Seckman 21, Fox 14 (OT)
It was, by any definition, one of the greatest games ever played in Jefferson County. Seckman and Fox’s overtime drama was as thrilling and suspenseful as Hillsboro’s overtime title tilt with Cape Girardeau Central, Herky’s fabled overtime with Warrenton, and the Great Two-Point Conversion Incident on JCTV. There’s no point in a frame-by-frame recap on Mississippi Magazine. The epic contest ran without a hitch and free-of-charge on MSHSAA TV (Progress!), after which Live Stream STL produced a terrific recap of Chance Ruble’s winning TD, and the surreal drama that came before it.
It’s conventional to cover the “Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat” after a fight like Friday’s. We’re obliged to laud Seckman, first and foremost, as the gold standard of the Suburban League race, a team that just showed that it could rebound from a heartbreaker of its own to deal the same kind of defeat to a crosstown rival. Seckman, of all teams in the Dirty Dozen, proved that it could do whatever it took to win a seemingly unwinnable game. Arnold’s brave boys, much to The Gridiron Geek’s surprise, had had the Varsity Jaguars dead-to-rights with time running out in the fourth quarter.
But since so many people reading this recap did witness the battle, you know that’s not the biggest story. You know that the story is Fox fumbling on the 3-yard line with seconds to go and a chance to win with any kind of a score. That’s the hopeless scenario that the Jaguars miracled their way out of to prevail 21-14, in a case of one of The Geek’s predictions (“21-10”) being as wrong as wrong could be while superficially getting the score about right.
How is Fox High School going to grow from this? Will losing to Seckman the way the Warriors did set an otherwise-solid Fox team spiraling down again? It’s possible. The Warriors had to feel like they had it made in the ebbing moments of regulation, flying up the gridiron to threaten what would have been the scrum’s third TD in essentially the final 2:00. Brody Kube’s tying touchdown pass had made the QB into Imperial’s hero for the time being, but head coach Nick Baer chose to kick an extra point and leave the score deadlocked. It was Fox quarterback Chandler Price’s contest again. The signal-caller continued finding seams in the Seckman defense that neither team knew existed, passing the 100-yard mark to easily lead all rushers on the evening. That good vibe capitulated n an instant when Price was stripped at the 3-yard line on what might have been the winning TD run, leading Seckman to recover in the end zone, take the gladdest “knee” that the Jaguars have ever experienced, and outlast Fox 7 points to 0 in the Single OT round.
Can Price recover, along with his teammates, from the emotional shock of that costly fumble? In case #17 is reading this, or in case it gets back to him, The Geek has some information that might help. Don’t worry, it won’t cause issues with Fox’s faculty in charge, because there’s so much more praise than criticism to go around for those folks in Week 3. It’s just their fault that Price fumbled, and we hope they have admitted as much to their QB.
Price never should’ve been going for a TD in that situation. No one should have been going for the TD. Price should have been asked to “center” the pigskin between the Hash Marks, and Fox’s kicker Adin Dukic should’ve been asked to kick a routine “XP” through the uprights. Fox wins 17-14 with 0:00 on the clock that way. Easy-Peezy-Japanese-y. Yes, it’s “High School” and kicking games are often shaky … but heck, Fox had already made two XPs.
If Arnold’s fans ever thought it was “boring” when a team wins that way, they don’t anymore after Friday night. Why go for the TD when your kicking team is reliable from the 10-yard line? There’s always what John Madden said about letting the Oakland Raiders try for a “Plan A” TD in a tied ballgame with time running out, reasoning that if his Raiders didn’t cross the goal line and win the game in that way, then there was always the field goal as a backup. But coaches have learned since then that since no small lead is safe with any time left on the clock, the best idea is to use the clock as your weapon and score FG to win after it’s been drained. We suspect Fox’s coaches thought “it’s High School” when they erred not giving Dukic a gimme to win it.
