Week 8 “Table of Contests”
Page 1: Hillsboro Hawks at Farmington Black Knights
Page 2: Festus Tigers at Poplar Bluff Mules
Page 3: Ritenour Huskies at Seckman Jaguars
Page 4: St. Pius Lancers at Vianney Golden Griffins
Page 5: Webster Groves Statesmen at Northwest Lions
Page 6: St. Vincent Indians at Grandview Eagles
Page 7: Crystal City Hornets at Malden Green Wave
Page 8: Fredericktown Blackcats at Windsor Owls
Page 9: Riverview Gardens Rams at Fox Warriors
Page 10: DeSoto Dragons at Potosi Trojans
Page 11: Ste. Genevieve Dragons at Jefferson Blue Jays
Saturday Soiree: Herculaneum Blackcats at Perryville Pirates
Hillsboro Hawks at Farmington Black Knights
This is when we find out, folks. Tri-City fans have wanted to see our best Small Schools play our best Large Schools since the Jefferson County Conference broke in half over 20 years ago. It’s still not a reality again – yet – but the next best thing is having a powerhouse like Farmington meet Hillsboro seven days after facing the dynamo that is St. Pius X 2026. If the Hawks win, or even stay in a tight encounter for 48:00, we’ll know that our Class 4 powers would still make a formidable match for Class 3’s upstarts.
Then again, the 6-1 Hillsboro Hawks feel so hard to predict in October, any good-or-bad surprises this Friday night will stand more in the Hawks’ own accord. We know that the Hawks lost the line-of-scrimmage to Festus in Hillsboro’s only turn as the underdog so far this year. But the Hawks have about a 10-man skill contingent that can be so deadly working in concert, it can help the Hawks win on the LOS by keeping a defense off balance … and a chunk of that contingent was not healthy for Week 5.
Rice, Zimmerly, Ross, and Associates can keep Farmington’s defense from getting comfortable with a mix of hand-offs and throws from QB Aidan Fleming, yet any offense that’s going up against LB Josh McCarthy’s lineup is working with a tiny margin-of-error. The Hawks can’t fumble in the Red Zone again, drop passes in the open field, or run routes short of the first-down sticks, and anticipate scoring against a side led by a kid who compares to former HHS linebacker Austin Romaine as an impact-player.
Week 8’s match against Farmington’s fine-tuned offense is a test of whether Hillsboro’s defense can fulfill its role this postseason. With so many healthy two-way skill players to go with a nice, big Iron Man line, the Hawks ought to be able to get fresher legs in defensive backfield roles to help keep up with the Black Knights’ swift receivers. Fleming will have an easier time coping with Farmington’s pass rush if he doesn’t have to see snaps on defense. Hillsboro’s improved health gives HHS a mild chance.
It’s still hard not to pick Farmington to prevail, because it is a matchup of Class 4 versus Class 5 after all, and the Black Knights’ program is growing. Opposing HC Brent Eckley has got Farmington looking like the “Mini-Me” of the Jackson Indians. A miniature Jackson remains as hard to beat as Course 3 at Swing Around Fun Town. HHS has more clubs in the bag for this bout, at least. Friday’s wind could upset FHS’s passing – but it’s bound to ebb at sundown. PREDICTION: FARMINGTON 49, HAWKS 19
Festus Tigers at Poplar Bluff Mules
The Festus Tigers are finally catching a break in their out-of-conference schedule. Poplar Bluff has sunk into a deep swoon after beginning the year with a promising effort against Jefferson City. The Mules and the Jays have combined to win only a couple games since then. PBHS’s issue is a porous defense that is hardly giving its offense the chance to get rolling, surrendering Gazillions of rushing yards to just about every opponent, from North Point to Sikeston to Cape Girardeau. Chaminade’s quarterbacks combined for a 21-of-25 mark against the Mules, showing that pass defense has been a problem too.
