Fox 27, Parkway West 7
… and THERE’S the SIGNATURE WIN our county has been waiting for! Fox High School puts a schooling on the Class 5 power Parkway West, knocking the Longhorns from the ranks of the unbeaten. Dual-threat quarterback Jude Pribish has the kind of monster performance which Arnold’s coaches envisioned when Pribish was just a wee one, rushing for nearly 200 yards while manufacturing three total TDs. Fox has scored two sterling upsets and had twice as many great efforts in a nine-game span, unbeaten against Seckman in regulation since 2024 (yup), 1-1 against Ladue, and now a proud 1-0 against Parkway West.
Still, we hope that HC Brent Tinker didn’t age 20 years in 10 minutes during the Fox Warriors’ moment of crisis. After Pribish scored his second TD carry to stake Arnold to a 13-7 lead, the Warriors tried one of those half-onsides “safety” kickoffs which The Geek maintains are not safe in any way. After a pinball-play and a potential flag for a 9-yard kickoff, Parkway West picked up the apparently live ball and raced into the end zone with it. The referees, having not blown any whistles, awarded the TD.
Parkway West lined up for a go-ahead conversion try. But the scoreboard still stubbornly read “13-7.” The game was delayed, and TGG felt certain that Coach Tinker was terrorizing Flappy & Pitchwell with rants and raves about the ruling. But instead, when the camera panned back to midfield, it showed the referees huddling for an intense talk, and Fox’s coaches all leaving them alone. The “catch more flies with honey” method worked as the referees decided they were wrong to have ruled a TD, and put the ball back out at midfield, although Parkway West did get an extra turn out of it. You can’t persuade referees to change a ruling via arguing with them, unless you’re the 2022 St. Mary’s Dragons. You can let them talk it out all over again, and just maybe you’ll get lucky!
Tinker’s thoughts must have been darker than he let on while the game’s critical ruling took place, saving Fox’s precious lead and eventually allowing Pribish to build on it. Think of how many times Fox has gotten a bad bounce, a crappy break, a turnover at the worst time, and the wrong side of a one-TD game on the scoreboard! “Oh, no, dammit, not again,” would be any head coach’s reaction. The joy of Friday night’s win was that Tinker got to say, “Oh, no, not again, not again not again … YES BABYYY!”
Fox is shaking up the works at Mississippi Magazine like no point since 2020. We’ve got a Class 5 dark-horse on our hands, one that frustrated Braden Biermann’s opposing offense for two INTs and a weak 18-of-35 mark through the air. More importantly, handing the formerly unbeaten Parkway West in such decisive-beatdown fashion credits Fox High with the best victory of 2026 at Mississippi Magazine up to now. Week 7 opponent Kirkwood looks mortal this fall, giving Fox a chance to do something special.
Festus 55, North County 31
It’s a trophy, but it wasn’t a triumph. Was FHS’s worst performance of midseason a case of Homecoming Blues? Coaches were too eager to rotate the lineup, players were too giddy to celebrate Kamden Yates and Quinnten O’ Brien’s touchdowns to worry about playing defense, and the R-6 defensive backfield waved at their Homecoming dates in the stands while North County’s WRs ran right by them. Tiger Stadium’s talented defense laid such an egg in Week 6 that opposing QB Braydee McClure had the kind of night we originally thought Hillsboro’s starter Aidan Fleming might have versus Black & Gold. Bonne Terre’s HC Wyatt Compton’s plans exposed the Tigers’ weakness on defense -when the pass rush doesn’t get home, there’s no lock-down coverage to fall back on. Celebration-time seems like the only explanation for how this September’s stout FHS defense went into October with a dud. Midmeadow Lane can relate to how Valle felt lifting the I-55 hardware in 2018, after nearly blowing it against St. Pius X.
But wait – the Hannibal Pirates just played their worst game of the season, too! Week 7’s Festus opponent somehow fooled around and lost 29-26 to St. Dominic, a .500 team that you could see going under .500 against the top six of this year’s Jefferson County Power Poll. Could it have been that … Hannibal and Festus were looking forward to each other? YES – and to costly extremes!
DeSoto 33, Fredericktown 8
Cannon Kisner ran the rock into the Red Zone again on Friday, so often that he broke DeSoto’s program record for rushing TDs. The DeSoto athletic department shared incredible footage of the record-breaking run, and other Dragons’ TDs, but more on that after!
DeSoto High School did a wonderful job coping with the fact that Fredericktown didn’t create a TV stream of Friday’s meeting. That meant that No. 1 could not only have to snap DeSoto’s TD record (we’ll confirm who it was originally held by) away from Joachim Junction, but that nobody would see it happen without driving off the grid. The Facebook videos were a godsend, and we’re convinced that the good folks at DeSoto did everything they could to get Kisner’s run “on the air” during an unaired game.
Lastly, don’t overlook the football aspect of DeSoto’s third win, aka what it means to the group and not just one kid setting records. DeSoto is starting to get that bigger-faster-stronger feel of a team laden with standout underclassmen once the leaves start to turn. Blowing Fredericktown’s big men off the ball to the tune of 33-8 is a mood lifter going into Week 7’s circle-the-calendar date with HHS.
Hillsboro 41, Windsor 0
Hillsboro’s upcoming slate sets up more-or-less perfect for a Hawks team with much of its skill corps on the mend. There’s the winnable conference rematch with DeSoto, with its handy “revenge win”-opportunity, followed by even tougher foes on the regular season’s final two Fridays. The twist is that it won’t be a simple stepladder progression of playing once as a favorite, once as a popular pick to win, and then again as an underdog on the third weekend. Blue & White has to tackle Farmington, a side that appears to have one of Class 5’s best defenses, just after battling DeSoto. We want both Rosses healthy for that bad boy.
