Festus 40, Hillsboro 14

The Geek is torn between business, personal, and professional matters as another week of Jefferson County pigskin stands ready to recap. It would be nice if we could just publish Friday Night Scores & Analysis on Saturday evening from now on, now that TGG has more volunteer hours each weekend. From the blog’s POV it “begins Week 6 faster” if that makes sense, wiping our hands of whatever news bulletins that were necessary and moving right along to the following week’s rankings, punditry, and predictions.

The problem with that is a lack of immediate postgame coverage from almost any other source, leaving The Geek on an island when it comes to finding the facts. TGG can’t watch 10+ games on MSHSAA TV – either now or when they’re happening – and while he is happy to scan through each game’s footage to find the touchdowns, lots of local streams were corrupted or failed to upload in Week 5. Festus-vs-Hillsboro was a nightmare on the FHS YouTube similar to MSHSAA TV’s pathetic attempt to stream a Pay-Per-View for 2022’s District Championship Game between the Tigers and Hawks. Credit to Live Stream STL for providing a low key 30-second-delayed broadcast that worked just fine all evening.

Those who didn’t have to (LOOP … LOOP … LOOP … ) stare at a frozen picture saw Festus quarterback Parker Perry heat up against Hillsboro in the second half. More accurately, Perry and his talented offense looked at a scoreboard tied 7-7 with 2:29 left in the first half and reacted like an Alligator Gar reeled too close to the boat. The junior QB piloted a calm, efficient, and rapid TD drive capped off by a 25-yard TD pass to give Festus a 14-7 lead over its archrival at the break. Midmeadow Lane had patiently ran the ball and punted to Hillsboro most of 24:00, but it was R-6 head coach A.J. Ofodile’s game plan to wear the Hawks down in the middle and then let Perry fire away to the outside.

Perry and the Tigers flashed championship form in the second half. State championship form. Perry hit Kamden Yates on a classic “wheel” route to spot Festus a 21-7 lead early in the third quarter, going on to throw three more TD passes in the 3rd and 4th quarters combined. (4-5 touchdown passes in a game is becoming average for some of our awesome QBs around here.) Hillsboro’s offense was soured, stilited, and stuck in the imaginary mud on the Field Turf at Midmeadow Lane by then, scoring only one mop-up touchdown following a second half of whiffed passes and minimal gains on the ground. QB Braxton Chazelle squeezed what he could out of a Hillsboro’s outclassed supporting cast.

Black & Gold’s eventual 40-14 win gives Festus R-6 repeat Mississippi Conference championship honors for the first time since – when? – and FHS’s best news is that the fun’s still getting started. We’ll find out next weekend if a depleted North County team can run with Kamden Yates and Leuontae Williams, but that’s doubtful given how spectacular the pair just looked against Leon Hall. If nobody in the Tigers’ conference can touch them, that means no one in the District is on the 2025 team’s level either, and whoa, that’s a doozy because of how the Missouri bracket sets up this season. Festus will have to deal with some fanatical underdog efforts in a District tourney that’ll be for one hell of a prize.

The Varsity Tigers have a garden path back to the Missouri semifinals if they can walk it. District 2 looks weaker than anyone could have believed going into this season, currently led by a shaky Vianney lineup that’s only 2-3 on the campaign. Sullivan scored no meaningful touchdowns in its first two games, and Pacific has bottomed out at 0-5. Chazelle and his Hillsboro Hawks could wipe just about every team in District 2 off the field. Several other District 1 teams could vie for D2’s title. But whoever does win a District 2 championship stands poised to lose to District 1’s winner in 2025’s state bracket, wherupon D1 will play a District 7-8 opponent who will probably be 105,892x harder to beat than the D2 champ.

We’ve got another likely Week 14 berth on our hands in Class 4. The only question is whether it will be Festus or Hillsboro to take the honors. If last evening’s drubbing was any indication, the Hillsboro Hawks have as many questions to answer on the offensive side as the defensive side before they can think about faring better in Week 12’s rematch.