An underdog with a really good defense and a lax offense could potentially trip the Tigers this season, by trapping them in an ugly low-scoring game. If you have a dodgy defense and a demoralized offense to go with it, the opportunity to upset Festus goes away, since you’re not capable of scoring enough TDs to win a shootout. If it is a windy night as forecasted, a host that’s weak defending the run is a perfect foil, should R-6 hope to avoid floating passes around. PREDICTION: TIGERS 42, POPLAR BLUFF 0
Ritenour Huskies at Seckman Jaguars
It’s the first chilly night of our Friday Night Lights season. The atmosphere in The Valley could burn the visiting Ritenour Huskies like powdered Hot Chocolate. If it doesn’t, the Huskies are good enough to bring Seckman’s momentum to a thudding halt. Overland’s current four-game win streak has been earned against a tougher schedule than Seckman High has had to face in this campaign.
Seckman will go into Week 8’s clash confidently no matter what The Geek says. Wouldn’t you? Nick Weidler is coming off a 200+ yard receiving night against Hazelwood East’s respectable midseason defense, his breakout effort sparked by QB Brody Kube’s speedy return from a collarbone fracture suffered late in summer. Seckman’s backfield and receiving corps is now boosted by Jaxson Jablonski’s return to taking touches, so that Kube’s brave return benefits the Jags at more than one position. SHS is knocking on the door of a prestigious league title, clearly miles ahead of where the program was when it fell to Pattonville.
Ritenour, regretfully, strikes The Geek as being just as good as Seckman in the key areas that shape this Friday’s matchup, starting at quarterback with the excellent Anthony Odom. When Kube drops back to throw, he might have to deal with an even fiercer pass rush than Jeff County’s strong Suburban League defenses have mustered this season, because Ritenour’s edge rusher Nate Anderson has six of the Huskies’ impressive 19 sacks, compared to 14 for the Jaguars through seven contests.
There is one decided weakness in Overland’s style that the Imperial defense can attack. Ritenour’s rush offense is as reliant on Odom as its effective aerial methods – Odom leads the Huskies in rushing yards by a wide margin. Kube has the benefit of faking hand-offs to dangerous rushers such as Jablonski, but Odom cannot make play-action fakes to himself. The Varsity Jaguars know that stopping the run on Ritenour’s early downs can make Overland’s offense very one-dimensional, a problem that Seckman shouldn’t have for a long time to come, given the wealth of skill players revealed in Kube’s supporting cast this season.
Seckman’s junior pass-rusher Nick Muessig has been absent from the lineup since leading the Jaguars with five sacks at the halfway pole. If he’s unavailable against Ritenour, it leaves Imperial without a tit-for-tat weapon to counter Anderson’s sacks.
Seckman could potentially riddle Ritenour with all kinds of runs and passes to different players, while the Huskies’ engine runs dangerously on one kid. But to win and move to 3-1 in head-to-head conference pool games, the Jaguars have to get to Odom’s pocket quicker than the Huskies can pressure Kube’s pocket, or Seckman could get picked apart by a QB with a 66% accuracy mark. We have to hope that Seckman pounds the rock and plays keep-away. PREDICTION: RITENOUR 27, JAGUARS 20
St. Pius Lancers at Vianney Golden Griffins
Oooooooh boy, The Gridiron Geek can’t wait to go to this Upset Special! St. Pius X, which has not boasted a regular-season win over a significantly favored team since about 1991, will be a St. Louis Post-Dispatch underdog at Vianney this Friday night, even if “Post-Dispatch” and “STLToday” pigskin coverage has become so scattered and nebulous that who-knows-where to read what’s behind the Paywalls.
Smilin’ Jack reporters from the big city, who seem to think 1994’s scores are predictive of today’s, would always nod to Vianney over St. Pius, a promoted C2 that has never beaten a C4 contender, notwithstanding the times DE Andy Held and the Lancers of the early 90s were able to knock off local Large Schools.
But why, you may ask, with Vianney riding in at a poor 2-5 compared to Hill Valley’s 5-2? TGG won’t say that Vianney’s schedule has been super hard. In fact, the Golden Griffins’ slate has been easier than it looks! Vianney has gone 2-5 versus a parade of legacy teams that aren’t having great seasons, as if a rural school was pitted against Borgia, Hannibal, Park Hills and so on. Chaminade and SLUH, the last two teams to vanquish Vianney this year, are paper-tigers in the Metro Catholic League.