Fox didn’t need 7 points to win. It only needed 3 points. Brent Tinker has more to answer for than Price, or any Fox athlete who fouled up.
Good news for quarterbacks and everyone: Fox’s coaches, admins, and boosters have come through Friday’s gut-wrenching loss SHINING as brightly as The Geek has ever seen them. The great things that the grown-ups are bringing to Fox’s new season will eventually be worth every bit of making you fumble on an unnecessary play in one game. Fox has turned its Dark Match syndrome of letting games happen without fanfare 100% around this campaign. FHS is streaming, hyping, and putting on “Close Encounters” light shows that rival those of Baylor School after the Warriors’ scores. Thousands lined up in the stands and in standing-room sections for Fox vs Seckman, but it wasn’t because Fox had hidden the video offline.
Fox actually worked with Seckman to promote Friday’s game so successfully. The teams were sharing each other’s Facebook posts! Fox and Seckman each ran social media tributes to the Single-OT fracas on the morning after. Seckman had that kind of fanfare in 2024; Fox didn’t have it. Guess what? Arnold’s squad looks tons improved now that it’s not toiling in the dark. It’s no coincidence, and it doesn’t make a brutally physical team less macho.
For Kube and the 1-1 Seckman Jaguars, the season’s first two weeks have been an education in one very critical fact. The Suburban League is no longer a cupcake, no matter what kind of schedule the conference color-code sets you up with. Seckman began by facing a Missouri State quarterback in Week 1, before traveling to face such a furious rival on its home turf. This coming week, the Jaguars have to play host to the Northwest Lions, an exciting Suburban League upstart that has scored 116 points in 96:00 so far. Whew! It’s never been quite this challenging for Seckman in the Suburban.
A difficult regular-season slate creates more roadblocks for a team that’s used to going 9-0. On the contrary, maybe a tougher schedule is what the Jaguars need to develop more confidence versus elite players. Jackson’s harder slate gives it an edge over Seckman in seasoning when the familiar favorite-and-underdog meet in the District playoffs. That advantage could go away now, thanks to the best “seasoning” the Jags could’ve imagined.
Park Hills Central 21, Jefferson 20 (OT)
This was the night’s “quiet” heartbreaker, and we don’t even get to celebrate a Dirty Dozen opponent having won in the overtime. Jefferson’s defense made a statement by almost completely shutting down the 2023 Show-Me Bowl champions of Park Hills Central in the first half, persevering through their own struggle to advance the egg with the help of QB Cooper Frisk’s mighty dual-threat. Like the Fox Warriors, the Jefferson Blue Jays seemed to have things going their way with the score tied 14-14, after Frisk found Noah Buehler for an amazing catch-and-run down to the 7 yard-line to set up the opening touchdown of OT. Head coach Matt Atley also decided against kicking the ball, trying for a weird 2-point conversion attempt to go up 22-14 and press the advantage even though it is the team with the ball last that has the real advantage in a scholastic OT period. Once the JHS conversion try turned into a fumble (and a circus), Park Hills quarterback found August Black wide open on a blown coverage, allowing Central to escape 21-20.
DeSoto’s head coach Russ Schmidt has tried to tell the entire Dirty Dozen that they need better kicking games, kicking games that they can feel secure in at all times when the clock is running down. There’s a reason. If Fox and Jefferson hadn’t abandoned their special teams to try to pile-up points that they probably didn’t even need, in regulation and in OT on Friday, you might be reading a very, very different “Week 2 Scores & Analysis” from TGG.
DeSoto 31, Perryville 14
Speak of the devil – or the Avenging Angel who’s giving DeSoto new life as a head coach and CEO. DeSoto handily beats a Perryville team that was 1-0 after a 35-21 defeat of Not-Your-Mamas-Fredericktown in Week 1. In fact, Perryville’s first win of ’25 wasn’t all that different from the DeSoto Dragons’ own recent victory over Fredericktown, which tells us that the Green Gang has grown leaps-and-bounds since October. Moreover, you can imagine Perryville and Freeburg having a pretty tight game this season (Barrett Wheeler versus the Tush Push!), which tells TGG that DeSoto has been developing a lot between Week 1 and Week 3, as Schmidt makes another idealistic trope (“improve the most after Week 1”) reality at DHS.
