Jefferson 30, Herculaneum 14
What a heartening win for the Jefferson Blue Jays. Head coach Matt Atley’s team braved Blackcat Drive with the kind of crisp, versatile teamwork that characterized Jefferson’s memorable win at St. Pius X in 2023. For example, the Blue Jays’ defense had its best game of the campaign so far, yet it was special teams that turned the fourth quarter on its head, and gave Jefferson the runaway win in what could’ve become a very tight battle. After the junior kicker Dakota “Far-Go” French blasted a field goal to give Jefferson a 17-7 lead, freshman special-teamer Logan Young recovered a Herky fumble that junior quarterback Sam Kerley pounced on too, tossing a coup-de-grace TD to classmate Oliver Klump.
Jefferson, at 1-2, is feeling strangely close to confident. R-7 is off to a 1-0 start in conference play, having gotten Kerley’s offense figured out while the defense held down the fort to begin the season. The Blue Jays aren’t yet out of the woods on the tough patch of their slate, facing rehabbed Cuba next week.
Herculaneum has had two disappointing efforts since scoring an impressive 42-0 debut victory versus Affton. We know what some readers will say to that – Affton is a weak team! It is that, but the Blackcats demolished the 1-2 Cougars even worse than 3-0 Webster Groves of Class 5 could a fortnight later. It might’ve made the Blackcats overconfident to have performed well at the start? Herculaneum has a monumentally hard road trip to St. Vincent coming up. Its league title hopes may be diminishing.
Festus 47, Windsor 6
Black & Gold fans got a first taste of the 2026 defense’s great potential on Friday. Festus took the field at Windsor and simply stonewalled an offense that had scored 64 points against Class 3 last weekend, holding QB Jett Black’s attack to negative-two yards and a fumble on its first two possessions.
QB Quinnten O’Brien had a fine debut start, hitting Braydon Wilkes for one of the senior TE’s trademark catch-and-run TDs in the first quarter, while contributing to the rushing attack with speedy legs. O’Brien wasn’t a pedestrian prospect at WR or DB, which is evident when the former backup shoots down the sidelines. But the junior’s aggressive and effective running between the hashes is more impressive, illustrating that Tigers practices have become fierce enough to give a greenhorn QB confidence.
Festus RB Kamden Yates could be headed for one of the best years in Midmeadow Lane lore. The electric Yates scored three times in the first half, then took Windsor’s second-half kickoff back to the house with a one-cut wing and a sprint down the middle. No. 3 ought to be well into double-digit touchdowns on the season by the time FHS visits Hillsboro for a possible title match in Week 5. He’s on absolute fire.
Yes, you notice the Black & Gold special teams looking better. The referees didn’t even throw a flag and bring Yates’ kick return back, which lost wagers at 1-to-1000 odds. We’ll call that progress at this point.
Windsor will probably not see another defense as tough as Midmeadow Lane’s this year. Still, we think the Albino Birds should look to mix up their offense on an opening series when the defense is playing tight to the line, and trying to stop WHS’s star quarterback from running as their top priority. The Flexbone isn’t simply a playbook of runs up the middle – don’t get stuck in the former coaching staff’s syndrome of fascination with the double-option, and forget your tosses, passes, and specials along the way.
Seckman 21, Lindbergh 14
Word has it that backup-turned-starter QB Connor Baer might’ve gone down in the Lindbergh contest with an injury as serious as Kube suffered just two weekends ago. If that’s true, The Gridiron Geek’s heart is breaking for the Seckman Jaguars, the Baer and Kube families, and the town of Imperial. It doesn’t seem accidental that the school’s 71-point offense dwindled to 21 points versus pedestrian Lindbergh, but by the same principle, it’s a minor miracle that Seckman’s got its 3-0 record, a true testament to teamwork and perseverance! Where do the Jaguars go from here? Straight to Pattonville High, as unlucky as that is.
Hillsboro 62, Holt 33
If there was a QB controversy in Hillsboro, Aidan Fleming might have put it to rest in Week 3. The junior gunslinger hit his classmate Preston Ross for a 53-yard scoring strike on the Hawks’ opening play from scrimmage. After a Holt turnover, Fleming dropped another dreamy dime on the senior receiver Trey Zimmerly, called “Richard Zimmerly III” by the Shakespearian announcers from Live Stream STL.
Out, damned (referee) spot! Hillsboro responded like a hawk after Holt scored its first-quarter TD on a bomb to senior WR Reo “Repo Man” Pettis. Nathan Bulback, the sophomore that Mississippi Magazine has already noted as a Red Zone threat this season, ran the ensuing kickoff back 88 yards for another Hillsboro score. Minutes later, Fleming tossed a pass to senior TE Landon Gonzales in the deep flat, followed by Gonzales blowing through tackles to cash-in down the sideline.
