There is no movement at the top or the bottom of the Jefferson County Power Poll this week. Fox can’t jump over Hillsboro because both teams lost, and the Hawks cannot pass up the Seckman Jaguars because Seckman won. St. Pius is set to rise above Herky, Windsor, and Grandview following an impressive 28-6 win over the St. James Tigers of Class 3. But since the Crystal City Hornets have to be ranked last (*sniffle*) due to their 1-4 start, there wouldn’t be much suspense as readers got to the Power Poll’s final teams either.
Here’s how she stands for anyone who’s curious (but we’ve got a better idea below):
#1 – Festus Tigers
#2 – Seckman JaguarsÂ
#3 – Hillsboro Hawks
#4 – Fox WarriorsÂ
#5 (Quadruple Tie) Northwest Lions, Jefferson Blue Jays, DeSoto Dragons, St. Pius Lancers
#9 – Windsor Owls
#10 (T) – Grandview Eagles, Herculaneum BlackcatsÂ
#12 – Crystal City Hornets
There is very little room between the four brands at the bottom. Crystal City could score 35+ points against Windsor’s thin defense on a good night, or Grandview could get its superior offensive backfield in place to punish the Owls like they tore up Perryville in Quarter 4. But the Windsor Owls could also do what Sikeston did to either of our Class 1 teams, and the Herky Blackcats can use their “SET-HUT-GO!” tactics to stay the cleanest of all four teams on any given Friday. We’re down to leaning on the size of the schools again!
Nevermind that. It’s those four teams smack in the middle who’re really causing problems. Northwest, Jefferson, DeSoto, and St. Pius have met an astounding minimum of common opponents in the 2020s for being located so close to each other. The conflict between St. Pius X and the JCAA, and the subsequent invention of the QCC Shopping Network Quad County Conference hurts, but the truth is that only St. Pius X and JHS would play each other or a normal number of common rivals if the I-55 Conference was (*double sniffle*) still a thing. It would not help The Geek compare Northwest or DeSoto to either of the two Small Schools. As for the Large Schools, heck, they never play any of the same opponents.
If we’re not going to see #5 through #8 in head-to-head combat, or even the comparable combat of common opposition, then the best that we can do is try to picture it happening. Who would prevail if Northwest, DeSoto, St. Pius, and Jefferson played in a two-round tournament, like those “Herky Invitational” schmozzes that begin each basketball season?
First we’ve got to seed each team in our semifinals. Thankfully, there’s MSHSAA points through Week 5 as a cheat sheet for that.
1 Jefferson Blue Jays (49.5)
2 St. Pius X Lancers (43.8)
3 Northwest Lions (39.6)
4 DeSoto Dragons (30.3)
Semifinal Game 1: DeSoto Dragons at Jefferson Blue Jays
Jefferson takes the honors as #1 seed with a record of 4-1 and no regulation losses. The DeSoto Dragons, having blown Windsor away 41-14 in Week 5, arrive at Blue Jay Way confident that a Class 4 team’s numbers will wear down Cooper Frisk’s team even worse than it was fatigued in OT against Park Hills Central. Blue Jays head coach Matt Atley is concerned about going against a DeSoto defense that brought Windsor’s cupcake-feasting rush offense back down to Earth in Week 5, not to mention the defense that gave Festus quarterback Parker Perry his toughest night of the season so far in Mississippi Conference play. Schmidt, meanwhile, spends 19,246 hours on the mental preparation aspect of the developing Dragons taking on the new format of a short tournament. “I told the boys, I said, this is a whole different ballgame,” Schmidt tells the Live Stream STL pregame show.
Frisk gets solid protection on the game’s opening snaps, making it look like Jefferson will stun DeSoto with its passing game and take an early lead. An alternate scenario occurs when DeSoto’s deeper lineup stiffens on the goal line, followed by a big dose of Eli Thebeau running for first downs on the Dragons’ first scoring drive. DeSoto winds up with a 13-6 lead at halftime and a 27-20 lead in the fourth quarter. But in the meanwhile, Jefferson gets its own pass rush cranked up behind Troy Jefferson (you’ve got the name, son) and Aiden Kentch against DeSoto’s smallish OL, and the pair combines for a strip-sack of QB Cannon Kisner that that sets up a short field and a Kentch TD run to make it 27-26.
Jefferson head coach Matt Atley goes for two points and the victory, of course, being a High School coach with less than 5:00 on the Game Clock. Frisk, after running “Inside Zone” patiently all evening, makes a spin-fake on the two-point conversion try and rolls out to find Noah Buehler in the end zone for what turns into the semifinal’s winning points.
Final Score: Jefferson 28, DeSoto 27. “I’d like to say we should’ve handed off and punted on that third down instead,” Schmidt says of Kisner’s fumble in Quarter 4, “But you never want to give the football back to an offense as dangerous as theirs.” In the victorious Jefferson Blue Jays skipper’s postgame interview, Atley remarks, “Why don’t you ask The Gridiron Geek if we should have kicked an extra point – AHEM – I mean, thank goodness for two-point conversions.”
Semifinal Game 2: Northwest Lions at St. Pius Lancers
The second game unfolds very differently than it would have weeks ago. The St. Pius Lancers arrive boasting their best execution of the year while the Northwest Lions have grown into a fast and fascinating but flag-happy team against tough opponents in midseason. DB Jack Michaud of St. Pius expertly contains Northwest’s wide receiver Omarion Frazier on the boundary, making Northwest move the chains patiently and have to punt after a penalty flag every so often. Hill Valley’s home team plays its methodical brand of NCAA-ball on offense, but Cody Shaver’s effective runs for first downs are interspersed with an occasional Class 6 athlete from Northwest overpowering the St. Pius blockers to bring down quarterback Evan Eckrich. Then the Lions make another blunder on 4th down and the whole deal starts over again. The first half ends in a low-scoring deadlock of 7 to 7.
