Week 6 Friday Night Predictions “Table of Contests”
Intro: WORDPRESS TROUBLE, ARGH! + We Could Be in Blowout Canyon
Page 1: Hillsboro Hawks at Windsor Owls
Page 2: Grandview Eagles at Herculaneum Blackcats
Page 3: North County Raiders at Festus Tigers
Page 4: St. Pius Lancers at Lutheran St. Charles Cougars
Page 5: Parkway West Longhorns at Fox Warriors
Page 6: Perryville Pirates at Jefferson Blue Jays
Page 7: Salisbury Panthers at Crystal City Hornets
Page 8: Northwest Lions at Parkway South Patriots
Page 9: Hazelwood Central Hawks at Seckman Jaguars
Page 10: DeSoto Dragons at Fredericktown Blackcats
So sorry, DeSoto Dragons … but that was WordPress’ fault. WP rejected the final cut The Geek made Thursday afternoon, posting Wednesday’s scratch without Cannon Kisner’s Page 10 finale of a video feature (No “Blowout City” short take this time), then HID THE INCOMPLETE POST after blinking like a pinball machine. Not only would DeSoto be left out, but our Blues press box veteran Holly Ramsey was afraid she couldn’t delete it! It took her a few to track that sucker down following TGG’s house call, right about when the friendly Herky parent David Bowling chimed in to ask if something was wrong. (OH yes!)
That’s one Mississippi Magazine can’t tell you “won’t happen again,” since it’s Out Of Our Control as the football coaches say. BlueHost will still be getting a call on Friday morning. Please enjoy this weekend’s Page 10, or browse 1-thru-9 as you wish. DeSoto fans who clicked in today and did not find Cannon Kisner’s video-feature can PM text the MSHSAA Facebook Group for a free Frenchy’s Cafe & Creperie sandwich ticket on The Geek’s dime.
You’ll notice that there’s no Blowout Gulch in this week’s Friday Night Predictions, but seasoned fans will regret to say that there’s a Blowout Canyon waiting for Jefferson County’s viewers in Week 6. Fortunately, we’re on the better side of Blowout Canyon on most of the Magazine’s previews of matchups across borders. But there are Blowout Gulch-worthy pairings in our Dirty Dozen head-to-head games, other contests featuring the top five of the Power Poll, and even in the FHS Tigers’ attempt to clinch a three-peat.
At least Hillsboro and St. Pius X will want to restrain their offenses if needed, to prevent embarrassment for a friendly team. Surely, any vinegar between the Hawks’ administration and former head coach Lee Freeman has turned into a nice cucumber salad by now. Seckman and Northwest are good at keeping players like Jaxson Jablonski and Cohenn Stark from accumulating too many points against the Hazelwood-s of the world. Herculaneum and FHS may also fight their own point totals for ‘Public Relations’ reasons.
Winning is an all-the-time thing. Winning “100-0” doesn’t have to be. The problem is a loophole in MSHSAA’s mercy rule.
Missouri referees generally won’t run the Game Clock when you’re ahead by 35 or more before halftime. The rulebook frowns on that because there have been several times when one speedy team went up by five TDs on another, and the other school roared back by the end. The Geek has identified Quarter 2 as the Kenny Loggins “Danger Zone” for weak sisters getting destroyed by powerhouses – it’s when the overmatched club is tiring and demoralized, and the clock is stopped constantly by various rules. Priory’s wasn’t “ran up on” by St. Pius X in Quarter 4 – it was already trailing by 60+ at halftime with 24:00 left to endure.
Cody Shaver’s offensive backfield is too outstanding not to gain 10-plus yards on almost every turn against a defense of Lutheran St. Charles’ caliber. The issue with those 10+ yard gains is that they stop the Game Clock every time, turning a state contender’s Quarter 2 drives into one “2:00 Drill” touchdown after another against a cupcake, even if the superior side is just handing off. It’s important for a blowout winner to keep from scoring tons of style-points in that second 12:00. Get that down, and it’s all gravy.
Never fear, there are solid matchups and potentially great games in Week 6’s preview! If you follow the Table of Contests down a-ways, you’ll find them. It’s just the POWER of JeffCo’s teams turning the blog upside down … and putting Blowout Gulch on top.
Hillsboro Hawks at Windsor Owls
Which, if any, of Hillsboro’s missing playmakers will return to action against Windsor? The jury is out on whether DeSoto will be a gimme-type of game for Leon Hall, or whether the Dragons will mount a second-straight DHS-HHS upset bid on 10/9. Therefore, the Hawks could choose to go ahead and start working anyone back into the offense or defense that they can against the Owls.