We also have to admit that the Golden Griffins’ schedule is harder than that of just about any other Class 4 team this side of Kansas City, and that the campus by Sunset Hills is capable of putting on shootouts with CBC and other giants on its schedule. Vianney is fast, agile, and daring on the field, and the Golden Griffins have a knack for scoring points against the best defenses that they play – which is the reason why Vianney has gotten penciled in as a Class 4 district hopeful without putting winning marks on the mantle.
Vianney High lost to Sullivan 29-28 in 2025’s Class 4 district finals and was sorely disappointed not to have gone further, if that offers any perspective. 6’3” senior wideout Noah Williams is a comparable specimen next to SPX’s Harrison Ray; Williams drew so much attention via a 100-yard outing in Vianney’s impressive shootout with CBC – which the Griffins lost 56-28 – that QB Harlan Futrell Jr. found two other receivers on TDs and ran for another score.
Futrell Jr. is only a freshman, and he is subject to similar flaws as a greenhorn Evan Eckrich upon taking over the reins in 2025. Vianney’s signal-caller has thrown eight INTs while completing just over half of his throws, forcing the Griffins to lean on senior tailback Robert Eatheson, a 1000+ yard rusher through seven games, more often. As soon as the Lancers’ stout linemen can force any kind of negative running play, Vianney will have to take to the skies again – a gamble as Futrell’s attempts mount. Friday’s visiting St. Pius defense, swift on both edges, will try to pressure and harass Futrell into making more mistakes.
Meanwhile, the Lancers’ rushing offense is thundering with a two-headed monster in the backfield, giving Vianney a headache remembering that loss to Sullivan. SLUH rushed for 432 yards in its 42-12 conquest of Vianney last week, averaging a dominant 9+ YPC. An opponent like Vianney High, which values finesse over power, cannot do much to prevent that kind of onslaught from Cody Shaver and Brody Ervin in this Friday’s encounter. They will have a merry time trying to keep up on the scoreboard against SPX’s defense. We could be set for Hill Valley’s best regular-season road win in decades. PREDICTION: LANCERS 40, VIANNEY 27
Webster Groves Statesmen at Northwest Lions
Why is the Mississippi Conference (and St. Pius X) ranking higher than our Class 5-6 teams of the Suburban League in Jefferson County Power Poll charts? Those who would claim it’s because The Gridiron Geek grew up in the Herky and Festus area were not paying attention when Northwest cracked #1 for the first time earlier this season, nor did they notice when The Geek ranked the Hillsboro Hawks #1 in so many weeks in a row in the early 2020s, it was how “Plus ca Change” became a catchphrase here.
Highway A’s three powerhouses have a litany of solid games against Show-Me Bowl contenders – from Class 2 through Class 6 – that the Suburban League’s southern teams have not built up at this time. DeSmet, Cardinal Ritter, Lutheran North, Farmington, Kearney, Hannibal, and Valle Catholic – Highway A is about 3-10 against those teams in the past 4-5 years, but it has made noise and seldom suffered a whitewash by any of those opponents. Northwest stands out as our Suburban League bid that’s got a championship-level effort of some sort on 2026’s books, having fallen to Class 4’s #4 ranked UCity by only a few points.
It does stink that a few unlucky turns jilted a potential win over University City, and the chance at a 9-0 regular season. Northwest would love to vanquish a quality opponent in Week 8, before taking on Oakville for a league title and squaring off with Seckman in a playoff rematch, both tilts offering Cedar Hill a chance to make up for the anguish from that Lions Bowl defeat. Webster Groves, for reasons we’re about to peek at, will not provide that quality versus Northwest this week. However, it is still a landmark Friday night for the NHS Lions, in part because they’re favored by 50 over WGHS just three years after dropping a heartbreaker in the series.
Northwest vs Webster Groves is one of the only football games of the last 10 years to make The Geek cry. It was 2023 when the site was live-reporting coaches’ chats on Regional Radio’s Home Pools & Spas End Zone Show (a relic that we hope gets revived soon) as Northwest held a reported one-score lead over Webster Groves, hoping to end Cedar Hill’s losing streak that had lasted seasons. At about 10:45 PM, host Griffin Weinberg said, “I wish I didn’t have to tell y’all the final score that we just received.”
