktown 41, Windsor 38
Grandview’s captains from last year can tell Windsor about the syndrome it’s going through now. “Grandview 2023” syndrome is about being good enough to mount thrilling comebacks on all kinds of good teams, but not being able to finish one. Lee Freeman’s first-year staff must be gnashing its teeth over the Owls playing up-and-down to the level of their opponents, now losing by more points in Week 8 than in Week 7, to a fading Fredericktown unit that Week 7’s foe North County would romp by 5 TDs.
Maybe the Albino Birds are the next local team that should go play Baylor School, Chicago St. Ignatius, or Phenix City for its Homecoming. Windsor has gotten to the point where it can count on hanging around but not winning, no matter how good or bad the opponent plays. The famous Homecoming host would get a guaranteed-in-advance victory, and Windsor High would get a final score with only a 3-point losing margin to show off. Until a week later, when Windsor would lose by 3 to Sweet Springs.
Perryville 49, Herculaneum 8
The Geek knows that Herky’s on a downturn, knows that HC Blane Boss probably needs to go after Week 10, and understands Perryville’s advantage in numbers on the gridiron as a “Kevin Nash in the Midget Division” conference bid. But surely, every single awesome team in our blog’s prestigious Dirty Dozen can get closer to Perryville’s score than St. Pius got to Baylor’s score. Right?
Let’s hope it’s not a curse from green uniforms. Week 9, and the JCTV Bowl with DeSoto, is right around the bend.