Seems like our humble little Mississippi league with 5 teams in it has figured out how to whip Missouri’s state playoff field up, down, and sideways…through the snow if necessary. We can only say that the Tigers’ mean pigskin conference values quality over quantity.
The 2024 Festus Varsity Football Tigers are Show-Me Bowl bound, advancing to the MSHSAA Class 4 state championship with a dramatic 21-16 win over the brave Warrenton Warriors. Essien Smith was the kingpin of a mid-semifinal game surge which pushed Warrenton’s weighty defense through a heavy snow that no one had quite anticipated, nailing WR Trey Lacey (who else?) with a momentum-turning TD bomb and scampering for more points. Coach A. J. Ofodile gambled by giving Warrenton a safety on purpose, and merely a 5-point deficit, to try to improve FHS’s field position just as an injury made WHS shift into a dangerous new offense. Mason Schirmer’s front-7 fought with gallant stamina in the trenches during a final defensive stand, capped off by Jeremy Davis-Mayes’ leap and deflection of a desperation toss that splashed incomplete, clinching Festus High’s historic W at :18.
Black & Gold will advance to play Lutheran North, which played in and won its own heart-stopper for the second week in a row, in the state championship finals on Friday in Columbia, MO. The Varsity Tigers and Crusaders’ clash for a Class 4 championship will get the honor of leading the Show-Me Bowl as Game #1 this weekend!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FESTUS TIGERS – _ALL_ OF THEM – FROM PAST AND PRESENT. Special thanks also to the Mississippi Magazine readers who’ve stuck with our reporting throughout a long, cold November. We’ve got a feeling December’s big game will be worth all of it and more, with a SECOND school representing Highway A in Missouri’s Show-Me Bowl in as many seasons! You won’t need to “Show Me” how to enjoy this Bowl.