Jefferson Blue Jays at St. Pius Lancers
Buckle up, padawans. We’re about to see a Highway 61 rivalry rumble that could only happen in 2023. Strangely enough, “Hill Valley” – nicknamed after the 1950s town in “Back To The Future” – is ushering in a whole new era.
Why is The Geek even going to live-blog Week 4’s tussle at SPX? With the I-55 Conference clash garnering more TV, radio, and blog coverage than local small schools can usually punt a pigskin at, doesn’t it break our tradition of live-blogging games that aren’t being followed by everyone already? Yes and no. It might help to have a reporter along who’s been “hyping” 2023’s Jefferson at St. Pius X game for his entire career, in a manner of speaking.
The Geek was chatting with Jefferson principal Alex Rouggly in the 2010s, when Rouggly was still in the middle of his tenure as Jefferson’s head coach. JHS had thrown a couple of TD passes on the Friday prior. “Yeah, I like power football and running games myself,” Rouggly chuckled, “except when you toss a few downfield, it counts for points just the same.” Your blogger assumed that the clever, calculating Rouggly must be going through a bout of Class 2 “inferiority complex,” making fun of his team’s getting away from its bread-and-butter to pass the ball around a bit. “Passing is the next step in the evolution at a school like Jefferson,” TGG said hopefully. “Every football team on almost all levels will be trying to be the Baltimore Ravens within a few years.” That was a dumb thing to say, TGG instantly thought. 31 NFL teams are scared to try Baltimore’s ideas, and it’s MSHSAA we’re talking about here.
The head coach smiled silently.
Now, lo and behold, IT’S HAPPENING. Jefferson’s coaching staff has been fascinated by the “Run and Shoot” offense all along, since the Blue Jays’ normal offense is run out of the exact same formation. Heck, the coaches who invented Jefferson’s standard go-to option playbook knew the old coaches who invented the Run and Shoot offense, and they got the idea from the wide-open passing attack’s setup in the first place. Rouggly, and Jefferson High’s current head coach Matt Atley, were just waiting for a quarterback with an exceptional arm to come along, and now they’ve got one in senior QB Kole Williams. Williams is 33-of-50 with a sterling 8 TDs and 1 INT thus far, bearing in mind that the signal-caller hasn’t exactly had to lead any break-neck comeback bids in the 4th quarter.
Jefferson’s offensive line and defensive line have begun the year playing 10x more physical than they were given offseason credit for, giving up a spare long TD to Fredericktown and no other opposing TDs throughout a 3-0 start. Nonetheless, the Class 2 brand is pitching-and-catching the ball as successfully as any team known for a spread offense. People can’t say JHS “can’t come from behind” anymore. The Jefferson Blue Jays are succeeding with a rock ’em-sock ’em brand of pigskin that should end all talk about how 11-on-11 rushing teams can’t pass. Williams and other QBs even debuted in the Shotgun on Jamboree Week, a weapon that could be used at SPX this Friday.
Meanwhile, the St. Pius Lancers, to everyone’s surprise, have now become Highway 61’s other exciting “Multiple Offense” team that’s still wrapped in tradition on every snap. St. Pius X destroyed a burly, tough Grandview lineup in Week 3 with precision passing and rapid tosses outside from the Lancers’ new bunched-up “Wishbone” offense. The play-action bomb was a seldom used weapon for old-fashioned teams that used the Wishbone. St. Pius’ burgeoning team, led by QB James Smith, can shift out of triple-tights and execute a 4-wide play for a touchdown, or just effectively use the sidelines in ways that you’d never expect from scrunched-up kids between the hashes.
SPX has allowed many more TDs than Jefferson as the 3-0 rivals prepare to meet head-on. But the St. Pius defense has allowed only a couple of meaningful scores, and has had to play against more dangerous running backs and quarterbacks over the last 3 weekends. We don’t suspect that either JHS or St. Pius will have a marked edge on defense or special teams, given that all 4 combined units are proving as worthy as they are youthful. But you’d be crazy to think the defenses won’t be bamboozled at times by Smith and Williams’ dynamite attacks, as Lancers and Blue Jays alike try to adjust to a crosstown rival running more wild Xs and Os at them than ever.
Box scores like “Windsor 7, Herky 6” and “Louisiana 18, Crystal City 12” seem to have gotten on the wires moreso than any wonderful performances from Seckman, Hillsboro, and Festus so far. The local pundit Jeff Whitener argued on Twitter/X this week that Jefferson County football has been sloppy and poor for 3 weekends in a row. (Given the county’s excellent regular-season W/L record in 2023 so far, that must mean that our neighbors are playing some real lousy pigskin.) Jefferson and St. Pius have had their share of tight, sloppy games in the series – rivalry battles always do. But we’re not so sure that Week 4’s scrum at Hill Valley won’t end any talk of “sloppy” or “boring” football played by local teams. It’s poised to be an absolute barn-burner at SPX this Friday night.
How to predict a winner? Jefferson’s defense has to prepare for 2 separate looks from James Smith’s offense, while the Lancers must only prepare for one very complex attack from the Blue Jays. Jefferson and St. Pius each have weirdly inexperienced groups in the trenches to be taking into a contenders’ clash, but each school’s defensive coordinator has reason to sit back and let his opponent move the bean between the 20-yard lines. Smith and Williams are both so good on the move that a modest amount of edge-pressure will probably just spark the wunderkind rival QBs into flushing away, making plays via the ground and air, and moving the team’s drive faster. Jefferson’s coaches are good at drawing-up pocket pressure right up the middle, a factor that will be critical as conference foes try desperately to bring down an opponent’s deadly QB. But if the Blue Jays do produce an indomitable rush up the middle, SPX has proven it can go quickly around the outside from any formation.