Imperial’s kids may have to endure a Homecoming Game of defeat against a powerful conference opponent. However, we give Lee Freeman’s program kudos for scheduling the Homecoming Game in the fall of the year, when a school’s HoCo is supposed to be. Missouri invented the bloody thing to begin with – and the Tigers did NOT name it the “Already Been Home All Summer Game.”
Windsor QB Jett Black wishes that it was the Hillsboro line, not the skill corps that was ailing, but maybe the predominantly running quarterback can try to give Windsor’s passing game a spark if Preston Ross is still missing from the Hillsboro High secondary. We’ll look for DL Kyryn Miller’s potential appearance for Leon Hall, following a second-half pratfall in Week 5. (His name was called by the TV announcers on the injury, but the way it’s been going for The Geek, this probably means a kid named Rykyr Baker went down.) If Miller isn’t 100%, perhaps Black’s best tactic is running. PREDICTION: HAWKS 56, ALBINO BIRDS 13
Grandview Eagles at Herculaneum Blackcats
Live Stream STL, which has scored exceptional interviews of head coaches this year, drew a pretty good line out of The Geek about five years ago: “It’s not a revenge win when you don’t recognize the opponent across from you.” That’s the scenario for the Herky Blackcats against the Grandview Eagles, who don’t look like their normal selves, let alone last year’s outstanding lineup that defeated Herky in a memorable slugfest. Sometimes, in Friday Night Lights, a rematch isn’t such a familiar encounter.
It’s still an ideal ceremonial date for Dunklin, but not such an ideal road date for the injured Grandview Eagles. Herky could power its way to so many six to nine-yard gains versus Grandview’s ailing roster that the Game Clock at Blackcat Drive runs out quickly. TGG doesn’t foresee Herculaneum going so wild with big plays, or acting as surprised as the Perryville Pirates when something good happens for their favored team in a mismatch. PREDICTION: BLACKCATS 41, EAGLES 0
North County Raiders at Festus Tigers
We’d love to know Coach Ofodile’s theme for what the Tigers can prove on Homecoming, though that’s a hard call against a Bonne Terre opponent that appears to be rebuilding in all areas. Festus can have a sloppy day and still win. Penalties must be a point of emphasis, of course, following the terrible flag-frustration that kept the boys from running away from rival Hillsboro. As annoying as both teams and everybody thought the constant ticky-tack penalty calls were, it is a potential teaching point that the Tigers’ defense got trapped into taking pass-interference calls at HHS. North County QB Braydee McClure will be playing with a deficit, meaning that the FHS pass defense will be tested again. Coach O might accept a few McClure completions, in the place of any of his defensive backs holding-and-harassing North County’s men too blatantly down the field. If anything makes the Tigers nervous, it won’t be Homecoming, but the chance to seal a third-straight Mississippi Conference title of the unbeaten and undisputed variety. PREDICTION: TIGERS 51, NORTH COUNTY 7
St. Pius Lancers at Lutheran St. Charles Cougars
Mississippi Magazine’s “Error Demon” got the St. Pius Lancers on Tuesday when The Gridiron Geek mixed up home-and-away in Hill Valley’s schedule, leaving Lutheran St. Charles listed as the “guests” and St. Pius X as “hosts” for three lousy hours in an early outlook to Week 6. It was very kind of the boosters, coaches, and parents for no one to have dryly corrected TGG. It wasn’t as bad as you think, it was worse! Bad brainwaves not only reversed Week 6’s bus detail, but the rhythm of “Cougars” and “Knights” and “vs” and “at” in October. He’s tracking your schedule faithfully, Lancer Nation – just with his eyes crossed.
St. Pius X vs Farmington is one of this season’s coolest matchups, though, so we’re glad to be reminded that Farmington is headed to Hill Valley in 2026 and hosting the Lancers in 2027, because if this fall’s FHS-SPX clash is a corker, 10/9 will be the date on which SPX’s geography changes. Farmington thinks that it’s visiting a “Highway 61/67 rival.” Nope, the Black Knights will be traveling to The Road, even if Highway A is a stone’s throw from campus. The Road is no place for a start-up-project team such as the Lancers will be seeing this Friday. Further investigation reveals that it’s the Cougars’ Homecoming Game this week, a weird choice with a powerhouse opponent coming up the pike for years since the contest was booked. If guesswork means anything, Lutheran St. Charles is hoping to coax a better 2027 roster into a Homecoming victory over Confluence Prep next October. Calling this week’s event “weird and fun circumstances” was, luckily, as accurate as Evan Eckrich. Schools like Windsor and Lutheran St. Chuck are noble and brave Homecoming foes. Maybe the Cougars’ massive party will take some of the sting out of a likely lopsided loss.