Cohenn Stark’s offensive line reminds the Lancers who’s from the bigger school in Quarter 3. Stark begins chewing up St. Pius for 15-yard rushes every time Northwest successfully blocks St. Pius X’s defensive ends, and even sometimes when they don’t block them, thanks to Stark’s clever fakes to Drew “No Fat” Spratt. With Frazier now able to outrun the distracted Hill Valley defense, Stark has his best running-and-passing drives of the game, and the Lions take a 21-7 lead that appears untouchable against a C2 opponent.
Ahh, but don’t forget the EPICALLY DEEP GRASS at Hill Valley! All of the Lancers’ days spent working out in January-through-July pay off when Northwest, not St. Pius, is the team to get tired of chasing-and-tackling on St. Pius X’s thick bog of a surface. When a brief rainfall occurs in the 4th quarter, Shaver begins to race ahead of Cedar Hill’s linebackers in Usain Bolt style. He’s running the same speed – but the defense is wearing snow boots. (“There’s mud on our shoes, coach. It slows you down and everything!” the Suburban League kids are heard complaining.) Shaver scores on a 40-yard run to trim Northwest’s lead to 21-14, and Eckrich throws a TD pass to tie the game with 5:01 remaining.
Stark has played this number before. He takes the field, spits once, and goes on to overcome six penalties, two dropped balls, a fumble out-of-bounds, and a 15-yard sack to manufacture 1,126 combined yards, two touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions to give Northwest-Cedar Hill the 37-21 win in a finish so breathless, all people can see when they close their eyes is Stark running, faking, and flinging the pigskin. Frazier and Michaud shake hands after a nip-and-tuck 48 minutes spent in mano-a-mano combat.
Final score: Northwest 37, St. Pius 21
“We proved a lot in those first three quarters,” says SPX head coach Frank Ray in postgame. “I’d be interested in St. Pius joining the Suburban League sometime, though I’d want a schedule more like Fox’s, with a couple of the top-ten teams in Nebraska thrown in,” Ray adds.
Northwest coach Scott Gerling: “Because you surprised me with your question about Cohenn Stark in the last five minutes, I will tell you that Cohenn is solid. Efficient. Adequate. Serviceable even. He does a nice, fair, okay, decent job at QB. I’d also like to talk about our frosh backups in the defensive backfield, who make just as much of a difference.”
Championship Game: Northwest Lions at Jefferson Blue Jays
Jefferson football’s forever-CEO Alex Rouggly calls a meeting with head coach Atley before the Northwest-at-Jefferson title game. “There’s only one way we can outscore a Class 6 team,” Rouggly explains. “You’re going to have to put the kids back in Jefferson’s original offense, use all four downs if you have to, and hog the ball for whole quarters at a time.”
“But Cooper has been passing it better than we’re running it,” Atley protests.
“That’s because you’re not in the original offense,” Rouggly says. “I am talking about running the football on 4th-and-15. For a first down or a touchdown, of course.”
“We can’t learn that in two days.”
“The St. James Tigers did. Here’s their head coach’s phone number.”
The Varsity Blue Jays take the field like it’s 2014, running the rock on 25 of their first 26 plays and sprinting through Northwest’s defensive front like mice at the feet of elephants. Frisk fires a play-action pass to Noah Buehler for one TD, then scores on a Tush Push after a time-consuming drive to give Jefferson High a 19-10 lead at the halftime break.
Stark brings the Northwest Lions back – of course – in Quarter 3. He makes a 50-yard run down the sideline called back on a Northwest holding penalty, followed by a 60-yard dash for a TD on the next play, on which referees search their pockets but come up empty. The score is 19-17 in Jefferson’s favor when the Blue Jays begin an old-fashioned option offense “Death March” from their own 20-yard line to the Lions’ 10-yard line, using up 8:00 of the clock’s remaining 10:00 in the process.
That’s when the Northwest defense does make a difference. A blitzing Spratt disrupts Jefferson’s final Midline Option play of the game, causing a Blue Jays fumble that the junior LB Jeremiah Clines picks up and goes 90 yards rumblin’, stumblin, bumblin’ and divin’ into the end zone for the winning touchdown in a 24-19 win for the Northwest Lions of Class 6.
Final Score: Northwest 24, Jefferson 19Â
Postgame Quotes:
“Let’s not play against Class 6 anymore. I like passing.” – Cooper Frisk
“I look forward to coaching our team’s next week of preparation. By myself.” – Matt Atley
“Jeremiah had a quiet, responsible game.” – Scott Gerling
“Coach Schmidt and I called off our Third Place Game. The Jefferson County Power Poll just isn’t that important to St. Pius or DeSoto … ” – Frank Ray
“…at least not until Week 15.”
Jefferson County Power Poll (Adjusted for “Tournament Results”)
#1 – Festus Tigers
#2 – Seckman JaguarsÂ
#3 – Hillsboro Hawks
#4 – Fox WarriorsÂ
#5 – Northwest Lions
#6 – Jefferson Blue Jays
#7 (T) – St. Pius Lancers, DeSoto Dragons
#9 – Windsor Owls
#10 (T) – Grandview Eagles, Herculaneum BlackcatsÂ
#12 – Crystal City Hornets