Northwest has gotten two-hundred-and-fifty-seven-thousand times better under Friday Night Lights since then. Webster Groves has gotten worse. Not only are this season’s Varsity Statesmen 3-3 against a decidedly weak schedule, Webster Groves lost to pedestrian Normandy Collaborative 26-11, a bigger margin-of-defeat than Northwest’s Week 7 foil Jennings had against the same foe, even though WGHS was presumably lined up without the suspension issues that has whittled Jennings’ roster down to the bone in October. The Statesmen can’t block, and make up for it by not tackling, losing to Parkway South 0-41 in Week 3.
HC Scott Gerling has used the easy victories of the last two weeks to work his plebe quarterback Carter Stark into the mix, while developing a nice receiving corps that’s got seven kids in multiple touches thus far. This Friday, it’s time to feed the backup RBs against the slippery-handed Statesmen, and see if there’s a third rusher to push or substitute for Chase “Cuz” Belcher and Will Murphy. The junior RB Shane Moore, who Northwest stole from Herky if his name is any indication, has two TDs on the year.*
(* Bad joke ^ not an accusation of player poaching! Shane Moore, Gabe Moore, lots “Moore” to go around closer to Dunklin, and on Northwest’s defense for that matter.)
There’s one more week of coasting prior to a pair of crucial conference and district combat. That’s fine, because any school that was flagged out of a victory over a #4 ranked team deserves a few cheapies along the way. The Geek, by the way, also lived in Webster Groves a long time, and got to know some WGHS teachers and students. Does that history give The Geek rabid favoritism for Webster Groves in football? See this prediction and find out! PREDICTION: LIONS 56, WEBSTER GROVES 7
St. Vincent Indians at Grandview Eagles
Can we call it off? It’s a foregone conclusion, but Grandview’s number of healthy players for Weeks 9 and 10 is not. PREDICTION: IT’S SENIOR NIGHT, SO THE PLANK (AND THE CARPET) MUST BE WALKED
Crystal City Hornets at Malden Green Wave
One way to look at Week 8’s road trip is that the Hornets have finally been tossed a softball. Malden not only shares the Hornets’ record of 1-6, but the Green Wave is not even its usual fun-offense, bad-defense-self these days, averaging a hideous < 10 bones across 2025 and 2026’s games thus far, outside of a 34-0 win over what looks like MSHSAA Class 2’s ultimate caboose of 2026, East Prairie. Malden, depending how you perceive substitutions in Friday Night Lights, has been stone shut-out since Sept. 4.
But as much as you hate to say it, Crystal City’s defense has a way of waking hapless offenses up. CCHS let Duchesne control the game in last weekend’s loss, got waylaid at the line-of-scrimmage by teams like Winfield and Affton earlier this year, and helped make Veritas Christian Academy into unlikely Homecoming Heroes by surrendering another four touchdowns to a “softie.”
Road trips are the Hornets’ kryptonite. They’re visiting a club that lost 0-48 to guest Caruthersville in midseason, which sounds ordinary until you realize the Caruthersville Tigers might manhandle the Hornets’ dicey fundamentals to the tune of 75-0 in a common-opponent matchup. If Malden’s offense is just effective enough to move the sticks against a defense that turns into pancakes too often, that puts Crystal in its danger zone of limited possessions, potential turnovers, and other drive-killers.
We hope that the Hornets see this prediction and get mad. Getting mad, and maybe a little mean, on the gridiron has not been a high-enough priority for Hornets in 2025 and 2026. CCHS boosters should not play down Malden as an opponent in public, or in private for that matter. Every row to plow is a hard one for a struggling team. Instead of trying to talk ourselves into thinking that Malden is as poor as East Prairie or Missouri Military Academy, it’s better to get mad about the media’s natural reaction to a disappointing one-and-two-thirds seasons, and then do something about it. PREDICTION: MALDEN 16, HORNETS 14
Fredericktown Blackcats at Windsor Owls
Fredericktown could hope to do to Windsor’s offense what Festus did to Hannibal’s, if on a lower scale with more pedestrian players. The burly Blackcats were able to stuff Potosi’s attack while defeating the Trojans 20-12. But that was Fredericktown’s best effort of the season – since then, the Blackcats have slumped just about as badly as the Owls have. That makes it less likely that Fredericktown will crash through Windsor’s tightest formations and bust up QB Jett Black’s option plays.