Herculaneum 49, Grandview 0
You wish Grandview could keep playing opponents like Herculaneum until facing Crystal City in 10/23’s Class 1 showdown. HHS takes its time, mostly running the football (and the clock) and is content to play hard-rosed defense and tackle-up. JHS and St. Vincent, by contrast, will throw the bean around in what could be longer and more draining contests, and at least Week 8’s counterpart Indians are showing off a truly ferocious defense. We’ll cross fingers to see 20+ kids dressed out on 10/23.
Jefferson 35, Perryville 7
It’s time to acknowledge that the 2026 Jefferson Blue Jays are for real. Standing at a perfect 4-0 in their conference, the Blue Jays can boast of being the second Tri-City team in two years to trick the Perryville Pirates with an early razzle-dazzle that scored the winning points and turned the momentum for good. Jefferson’s QB Sam Kerley, facing a 7-7 deadlock with the confident Pirates, swung a wink-wink lateral back to RB Logan Young, who lured the entire Perryville defense, the Perryville Pep Squad, the PHS Cheerleaders, Brent Roth’s coaching staff and some ball-boys to come up to try to tackle Young. Facing that horde of 30 or 40 individuals, Young made a heave-ho which just had enough air to reach WR Evan Botkin, who was all alone for the huge TD.
What’s more important than HC Matt Atley’s trick-play goodies? The fact that Jefferson has overcome the “bugaboo” that Perryville has given for the Blue Jays over an extended period. Jefferson’s no longer the program that underachieves against Perryville, the “Louisiana Tech” of local pigskin. QB Sam Kerley’s squad has improved its mental game just in time for an exciting home stretch, poised to bring a 5-0 conference record into a winner-take-all “Official-Not-Official QCC Championship Game” on October 23.
St. Pius 44, Lutheran St. Charles 6
Both teams had missteps in a matchup that may not have a rematch in 2027. Lutheran St. Charles waited until Friday morning prior to the game before officially demanding to have a 28-minute bout with an automatic running clock. The other implication behind that demand was that if Lutheran St. Charles didn’t get its way, the Cougars would forfeit their Homecoming Game. St. Pius X agreed, so as to not have that “(F)” added on its list of five victories, miss out on meeting an NFL big-shot, and screw up a ceremonial night at Lutheran St. Charles. Shortening the game was fine, but it wasn’t cool to wait until the final 24 hours to make a frantic push for it.
Players were ejected after a two-man scrum near the end of the second quarter, but it turned into a chill scene as each team took off running toward the isolated scuffle, and cooperated to bring it to a peaceful end. You don’t often see a “dual field-rush” in which the athletes are facing each other, as if to square off, but they’ve all got “Peace!” on their minds, so much so that the referees didn’t worry about that part. It was a crisp, clean contest overall (LSCHS does not look terrible) that made the spat into a total fluke.
Northwest 41, Parkway South 13
That makes 17 combined passing-rushing touchdowns this season for Cohenn Stark, the senior QB with brains like Napoleon who absolutely crushed his summer appearance on The Lions Den Podcast. It’s exciting that the podcast is more into Varsity Lions pigskin than ever.
The Geek is worried about Northwest’s upcoming Homecoming Game. We are going to keep a close watch for any news out of Normandy’s football stadium Saturday, not for scouting what ought to be a Jennings and Normandy mismatch, but to find out if it occurs! In Week 5, Northwest’s slated Week 7 foe Jennings was involved in the Warriors’ second mysterious forfeited game in one calendar year, giving up an “0-13-F” to Affton. Jennings has 15 seniors and 40+ total players listed with MSHSAA. It can’t possibly be a low-numbers roster crisis – so what’s going on? Adding insult, The Gridiron Geek likes Jennings pigskin a lot, and touted the Warriors as a fun rival for Cedar Hill in 2026. It’s going to be a very good sign for next Friday if Jennings performs this weekend.
Salisbury 66, Crystal City 0
Did head coach Craig Collins use the old “We just saw what we want to become” postgame talk following Salisbury’s Turbo Clock win over Crystal City? Mississippi Magazine does not mean to treat the occasion lightly, since it really is a sweet opportunity to play potential Show-Me Bowl-level teams in midseason, to find out where you stand against them on a spot-by-spot basis. The unbeaten Panthers are a good model for a developing team. But recall that Class 1 can be a free-for-all in which state-playoff stock rises and falls quickly. SHS is the model for winning right now. In 2023, while CCHS made its first Elite Eight, the Panthers finished just 4-6.
Seckman 28, Hazelwood Central 0
The Seckman Jaguars pulled off the throttle for this win, a Week 6 conquest in which Imperial got to 5-1 with more of a rotation roster than Festus had on the field against North County, albeit with many of the Jags’ changes still compelled by injury woes. Hazelwood does not have the marquee contender like Hazelwood East-2025 in the mix this year, but you have to be impressed by improvements in fundamentals at those schools. Hazelwood Central stopped Seckman High on downs near the goalline midway though the first half, making QB Jaxson Jablonski take to the air to mint the Jags’ second TD on a laser to junior Carter Baugh.
Seckman’s schedule is turning out to be slightly less fearsome than expected, though, considering that Ritenour and Parkway North won’t be pitting state-playoff contenders against the Jaguars in Weeks 8-9. But, The Valley still deserves better than to be mired at #4 in the Class 6, District 1 standings, Oakville’s softer schedule is making it into the “Perryville 2024” of that district this season, interloping between Northwest and Seckman’s point totals again, and threatening to prevent an NHS-SHS playoff rematch.
Photo Credits: Herculaneum High School Facebook, Instagram