Hillsboro’s eventual nine touchdowns rivaled what Windsor and Seckman did to Lutheran South and North Point’s defenses respectively, but Holt is far better than either of those foes, having lost just 37-21 at Westminster.
Is Hillsboro taking on characteristics of its old self? Hillsboro’s teams of the 2010s would allow opponents to score points, but the Hawks of that era successfully concentrated on scoring more of them. An offensive focus sets unbeaten HHS up for success in the Mississippi Conference, as Fleming’s sizzling-hot attack will pressure North County, DeSoto, and Windsor to respond in kind with limited lineups. If Hillsboro is lively enough with the ball to score TDs on Festus, the Tigers won’t have Parker Perry at the rescue.
University City 18, Northwest 12
Northwest High had a sob-story of a loss to University City on Friday night. Cedar Hill allowed UCity’s QB Dominique Bolden to go bonkers throwing deadly skinny-post passes which staked the visiting Lions (who were not originally supposed to be visiting?) to an 18-5 lead before the NHS defense settled down, and began drilling UCity’s backfield with tackles-for-loss. Inspired, QB Cohenn Stark’s hosts came back to within half-a-dozen points on Stark’s six-yard TD carry, early in the fourth frame. It was set to become an instant-classic of a fourth frame. Stark’s offense (and defense) looked more than up to the chore.
Instead, the Northwest Lions let one comeback chance after another slip out of their hands. Kaleb Fels had free blockers and green pastures on a Stark toss to the 20-yard line, but NHS’s signal-caller had been pressured into throwing against his body, and the wobbly ball bounced off the senior receiver’s mitts. Northwest went on to whiff on a total of three Red Zone turns in the second half, while getting its potentially winning TD bomb to WR Jax Newcomer called off via one of Friday’s many flags.
The bad luck didn’t fade away. Stark began a final 2:00 drive on a promising run near midfield, then got hit by a low snap from center. Stark didn’t seem bothered by the wayward pigskin landing at his feet, casually reaching for a scoop prior to a potential throw downfield. But when Stark went for the ball, what seemed to be a twisted-ankle style injury to his right leg flared up on him. Stark tripped, lost his grip on the bean, and fell down in the pile as University City crashed through for the big fumble recovery, and clear sailing. It resembled the finish of a Ric Flair match with Northwest-CH performing in the role of Dusty Rhodes, forgetting about that bad ankle until it buckled on a body-slam, letting the Nature Boy nab a pin.
It was a maddening, gut-wrenching defeat, but the good news is that Northwest’s season isn’t impacted that badly by Week 3’s loss. Jackson could be headed for another 9-0 season and a District Final at The Pit, making it less critical for Northwest to stay unbeaten, and more crucial for the Lions to land ahead of Seckman in the #2-#3 race prior to what could be this fall’s pay-off match in Week 11 again. They’ll destroy their midseason slate of opponents, daring Seckman to fight off its injury woes and get to 8-1.
St. Pius 88, Priory 0
The field at Hill Valley’s new stadium is maintaining (excuse the pun) the school’s convention of Bermuda grass turf, which tells The Geek that the St. Pius Lancers faculty likes its golf. Bermuda turf can be pretty thick by its second cycle, a sticky grass to which student-athletes’ cleats may adhere even more than to their old Bermuda gridiron, which had decades to be played on, and develop perpetually thin patches. Bluegrass gives the golfer deep lies, but you can still swing a golf club through it. Freshly nurtured Bermuda rough is the tacky tangle which Scottie Scheffler is superb in avoiding at East Lake.
Do the Lancers seek an even bigger home-turf stamina edge on their new field, in “PGA Tour”-style? It certainly looks that way following Friday’s 88-0 demolition of the Priory Ravens, who got stuck in Strath Bunker while the St. Pius Lancers danced on Old Tom’s Bridge in Week 3’s ‘Father Dalton II’ inaugural.
The Lancers scored six times in the second quarter, putting an astounding 66-0 halftime score on Live Stream STL’s 2Q scoreboard. Defensive captain Lynnden McCoin, whose gritty return of the opening kickoff sparked St. Pius to the night’s first four-plays-or-less TD drive, led his unit to a shutout that represents the Festus/Cedar Hill connection’s first of what could be many shutout wins in 2026.