Seckman 14, Oakville 10

Something is the matter with Seckman’s offense. TGG wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there’s been injuries on the offensive line. The Jaguars had their worst offensive night in many years against Oakville’s predictable lineup, rushing for less than 4.5 yards-per-play and turning in a final score that looks like a halftime score. In fact, “14-10” was the halftime score in addition to the final tally. Credit to Seckman’s senior-studded defense for holding the line in a “Week 1”-style finish.

We had a hunch that Seckman’s incredibly big/deep/old defense would be the Jaguars’ secret strength this year. That’s clearly the case through Week 5. But if Seckman can’t respond to an opponent’s run defense by throwing the ball any better than it did against Oakville, then the Jags won’t be able to match Pattonville on the scoreboard.

Desoto 41, Windsor 14

The Geek will take a moment to chide one of an improved DeSoto team’s new rivals. The FHS Football Booster Club put out an article in Week 5’s Hillsboro-at-Festus program that said “Tigers Statement Win Over Windsor” (yes, Windsor) in the headline of Week 3’s recap. BUZZ! First ranked teams in a conference don’t get “statement” wins over last place teams in their conference. The correct statement after a Festus-Windsor contest these days is for a coach to say, “Neither team had an injury, and that sounds like a W to me.”

DeSoto made a statement against Windsor this weekend. It just wasn’t on offense, because you can’t prove a lot by sawing through a WHS defense that’s proving to be the Owls’ biggest weakness thus far. What you can do is play great, tough, physical defense at the point-of-attack against a churning Owls offense that rushed for 650 yards in a single game already. Week 5’s victorious Varsity Dragons snuffed out Windsor’s key rushing attack with a defensive-line effort which was the polar opposite of its buckling, breaking bid against Freeburg’s big boys from less than a month ago. DeSoto is probably going to shut out Fredericktown in six days, prior to what should be another fascinating date with Hillsboro.

Perryville 21, Grandview 20

Aww heck 2.0. Grandview High School came closer to beating Perryville than ever, mounting a comeback from a 21-7 deficit and producing the roaring circus on home turf that occurs when a Small School is giving a Class 4 visitor all that it can handle. The final :90 of the Eagles’ surge was recounted to The Geek by our site’s friend Peter Schmidt:

“The kick off (after a GHS score to draw within 7 points) was an onside kick by Aaron Smith (Junior) which was beautifully stayed in bounds but travelled right down the side line where a Grandview speedster snagged it with approximately 2:13 left on the clock. Grandview put together a beautiful drive and scored with only 52 seconds left. Coach Hanger went for the win, and attempted the two point conversion. A bad lateral from QB Brendan Martin (behind the RB) caused Grandview to fail in their two point attempt. with 43 seconds left in the game, Perryville kneeled the ball.” 

Martin sounds like the Dirty Dozen’s official We-Wouldn’t-Have-Been-There-Without-You kid for Week 5 after a game-ending episode like that. But if Martin is enough of a veteran – and he is – to think like an analyst and not just a let-down teenager, he’ll understand that Grandview just made strides against a bugaboo opponent in the QCC. It doesn’t matter that Perryville isn’t as good as 2024’s club that fell one week short of a state playoff run. Grandview and Perryville looked like evenly-matched opponents and when Perryville appears evenly-matched with Grandview that’s usually the Eagles’ cue to LOSE BY A HUNDRED. Grandview ’25 is simply sharper and more poised for any big showdown.

Plus, Hanger’s choice to go for the 22-21 win in regulation was not the same as Jefferson and DeSoto’s mistaken 2PT attempts that lost games earlier this year. Put simply, it was a business decision more than anything else. Grandview doesn’t need to be playing extra football against Class 4 teams when there’s a potential District championship on the line. Hanger has already missed a dynamic-duo combination of RBs Wyatt Keim and Isaac Walker too many times this season, and he made a choice to shorten Week 5’s game. Coaches will always trade away conference honors for District title chances when given a choice between them. We’re sure that Martin would’ve mauled PHS in an OT.