Mississippi Magazine might just have to favor DeSoto over North County in Week 3, no matter what Smilin’ Jack from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tells us about year-over-year results. NCHS is off to an even worse start than we expected from a brand that waved bye to four award-winning senior linemen.
Herculaneum 28, Fredericktown 0
Look, the Fredericktown Blackcats have an identity problem sometimes. Head coaches from Fredericktown have confessed in public how hard it is to get the FHS Blackcats organized for OTAs, and scrabble together the same type of lineup that they had thought was making progress the previous season. Fredericktown is 0-2 at this moment, so we can’t overreact to what any team has done against FHS so far, even a team from Mississippi Magazine.
But … wow. Wow. WOWZA! The Herculaneum Blackcats stunned everybody with their commanding 28-0 win over Fredericktown. Herky mowed down the visitors with a 300-yard rushing offense, QB Keaton Reeves leading the effort as an Iron Man with 16 carries and 4 tackles. Clark Struckhoff’s lack of a prodigious night on defense alongside Reeves is actually great news for a Dunklin team that has lacked numbers and consistent effort from body-to-body as losses have piled up in the past few years. Herky’s defense is playing enthusiastic football again as a proud unit of 15-20 rotating players.
Herculaneum is out of the cellar of the Jefferson County Power Poll. In fact, The Geek might have to rank Dunklin among the Top 10 in Week 3.
The Geek was impressed that HHS head coach Blane Boss treated his postgame calls like any other postgame, not calling out this publication or any other for a whole offseason spent telling Herky to move on from the HC. It would have been understandable if Boss said something like, “We know this Fredericktown that we just blew out is tougher than the one Herky used to blow out, but some folks just aren’t aware of these things, like The Gridiron Geek who I could mention, but I won’t.” Boss didn’t even boast “We like being the underdogs” or anything like that. Boss appears to sense that the consistency of his team’s effort is based first-and-foremost on his example of consistency and effort, instead of barking at them to do what the administrators aren’t willing to do when it comes to being the same people 24/7. Herky needs nine-or-ten refills of Boss’ more humble turn.
Northwest 62, Mehlville 24
Northwest’s offense is everything that we thought it would be, and the bigger, stronger Lions are blowing people off of the football too. Northwest plowed into the Mehlville Panthers’ improving defense with equal parts fury and patience, breaking down MHS all over the gridiron before Northwest’s star QB Cohenn Stark produced a “Hat Trick” of three consecutive rushing TDs to help switch the Turbo Clock on for Northwest in the second half. It turned into Northwest’s second straight mercy-rule victory following Week 1’s first Turbo Clock of practically a generation in Cedar Hill football, if we don’t count a brief, anxious Turbo Clock request from the referees in the watershed win over Mehlville late in 2023 that has been followed by a 7-4 run of success.
Of course, the Northwest defense looked bad compared to Fox’s great effort against Mehlville in Week 1. Northwest’s defense has been among our least consistent units to report on at Mississippi Magazine, having looked great last summer, halfway good against teams like Webster Groves on the solstice, and finally blowing a total gasket in the Fox game as the leaves began turning. NHS’s defense ought to be the lead question-mark headline for Week 3.