So, how do the 4-1 Varsity Lancers go about reverse-engineering, to prevent SPX from hanging an embarrassing point total on 0-5 Lutheran St. Charles and its vaunted new HC Pierre Desir? As Henry Kissinger liked to say, “it must be considered,” even if teams think it’s a pain in the butt to do so. No doubt winning 63-0 is far better than winning 96-0 for all kinds of reasons, beyond the moral of not wanting to embarrass a friendly brand. Selfishly, the Lancers want to develop good relations with a program like Lutheran St. Charles, and they want to avoid the distraction of another dodgy JCL headline. The reward-vs-risk ratio of letting starting-11 players go until halftime on overmatched teams is starting to lean too far rightward. It’s as when Lou Holtz had to reverse-engineer Notre Dame against Southern Methodist following SMU’s death penalty in 1989. Holtz managed the feat successfully, winning 59-6.
St. Pius can consider playing its veterans in Quarter 1 and Quarter 3, like Bill Walsh did in San Francisco 49ers preseason games and the Stanford Spring Game. That would restrain the SPX offense in Week 6’s “Danger Zone” of the second quarter, leaving the Shaver-Ervin backfield to score on 3:00 and 4:00 running-clock drives in midgame, instead of the Oregon Ducks-like 1:30s versus Priory in that bout’s second stanza. If you want to leave QB Evan Eckrich in the contest as Quarter 2’s Pez Dispenser, that would bring the benefit of helping Eckrich get to know the different trends of his next-man-up offensive line and a corps of kid rushers.
The other option is to gear-up a full playbook for the first 12:00, see if you can make the score 35-0 soon after Quarter 1, and take the starting-11 out one-by-one in Quarter 2 like a winning basketball club prior to garbage-time. Once Jackson Jercinovic’s starting OL leaves the field, those pesky 10+ yard clock-stopping carries should dissipate, but sophomore running back Cole Pavlovits’ substitute backfield will still see daylight. In addition, St. Pius should practice XP conversions instead of racking up 2PTers.
Lutheran St. Charles shouldn’t allow many clown-caper runs for TDs, even with the distraction of excited fans, floats, and girlfriends. Yessir, Desir is getting the Cougars’ overmatched defense to Tackle-Up, somehow giving up only 49 points to powerful Lift For Life this Week 4 despite surrendering an average of nine TDs-per-game beforehand. Surely, the LFL Hawks weren’t “Festus-at-Crystal-City-1992”-ing that one with a JV lineup? The trick is to cruise into the break without a deluge of TDs scored on Tecmo-Bowl time.
The Lancers did not spend the 2025-26 offseason preparing to play Lutheran St. Charles, nor did they lift weights to get ready and see how many TDs they could dump on LSCHS in 10:00 of one second quarter of a road game, to settle a bet with the traveling Pep Squad. Shaver’s starting lineup would seem perfectly willing to accept early substitutions that go beyond the norm on Friday, since they’re fully aware of the big-picture scenario with St. Pius X, a team which has manufactured the area’s greatest Small School running game since the era of Scott Croom and Chris Kavlick: Keep these starters healthy, and you can go all the way.
Now, as for a Week 6 PREDICTION!? Oh, gosh. Mississippi Magazine was so weak at forecasting Highway A’s top angles late this summer, and we’re too humble to think St. Pius X will actually take any advice on football, a sport which (if you haven’t heard) the Lancers have gotten pretty decent in. Whichever way The Geek tries to poke the scoreboard, it will go the other way, so we had better say that St. Pius X is about to score about 21 points in the first quarter, 7 points in the third quarter, 7 points in the fourth quarter, plus too many points in an interminable second quarter. PREDICTION: LANCERS 72, LUTHERAN ST. CHARLES 0
Parkway West Longhorns at Fox Warriors
Arnold has a difficult donut to bite in a Week 6 sea of Little Debbies! Parkway West’s defense is a veritable menace, allowing just one touchdown since knocking off Parkway North 24-21 in summer’s entertaining debut. Friday’s visiting Longhorns also boast a well-balanced offense led by the sophomore QB Braden Biermann, who’s got 15 touchdown passes on the season. Following a draining, disappointing trip to The Valley in which the Warriors lost in overtime once again, is there hope for a Week 6 upset?