St. Pius X won’t enjoy a home team’s advantage in crowd noise, with both campuses so familiar to everyone on Highway 61-67. But the Lancers may boast a home field advantage from the long, thick, squishy turf at Hill Valley that’s modeled after Notre Dame’s vintage grounds-keeping. Jefferson’s woodside track being just a little faster to play and practice on, the difference in a scrum full of throws and catches could be Smith’s ability to time his WRs perfectly, while Williams might expect a receiver to be just a tad further upfield than they are on the sodden field. One bad whiff – and a pick? – through the air on 3rd down could be enough to turn the tide in a small-school battle quite unlike any Missouri football we’ve come to know in the past. PREDICTION: LANCERS 31, BLUE JAYS 27
Hillsboro Hawks at North County Raiders
The Gridiron Geek just spent so much of his hot-air on the game at Hill Valley that if we keep it up, things might get a little icy by the end. But another reason to keep the rest of Week 4’s forecasting short-and-sweet is that there’s bound to be a whole lot of lopsided bouts in the mix, including (maybe just maybe) Hillsboro at North County.
Do the NCHS Raiders really have enough to keep up with Hillsboro in ’23? The visiting team has kept its state-contender form from last season, while the home team has taken a step backward after reaching the Class 4 semifinals. It wasn’t like a Brian Jones squad to only put a couple of token TD drives together versus DeSoto following a roaring 14-0 start at Joachim Junction. Hillsboro wideout Keiten Pipkins might have snagged 4 touchdown passes vs DeSoto in similar circumstances. PREDICTION: HAWKS 42, NORTH COUNTY 24
Festus Tigers at DeSoto Dragons
Week 5’s theme for the Jefferson County Power Poll will be the hard, adventurous, and sometimes crazy schedules taken on by local contenders over the last 5 weeks of this regular season. Festus R-6, for example, will play its last cupcake-game until at least Week 10 against the Dragons, who’ll put up a better fight than Windsor on defense due to the upbeat vibe under FHS’s old skipper. PREDICTION: COACH SCHMIDT 10,000, TIGERS 48, DRAGONS 0
Confluence Prep Titans at Crystal City Hornets
Three Rivers Confluence has scored more than 3 times this season, including a 19-point showing against victorious Monticello High of Illinois. Far from reminding TGG of Thomas Jefferson, that’s more like the old Hopscotch rhyme:
My boy-friend’s-name-is-JELL-O
He lives-in-Mon-tic-ell-o
With a pim-ple-on-his-nose
And 3 fat toes
And that-is-how the sto-ry goes (CLAP!)
But it also reminds Mississippi Magazine that Illinois small-school football is “poor and sloppy” a lot of the time. Confluence didn’t have enough kids prepared to play Normandy in Week 1, and may have turned to the IL ranks for new opponents hoping to play against softer competition, as compared to fellow Class 3 and Class 4 programs of MSHSAA. The Titans must prove they can score on a solid defense from Missouri before we’ll make last year’s mistake and not forecast a shut-out for the CCHS Hornets. PREDICTION: HORNETS 52, CONFLUENCE 0
St. Vincent Indians at Herculaneum Blackcats
One thing about St. Vincent’s teams is that they play like opportunistic veterans, even when the lineup is full of underclassmen. The consistency of St. Vinny’s means that the Herky Blackcats are cooked for this Friday, unless a ton of worrisome Dunklin R-5 injuries heal up in record time. PREDICTION: ST. VINCENT 36, BLACKCATS 0
Hallsville Indians at Grandview Eagles
Hallsville may turn out to prove The Geek a liar, and be as difficult of a task for Grandview as a given St. Dominic team on the schedule would be. The 2-1 Hallsville Indians are coming off a District championship season and an electrifying Week 3 shoot-out win over Boonville in which 100+ total points were scored. It’s also scary that the Indians play games vs Blair Oaks and California, the program that used to win Show-Me Bowls wearing those terrifying giant Cs on their helmets, like the children’s T-shirts at the end of COLOSSUS: The Forbin Project.
Grandview has a path to victory this Friday, though, and it has something to do with the long path Hallsville’s bus will have to take to arrive at Winchester Avenue. If the Indians are stricken with stiff legs and slow to get out of the blocks, an early GHS lead could create a situation where Grandview’s big linemen can control a slower game, controlling the ball in between Hallsville’s brief all-out attempts to score. Not too unlike how the Birds of Prey conquered St. Vincent on Senior Night in 2021. PREDICTION: HALLSVILLE 34, EAGLES 21
DuBourg Cavaliers at Windsor Owls
Those WHS receivers who’re spending their Saturday mornings confused (and waking up with less-calloused hands than they expected) over the Owls’ cautious offense can spend this Friday in a good mood, since Bishop DuBourg’s talented QB Jack Masters will be pressured in the pocket thanks to his undersized offensive line, and that should allow Windsor’s 2-way speedsters to have a little fun running with some INTs back toward the house.
If only the coaches would recognize they can run on offense, too. PREDICTION: ALBINO BIRDS 35, DUBOURG 19
Fox Warriors at Ritenour Huskies
Arnold walks the plank against a team that could win MSHSAA’s Class 6 championship. PREDICTION: RITENOUR 55, WARRIORS 7
Mehlville Panthers at Seckman Jaguars
Like the Festus Tigers, the Seckman Jaguars have exactly one more easy week to go. PREDICTION: SECKMAN 42, MEHLVILLE 0
Lafayette Lancers at Northwest Lions
The Suburban League’s color-code includes a divison known as “Snowball in Hell,” which is the color Northwest has found itself wearing in some of these cursed conference games. PREDICTION: LAFAYETTE 44, LIONS 12