Fans at the old Father Dalton Stadium never thought they’d be cheering for SPX visitors to do something, anything with the football in hand, and make a game of it! It’s hard not to wish that Gibson Southern would have lent just a few athletes to Mehlville and Priory’s ailing teams, so that Cody Shaver’s first string could have shone all night in the Lancers’ first two triumphs. But the regular-season elevator ride SPX pigskin has been on, from blowout wins to close-shave losses, isn’t the fault of a wayward schedule. Teams have to get their Varsity scheduling in motion years in advance. There was no way for the Lancers to know in 2023-24 that Mehlville would not score a point for four games straight in late 2025, or that Priory’s 7-4 campaign of 2022 would begin to feel like a fluke. On Friday night, the positive from Priory’s lack of resistance was St. Pius X’s freedom to let each backup join in the fun, “SEC Homecoming”-style.
It seems certain that 88 points-scored makes for the best offensive night of any MSHSAA team so far this season. But since an imp follows The Geek around trying to make Mississippi Magazine publish mistakes, we’ll survey down to the scores of Missouri’s 8-Man squads who play 7 Wide Receivers, and circle back. Cody Shaver co-leads the STL Metro in scoring again, via 12 TDs after his four-bagger against Priory. Brody Ervin matched Shaver proportionally, racing for 100+ yards and two TDs on just four carries.
Hill Valley does need to be aware of the optics of final scores like “88-0.” You can’t do much about people saying “you ran it up, eh!” even if you did not try to run the score up. TGG didn’t see St. Pius X do much more than hand footballs off, and play slap-leather defense, following Evan Eckrich’s colossal touchdown toss to Harrison Ray in the first quarter. The problem of patsy opponents will disappear once Lutheran St. Charles is in the rearview. However, to avoid any blowback from MSHSAA causing the referees to call 400 nightly yards in penalties against St. Pius X, instead of 200 yards, the Lancers should probably think about “reverse game-management” early in a potential whitewash. Substituting a backup offensive line into the fray earlier in a scrum that’s gotten out of hand could produce lots of clock-grinding, four-yard rushes.
The elevator ride might be ending in Week 4. Or, at least, the Lancers can impress by staying on the top floor. Valle Catholic’s 56-7 romp of Park Hills Central on Friday gives SPX a keep-up-with-the-Warriors goal next week, in what could be a physical bout on an early Homecoming at Pebble Beach – AHEM! – St. Pius.
North County 35, DeSoto 23
Good grief. DeSoto’s defense blows a gasket in the second half at North County, allowing Bonne Terre to respond to a 14-7 midgame deficit with four more TDs and a 13-point victory. The spring graduation of Eli Thebeau is felt acutely. The 1-2 Dragons have no obvious standout to step up at linebacker. Senior edge-rusher Levi Huck is kept busy closer to the line-of-scrimmage.
Are the 2026 Varsity Dragons already in serious trouble? Next week brings a visit to Festus R-6, for which the defense pitched a first-string shutout against QB Jett Black and Windsor High’s dangerous offense in Week 3. DeSoto’s similar offense, led by QB Cannon Kisner, can’t expect to score more than 21 points, making it simply mandatory for the Dragons to become four-quarter tacklers and improve on defense.
Fox 49, Hazelwood West 20
Fox didn’t look great in the Warriors’ one crack at a good team so far. However, we won’t hear of anyone questioning Arnold’s defense due to a shootout-style Week 3 final score that is deceiving. The Warriors were even more clinical and effective than Hillsboro versus Hazelwood’s remodeled pigskin, inspiring a mercy-rule scenario with a 35-0 lead at halftime. The junior Carson Younger flourished with the bean, pacesetting Fox via 74 yards on just two carries – the “DB-to-RB” sauce that The Geek wished for!
Jude Pribish’s seven pass attempts didn’t move the offense very far, but the important thing is that Fox felt comfortable calling for close to 10 passes in a blowout game that its offense was dominating. The more “purist” option offenses at Fox would typically throw Minus-0.5 passes in a romp like Friday night’s.
Cuba 42, Grandview 6
Cuba’s 36-point victory is bad news for the 0-3 Grandview Eagles in the short term. Bigger picture, though, it’s good for all Quad County Conference schools to watch their league’s “weak sisters” Cuba and Bayless manufacturing wins early in 2026. If the conference was still a two-team contest, with a couple of Jeffco underdog bids mixed in, and nothing but washout underneath that, the QCC would never have the opportunity to vibe the I-55 Conference in depth and exciting games like it might have soon.
Bayless 41, Crystal City 8
Bayless has moved to 2-1 for only the second time this decade. Then again, the last time the Bronchos got to that mark, in 2024, the Class 4 lightweight finished the year 2-8. This is the first time, however, that the Bronchos have beaten two Missouri opponents in the first three weeks, let alone from such a booming locale. It’s taken a lot of injuries and untimely graduations to make such easy targets of GHS and CCHS.
Photo Credits: GB Images, Herculaneum High School Facebook, St. Pius X Football Facebook