OH yeah. The Gridiron Geek’s upset-alert antenna is vibrating for this kickoff at Fox, for a number of reasons. Kickers who feel awful can go out and hit a blocking sled and feel better in High School football, so we shouldn’t need to worry about Arnold’s special teams taking the field too bummed out. There appear to be no Division 1 athletes in Parkway West’s arsenal. Biermann is a pocket-passing specialist who can’t scramble for TDs at will, one who is 57% with four interceptions, not the ‘Parker Perry’-variety of accuracy stats.
Parkway West has had an easy schedule after Week 1 – nevertheless the Longhorns gave up all kinds of offense to Parkway South in the first half of West’s 42-10 rivalry win. Fox’s ball-control prospects are looking pretty decent against a so-called favored team.
Last but not least, Parkway West has not faced a quality opponent with a playbook anything like Coach Tinker’s. They’ve been feasting on John F. Kennedy High-style lightweights who have tossed the ball around, or handed-off out of Pro Sets. Fox and Parkway West are brand-new opponents, which could help QB Jude Pribish’s team smack PWHS in the bugle in Quarter 1.
Fox’s big hurdle is Homecoming Week. On top of the woes of playing from below .500 again, and having come so close to tripping a crosstown rival in the prior Friday night’s contest, the Warriors will be preparing and performing with some levels of distraction. Then again, though, maybe a joyful Homecoming can help keep Arnold’s kids loose following the letdown. The tilt’s celebratory occasion doesn’t change the fact that exceptional opposing players are the #1 crusher for Fox’s defense. Against schools for which the top 10-15 players share comparable burden and responsibility – like the Seckman Jaguars, for example – Fox is in its comfort zone.
Parkway West relies on its selection of “purple chip” players on both sides of the football. That makes the Longhorns a lot like the Warriors! Let’s see if Fox’s adoring host crowd will foster a surprise on the Meramec. PREDICTION: WARRIORS 21, PWHS 20
Perryville Pirates at Jefferson Blue Jays
Speaking of tough matchups in the midst of gimmes! Jefferson, to say the least, has had a trying time with the Perryville Pirates in years past. Our teams’ ledgers are getting filled with common-opponent outcomes as promised, but some of Perryville’s scores against mutual JHS rivals simply add to the mystery of which team is the stronger one in 2026. Perryville doesn’t have many upperclass weapons like Aiden Kentch, who is working on that four-digit rushing total that we talked about the potential of this preseason. QB Sam Kerley is throwing 61% completions while PHS’s backfield of greenhorns learns on the fly. Defensive end Chase Young is getting to the opposing pocket in his junior year, another red flag for Perryville’s uneven set of blockers. That won’t be a big deal unless Jefferson R-7 takes a lead, and Perryville High stops trying to recreate its success on the ground against less-stubborn opponents. Look for the Blue Jays to open up early, tossing balls to WR Ollie Klump, and hoping to press their potential execution advantage, to win an extended chess match on JHS Homecoming. PREDICTION: BLUE JAYS 27, PERRYVILLE 20
Salisbury Panthers at Crystal City Hornets
Salisbury should play a “rotation” lineup in this one. Nobody in the Panthers’ scenario ever does that, gosh darn it! We need to find those clips of what the Festus Tigers did for their Class 1 opponents in the 1990s. 5-0 Salisbury, by the way, has “Class 1 Show-Me Bowl” written all over it, though that’s what we thought about St. Vinny’s in 2022-23. PREDICTION: SALISBURY 55, HORNETS 0
Northwest Lions at Parkway South Patriots
The 3-2 Parkway South Patriots look livelier this year! There’s a reason that goes in the light fun-fact column with a matchup against Cedar Hill on the docket. Parkway South was shocked and blown out 55-7 by Oakville’s junior-laden roster in Week 5 after beating 0-5 Clayton-Brentwood and 3-1 Webster Groves by a combined 14 touchdowns to three on the previous weekends. You have to think the Varsity Patriots were excited about that second win, at least! Webster, however, is a paper-tiger at 3-1, looking inferior to Class 3’s Herky Blackcats against common opponent Affton. Which helps to explain the Parkway South “collapse” of Week 5 that may have just been a brand finding its water line. There is a C-level (sea level?) of St. Louis teams which can only succeed “interdivisionally” versus each other. When they host JeffCo, it’s often bad news! PREDICTION: LIONS 44, PSHS 14
Hazelwood Central Hawks at Seckman Jaguars
Boy, do the Jaguars deserve this Homecoming. Will we see some of Seckman’s rookie backup QBs who actually had “QB” by their names on July’s roster? Only once Jaxson Jablonski has 3-4 more TDs. PREDICTION: JAGUARS 48, HAZELWOOD CENTRAL 0
DeSoto Dragons at Fredericktown Blackcats
Fredericktown could quietly be one of Cannon Kisner’s stiffest tests of the season on rushing downs. The DeSoto signal-caller is about to take on a defense that held Herky and Potosi to fewer than 100 yards rushing in successive weeks, and which was averaging fewer than 200 opposing yards-allowed before having to walk the plank against Valle Catholic in Week 5.