The Geek’s got a bigger riddle to solve, though. Does head coach Scott Gerling have an issue with Stark? We asked this question last year and got no definitive answer as the HC went with an injured quarterback in place of Stark for several defeats. In Friday night’s postgame, Gerling was asked about his QB’s amazing Week 2 that included a 10-for-13 mark in pass accuracy. Gerling, as he has done in the past when Cohenn’s name comes up, did the “three second pause” that people recognize if they ever tried to ask the wrong person to a Homecoming dance and they picked up your call by mistake. (“Is there a way out of this? Nope, I’d better say something.”) Gerling spoon-fed praise to the Cedar Hill signal-caller who has just dominated two games straight, giving it “he had a good game, but we had some others who did too” before moving on as fast as possible. It’s the same routine we got when Stark couldn’t get into the starting role after shining on the field in 2024. What the heck? If Gerling resents Stark’s success at the helm or if there’s vinegar between coach and QB, they need to set their baloney aside NOW. The Lions will play their most important tilt of the 2020s in five days.
Festus 35, Francis Howell Central 7
A golden age of Jefferson County quarterbacks is upon us. Nobody should look that Gift Horse in the mouth. The Geek is afraid that Parker Perry’s excellent 2025 season will be overlooked, at least in the early going, because the Festus Tigers defense has continued to play so well that it makes a lot of FHS games boring to watch – in a weird way and only temporarily. It’s never boring to watch Perry’s offense, which jumped all over the demoralized Spartans of Francis Howell Central following David Russell’s awesome Pick-6 put the Black & Gold on the board in Quarter 1. It’s just boring when opponents get the football back, because you can turn the stream off for a while and think “they won’t be going anywhere.” (They usually aren’t.)
As usual, we’ll get more stats on the Festus defense once Coach Sardo’s staff gets around to uploading them. We can’t complain about the job Ox is doing with a defense that turned over 75% of its top-line depth chart going into 2025. It’s a total turnaround from FHS’s defensive woes of 2021-22.
Louisiana 34, Crystal City 16
For a second time in three years, the referees blatantly rip off a likely Crystal City win in Louisiana. The “scoreboard doesn’t tell the story” theme applies in the sense that CCHS was down 20-16 and driving to win when a fumble was called in the pile, one of the many, many questionable calls that made Friday’s scoreboard tell a bigger fib than even “20-16” would imply. It was as close to a rigged game as a set of Pike County referees could make it.
Think that The Geek is looking at Week 2’s loss through Hornet-Red colored shades? Maybe you haven’t seen the footage. Louisiana’s sophomore QB A.J. “Buy a Vowel” Gschwender was allowed to throw two, maybe three Illegal Forward Passes in the first half. One was on an option play where he just tossed the ball forward at Louisiana’s running back, who caught it and ran another 20 yards. By that time, the referees allowed themselves to be worked by the Louisiana coach (!!!) who ranted and raved as if Crystal City was getting all the breaks. A CCHS rusher was thrown yards across midfield on a Horse Collar tackle. No flag. On the next Louisiana drive, a Hornet tackler dove over the top of a rusher with his arms spread wide – not the easiest method of making a “flagrant facemask.” The official chucked a flag in his face like it was a Dodge Ball and gave Louisiana a first down and goal.
Louisiana’s winning TD came on a holding infraction so blatant that the arm of the Crystal City tackler’s jersey could have been torn off. It happened right in the open field, close to the developing play, exactly in front of the referee. It looked like a good touchdown to him, 21-and-a-half intact jerseys and all.
Coach Collins didn’t think Crystal City fumbled on that drive for the win either, though it wouldn’t have had to be a last-ditch drive-for-the-win scenario if LHS had simply been called on its many infractions, and if there wasn’t a clear bias in favor of the rural team just as there was when Camden Mayes’ TD was conveniently ignored by the referees in Pike County in 2022. It’s a matter of balancing a fan’s opinion with the right message for Crystal City’s 0-2 team, since it would be vain, stupid, and ignorant to claim that officials from along the Illinois River hate Crystal City with some singled-out grudge. They’re probably biased toward all rural teams over Jefferson County’s “big city interlopers” from so close to STL. (What a crock.) We just don’t witness it at Mississippi Magazine because our county only sends Crystal City (and maybe Grandview) to play Louisiana. We notice when our own boys are unfathomably, unfairly slighted by the refs, but that doesn’t mean CCHS never benefits from a biased ref, or that there’s a mafia conspiracy.