Here is Windsor’s chance to see that it’s really not far behind DeSoto’s improving team, since if the Owls’ defense has a better evening, Black can do as well as Mr. Kisner versus Fredericktown. PREDICTION: ALBINO BIRDS 28, FREDERICKTOWN 20
Riverview Gardens Rams at Fox Warriors
Fox’s mismatch with Riverview Gardens feels like Week 8’s least remarkable pairing. It’s super sad that Riverview Gardens has experienced roster crunches, discipline issues, and consecutive shutout losses on the way to 3-4 this campaign, because Riverview Gardens is an historic program that became the first #8 seed to ever upset a #1 seed in district play when this weekend’s visiting Rams brand beat #1 seeded Clayton in 2015. We’d love to see the Rams fare better in 2026.
But if you think Weeks 8-9 aren’t critical to the Fox Warriors, think again. By hitting the football over the net, so to speak, against two straight underdogs this Friday and next, QB Jude Pribish’s outfit can not only play its way into a 5-4 record, but also a #2 district seed, to go with a precious bye in Week 10. There is a path for a well-rested Fox lineup to play in Week 12’s district finals.
St. Mary’s, currently #3 in Class 5, District 1 beneath Fox High at #2, is probable to plunge into fourth-place standing behind Cape Central, which boasts an easier final two contests when compared to South Side’s punishing finishing stretch against DeSmet and Rock Bridge. It would make Arnold likely to host Cape Girardeau in a delightful Week 11 semifinal, following the Q-Final bye that CHS wouldn’t get. This can work out as sweet as Ma & Pa Kettle’s! PREDICTION: WARRIORS 41, RIVERVIEW GARDENS 0
DeSoto Dragons at Potosi Trojans
Cannon Kisner has competition in the TD hero category this week. Potosi’s senior running back Carter Pyatt is soaring in off a “Kisner”-level performance of over 300 rushing yards in the Class 3 Trojans’ 44-21 victory over Perryville in Week 7. Pyatt’s presence threatens to tip the balance toward Potosi in a contest that should otherwise favor DeSoto and its star quarterback. It’s probable that Pyatt has had a “Kamden Yates 2025”-style year in which he wasn’t feeling great at the outset, but came on in subsequent weeks to take over the backfield. Pyatt raced for 500+ of his 800-or-so yards on the last three dates alone.
Coach Schmidt is pretty good at plotting to limit a star opposing RB. He had to do it a lot at Festus, or else the Tigers would never have won the Highway A Game over Hillsboro. We think the Dragons’ crafty defense will be asked to contain Pyatt at midfield, then hunt for key tackles-for-loss when Potosi penetrates near the Red Zone. Meanwhile, DeSoto can win this Friday by capitalizing in plus-territory scenarios of the Dragons’ own. All things being equal, you’d rather have a great QB than a tailback if a tilt’s outcome is contingent on scoring more goal-to-go TDs, since DeSoto’s dual-threat quarterback gives the Dragons more options than handing-off or going play-action. Mr. Kisner will hit enough paydirt to trump the Trojans. PREDICTION: DRAGONS 28, POTOSI 16
Ste. Genevieve Dragons at Jefferson Blue Jays
Ste. Genevieve’s 29-21 victory over Potosi showed that the Varsity Dragons can stand up to a lively rushing offense. Friday’s visitors could have more problems trying to contain Jefferson’s QB Sam Kerley, who is completing 63% of his passes with a 13-to-3 TD-to-INT ratio, and recently passed the 1000-yard mark for the year. If the Dragons defend the Blue Jays and produce a victory, it may be because Jefferson’s inked into a #2 district seed and will play for a conference title in Week 9 – two distractions which could muddle the mojo of JHS’s winning streak. PREDICTION: STE. GENEVIEVE 26, BLUE JAYS 17
Herculaneum Blackcats at Perryville Pirates (Saturday)
What is it with Perryville, and not playing on Fridays if they can get away with it? There are benefits to skipping Friday Night Lights and making up your own version of High School pigskin that occurs on other days of the week. In St. Louis, Saturday afternoon was once an hour filled with local football, not just the handful of contests that MSHSAA’s weekly scoreboard promotes now. Personally, The Geek thinks that Varsity coaches get hooked on their advantages from not having to coach Friday nights, including the benefit of getting to go to games or watch MSHSAA TV instead, to be fans, who can also scout the heck out of it.