The Dragons’ junior can break DeSoto’s program record for rushing touchdowns if he scores just twice this Friday, according to the Dirty Dozen’s exceptional boosters from The Grind South. Wow, with more than a full season to come for No. 1 at DHS!
It’s weird that Fredericktown has shown up on Page 10 with a tight and fascinating Friday Night Prediction instead of this early-season’s “Blowout Gulch” gimmick. Our worst prediction of the season came after Fredericktown lost to Perryville 16-0 in Week 1, followed by Perryville head coach Brent Roth slyly sandbagging in the postgame (Caruthersville doesn’t have a monopoly on that!), telling MyMyInfo that his Pirates were hapless, helpless, and hurting for any difference-makers at all. “Our quarterback … well, I am proud of him for not quitting,” Roth said at one point. Gosh, if Perryville was that bad, what did it mean for poor Fredericktown, not being able to score a point on the Pirates? Perryville’s water line is not much higher than Windsor’s when the Pirates aren’t up. Herculaneum found itself demolished by Fredericktown’s bigs anyway, losing 30-7 after looking like a sure-thing victor.
The footage of Fredericktown reveals that the Blackcats have developed a “Seckman”-style playbook, with formations that set up Sullivan Eagles-style power runs while staying flexible enough to abide the mobile quarterback Cole Starkey’s throws. Starkey is 6’3″ with a daring arm that showed up against Potosi, protected by an OL that is really Fredericktown’s Iron Man version of its very stout defensive line. Levi Huck’s defense can try to make the Blackcats uncomfortable on their passing downs, on which Starkey’s lineup still isn’t necessarily as ready to rock as the Fredericktown club from 2024 that turned everyone’s heads with an aerial fireworks show. DeSoto’s defense is versatile, ready to defend FHS’s “Seckman” shifts. The Dragons will be hunting INTs.
The Dragons tried all sorts of underclass rushers in late minutes against the Windsor Owls, without any RB really getting traction other than the senior Nathan Slamp. Once again, it was the receiving corps that shined alongside Kisner’s nimble carries, Damien Pogue proving to be more of an “omen” in the open field than running between the hashes this midseason. WR Peyson Casey snagged another home-run TD in Week 5. Kisner, who was sterling with three TDs and close to 80% accuracy last weekend, shouldn’t neglect to toss Casey the egg very quickly on the senior’s routes, before Fredericktown’s edge-rush arrives.
All things being equal, you don’t prefer to see kids break JeffCo’s records “out in the boonies” compared to leaping the bar at home, but AD Russ Schmidt is the type of administrator who will get it straight with the Fredericktown PA announcer beforehand and make sure Kisner is celebrated if it happens. It may be a necessity for Kisner to lead the rushing offense and score TDs if no tailback steps up with a 100-yard night, but you never know how goal-to-go carries will shake out.
DeSoto’s weapons aren’t as elite as Valle’s, yet they’re comparable to Ste. Genevieve’s, which combined for six touchdowns in the -other- Dragons’ 40-8 win over Fredericktown last Friday. Mississippi Magazine can’t get too cocky about DeSoto simply because it’s taking on a smaller weight class – that got us in trouble in Week 1. However, you’d certainly rather see DeSoto ‘26 going up against a defensive team. Defending very good opposing offenses remains the weak spot for Joachim Junction, but Fredericktown is not capable of winning shootouts over Class 4. PREDICTION: DRAGONS 27, FREDERICKTOWN 14
Photo Credits: The Lions Den Podcast, The Grind South Facebook, St. Pius X Football Facebook