Collins walked that “balance” expertly on Live Stream STL after the defeat. He said that Crystal City had been hurt by bad calls, but that the Hornets have to be good enough to beat an opponent and the officials in that situation. The Geek agreed with Collins that Crystal City showed a lot more promise in Week 2 than in Week 1, averaging 10 yards-a-pop with rushes out of its new “Sun Belt”-style formations that we were hoping CCHS would try.
The one thing Collins is telling Crystal’s boys that The Geek does not agree with is the same one we’d rather St. Pius X’s athletes weren’t getting now. Crystal City does not – repeat “not” – need to go into Week 3’s game thinking about getting things cleaned up. “Clean it up” is not only passive advice (“DON’T LOSE!”) that applies to rich NFL stars more than Varsity kids, but it also puts the Hornets right back in Week 1’s damaging mindset of being afraid to screw up. The Hornets are feeling the pressure of expectations right now, trying to play on a whole new level under their new coach and succeeding by finding a level well below where they were. It’s time to relax and play ball at Bradley’s Farm. Worry about wiping your feet later.
Windsor 36, Affton 6
So, the Albino Bir … (AHEM) … the Jett Black Birds had their second 30+ point week in a row, moving to 2-0 behind 469 yards of rushing offense (gulp) in Friday’s 36-6 bashing of the Bananas. Once again, we’re prepared to offer a caution-flag on Windsor’s chances against Festus in Week 3, because Affton and Herculaneum have been Class 2-level victims no matter what their enrollment numbers tell you. But it’s a joy to see new names start to flourish in Windsor’s box scores, like the junior Jack Kuda who rushed for 14 yards all last season but galloped for almost 200 yards on Friday.
Grandview 35, Bayless 12
Grandview’s menacing ground game arrives right on schedule. The Birds of Prey scored nearly 2x as many points against senior-studded Bayless as we predicted, while holding the friendly Bronchos’ attack to but a token. Grandview has had far-and-away the best start of any of the five schools in Class 1, District 2, scoring points against a Central State Eight champion and then defeating Class 4 to pull to 1-1, while Crystal City slumps, Louisiana relies on hometown calls to get by, and Van-Far comes off a 32-18 loss at Russellville that The Geek didn’t see coming. GHS already has a #1 seed in its sights.
SLUH 35, Hillsboro 14
Don’t criticize Hillsboro for losing to Saint Louis University High by a worse margin than in last year’s tight tussle. SLUH has turned its so-called gimmick offense into the real thing thanks to the hard work of a special QB – and a special athlete – named Kyren Eleby. The big hoss played quarterback at close to 300 pounds in 2024, a comical touch that didn’t get the Junior Billikens far in the playoffs due to the lack of (ahem) pocket mobility. Eleby has now dropped what appears to be about 50 pounds to emerge as the “Cam Newton” of the Metro Catholic League, throwing three TD passes for a fine Billikens offense that threatened to Turbo Clock the second half until the Hillsboro Hawks got their legs under them to score in the third quarter.
If Hillsboro loses to Washington after mincing the Meremac school last September, then we have a problem. But we’re feeling a 2-1 record for the Varsity Hawks, just like when Lee Freeman’s teams had to play some of SLUH’s top alumni back in the 2010s and emerged just fine from the spankings.
Fort Zumwalt East 39, St. Pius 22
Growing pains. The St. Pius Lancers could be headed for an 0-3 record following Week 3’s long trip to Knob Noster. But we still respect HC Frank Ray for switching to a sophomore QB and making other changes with the Lancers’ long-term interest in mind. The way that Hill Valley’s numbers, size, speed, and strength have been improving all at once, it feels like there could be nothing but good things to come once 2025’s sloppy squad turns a corner.