Herculaneum 50, Cuba 20

Friday Night Lights come with just as many surprises as college and NFL pigskin, they just take longer to unfold. A Varsity team’s Health Meter goes up and down like a wavelength instead of the “chicken scratch” of Florida State going from contender to cream puff (and then back again) in the ACC. It was always possible that Mississippi Magazine was wrong about Herculaneum’s head coach Blane Boss. You could have even looked at Herky’s loss at Cuba High from 2024 and imagined that the ‘Cats would rebound and beat Cuba in 2025. Last year’s giddy uptick at CHS had produced a weird hostile venue (is it really a stadium?) for opponents to visit, and Herculaneum was hosting the Cigars this autumn.

But did anyone think Herky would get so good, so fast, and be so much better than last year’s Blackcats that versus any team from the Quad County Conference, we would get a scenario in which some of Herculaneum’s games are too boring to cover because we pretty much know the Felines are going to win? There was no suspense in the Herky-Cuba contest, just like there wasn’t anything to worry about at Fredericktown, and like there won’t be a lot going on that stresses out Dunklin’s fan base when Herky visits Bayless. The idea of a 3-2 Herculaneum team that has not skated by against a soft schedule is new, but what’s newer is that Herky’s getting too good for some of its matchups to stay tight competition. Herky’s defense is healthy with 17 tacklers on the Cuba score sheet. Keaton Reeves had one of the best nights of his career running and passing in Week 5. Herculaneum’s ace-in-the-hole Lenny Eaves had a bad night with the bean in hand, but there’ll be another blowout to get him involved in as early as October 10th.

Jefferson 50, Bayless 20

Yup. You read that right. Jefferson and Herky won by exactly the same score over about the same brand of team on Friday night and it wasn’t prearranged like Roller Derby. With dates at Perryville and St. Vincent bookending a good matchup against Grandview, the JHS Blue Jays may have to win at least two nail-biters to lift the conference hardware.

Mississippi Magazine needs more occasions to tout Jefferson High this season. Apart from the heartbreaker against Park Hills, QB Cooper Frisk and the Blue Jays are either A) making their wins look too easy to inspire much recapping, or B) found playing the role of upset-target for an improving team like Herculaneum. Never fear – Jefferson will be prominent on the blog’s radar very soon. Jefferson could very well play host to St. Pius X in a District semifinal or final this November, which would be a huge story for an unbelievable number of reasons, including A) Where to find a crew of fair referees and B) the JHS faculty being asked if they’ll hold their team off the field in a protest.

Northwest 49, Parkway South 14

Northwest defeated Parkway South 49-14 and the final score was deceiving … in favor of the Patriots! Cohenn Stark and the Varsity Lions slapped an old-fashioned whitewash on a team that defeated Cedar Hill a calendar year ago, taking a 49-0 lead into the halftime break before coasting to the finish line. Don’t look now, but the Northwest Lions are 4-1 overall this season and 5-0 in their last five regular-season home games. Did the Fox Warriors think they were getting a reprieve by going to NHS in Week 6? We hope not.

Coach Scott Gerling is being kind enough to Stark in postgame that we can reject the idea of a feud between the HC and the QB. He’s still being cautious to describe Stark as just another good player on the team, though. Gerling probably thinks that’s the best way to help the Lions feel like they’re not a one-man band. But he could throw away all that fancy psychology if he just let the boys examine their Box Scores. WR Omarion Frazier had such an amazing two-touchdown, 150+ yard evening against Parkway South that you can simply say, “We have great performers at quarterback and receiver.” Frazier is going to be like a feline let out of a bag as Northwest gets better and better, and so we have an identifiable two-man-band on the Northwest offense that can be bragged on as a tandem. When there’s a QB-to-WR combo that’s cooking, a tailback is poised to emerge.