The fact that it’s Perryville’s Homecoming Game makes it weird, however. Do they have the dance on Friday evening, or on gameday? Perryville’s kids must be ambitious, asking kids from other schools to go to the Homecoming Dance with them, so that Perryville High has to do everything on alternate days or else everyone would get turned down and they’d be sad at the dance. Uhh, if you’ve got a BETTER explanation for why Perryville football is allergic to Friday night games, we’d love to hear your theory!
We can utilize the formula for forecasting Herculaneum-Perryville that Mississippi Magazine used to predict a few other games – for the most part successfully – this fall. Last year’s tussle was a tight one, blown open by a nice trick-play gambit on behalf of Blane Boss’ coaching staff. If either team has gotten substantially better, or worse since 2025, this prediction should be a cinch!
The conundrum of that angle – from an analyst’s POV and not a Herculaneum native’s – is that it leads to Herculaneum beating Perryville and extending the 4-3 Blackcats’ winning streak to four victories. Perryville is struggling, abiding HC Brent Roth’s Week 1 warning that Pirates viewers shouldn’t expect more Barrett Wheeler-level glory from this season’s outfit, falling by lopsided finals to DeSoto, St. Vincent, Potosi, and Jefferson. Herky’s defense can cause Perryville more problems in 2026 than when the Pirates had a sturdier blocking effort in the trenches. Blackcat RBs Austin Brinkley and Luke Smith have hijacked a crowded backfield to give Herky’s run game a boost, combining for 15 TDs and nearly 9 YPC. If the whole HHS backfield is healthy, PHS has problems.
Yes, but – don’t the Herculaneum Blackcats go on road trips and underachieve by 22,549 points occasionally? It occurred in 2024 when the Blackcats went to little Cuba and lost in a blowout. It happened again in 2025 when the Blackcats lost at Windsor and Grandview, then labored to defeat Bayless on its home field. This year, the devil jumped up against a Fredericktown program that had been in such a poor, sloppy bout with Perryville in Week 1 that it made Roth’s voice gravel-y just to recap the slog on the air back in August. Herky fell to Fredericktown 30-7, almost the same score from the letdown at Cuba’s “Bonners Ferry Field” two seasons ago. We have only this season’s 35-8 conquest at Cuba as evidence that the Blackcats have learned to travel well.
Roth is aware that each of Herculaneum’s QBs have struggled through the air at times, and that the Blackcats are passing even less than they usually do, which isn’t often. Perryville, with whichever stout linemen are left over from 2025’s bigger team, can stack the line on Brinkley and Smith, forcing Herky’s offense into those passing scenarios in which the Cats are less comfortable.
The Geek thinks Herky’s defense can get the edge on Perryville, however, considering how well the Blackcats have substituted in warmer weeks leading up to Saturday’s scrap. Herculaneum’s defense is either mighty deep, or the JV has been taking dates off, because the Blackcats have gotten more players into the tackling effort alone than many teams’ lists of student-athletes bearing stat-lines put together. By STLToday’s count, more than 30 Blackcats have multiple total tackles on the season so far. HHS substituted some of those players into games that weren’t all that lopsided, showing that there’s trust in the underclass.
Perryville’s edge on the QCC was always that the Pirates had more roster numbers, and an ability to wear down smaller programs by the second half. Funny that just as the Blackcats and Pirates are in the same Class 3, it’s Herky that looks like it might be able to wear down Perryville, a club that’s not even efficient with its starting lineup. PREDICTION: BLACKCATS 24, PERRYVILLE 14
Photo Credits: Saxony Lutheran High School Facebook, Shake It Up Entertainment, St. Pius Football Facebook, Ritenour Huskies HUDL