Rockwood Summit 20, Fox 14

Good grief. There is no reprieve on a Fox Warriors schedule that won’t stop turning the Red & White black and blue. The Warriors churned up nearly 6.0 YPC on the ground in Friday’s loss, but the Fenton boys were more balanced on offense, and Arnold didn’t have time to mount as much of a comeback as the final score suggests. Still, it’s become plainly apparent to everyone that the main thing holding Fox  back from the kind of winning streaks, awards and accolades that the Seckman Jaguars get is a schedule that undeniably stands tougher than that of the Jags. Seckman makes its schedule look easy by faring so well, but FHS could make parts of the Seckman slate look easy too.

St. Pius 28, St. James 6

Now we’re talkin’. St. Pius X struts its best form of 2025, putting on a show of gutsy, physical defense that grinded a machine-like opposing offense to a halt, and defeated St. James by an even worse score on the road than on the Tigers’ visit to Hill Valley in 2024. The Lancers may have fell short against another challenging summer schedule, but now that the dust has settled and the team’s getting back to .500, it’s evident that St. Pius has gained a lot from its three close-shave losses, and an offense that sometimes appears wanting for more urgency and momentum has been growing scary-efficient for 48:00 at a time, with new standouts set to shine brightly if the unit continues to make strides.

The sophomores Evan Eckrich and Harrison Ray are leading Jefferson County in passing and receiving yards respectively. When there’s a cooking QB-WR combo, a tailback will benefit and in SPX’s case it’s the junior Cody Shaver with 925 yards and a whopping 10 TDs in five games. (That’s a Messi-in-Miami level of scoring ability right there.)

Eckrich’s stat line remains unsightly in other ways. He’s thrown 12 interceptions, and incompletions on about half of his other 105 attempts. Coach Ray is using the old-school method of letting Eckrich falter and learn on the job, rather than playing safe trying to protect the new helmsman. But the underclassman played his best game as a starter Friday night in a far-away road environment, tossing three more TDs against St. James. Eckrich’s supporting cast is starting to play better under his  nascent leadership. SPX has given touches to a dozen-or-so rushers so far in 2025 and The Geek is still asking why Danny DeGeare isn’t one of them. It’s nevertheless hard to argue with the tactics of a Lancers team on a speeding track to 4-3 with games against ailing  Cuba and Miller Career Academy coming up. The “St. Pius Bowl” on October 17th will not be an academic game.

Gateway 27, Crystal City 6

Crystal City also played its best game of the year in Week 5, scoring first against Gateway’s bruising defense after welcoming OL Hayden Westbrook back from Basic Training. Crystal’s defense impressed The Geek by chasing down Gateway’s rushers for tackles on the boundary, while Ricardo Pastrana racked up 150 total yards on his scrimmage runs and one thrilling kick-return alone. But the injury woes of Landyn DeRousse have flared up again. QB Kolton Adams appears to have taken most, if not all of the snaps, and his inexperience against a reigning Class 4 district champion (which Class 1 backup is experienced against Class 4 district champions???) and blew up with five interceptions.

Bradley’s Farm is 1-4 against a ludicrous schedule. Ludicrous! Four out of five Class 4 opponents in the first five weeks, and they were supposed to play another Class 4 opponent next week before Roosevelt chose to forfeit the rest of its season. It’s never simple to compare the biggest and the smallest of a region, but gosh, how are the Crystal City Hornets and Fox Warriors not comparable from a schedule POV? In each case, a good team’s schedule has turned into a monstrosity that everyone is screaming to change. Coach Collins didn’t pay much mind to suggestions that CCHS should’ve tried to change its schedule in preseason. We’ll wager that he’s paying attention to the problem now. Crystal’s current schedule is the equivalent of Herculaneum playing in the Suburban League. We can raise the money for some longer bus rides if it would help solve this.