Festus 30, Rolla 14
The Gridiron Geek has begun the 2025 season with a set of the worst predictions you’ve ever seen. You know how rap music fans started wearing that T-Shirt, “Real Bad?” Mississippi Magazine’s predictions were REAL BAD and then some on Friday. It rubs salt in the wound that for all of 2024’s screwed up facts on the Tigers (“Perry 100% healthy! Bridgett at starting WR! It’s Avery Edwards with the season-saving pass deflection! No wait, that was Jeremy Davis-Mayes! WHICH ONE OF THE HANSON BROTHERS IS THAT?!”) the blog did our all-time best forecasting scores for JeffCo in general and for Midmeadow Lane specifically last year. The Friday Night Predictions rescued The Geek’s credibility, yet they’ve started this season like poop.
Sometimes, though, it’s great to be wrong. That goes for Festus head coach A.J. Ofodile, too, since Ofodile seemed to agree with TGG that the Rolla Bulldogs would have the Black & Gold’s number this August, warning the FHS fan base about his defense “falling short” against teams of Class 5. Absolutely nothing about the 1-0 Tigers’ effort at Rolla fell short in any way, save for a style-points drive at the end that still drained the clock.
If Week 1’s defense “fell short,” you would hate to see one that goes the distance. Festus stumped the burly Bulldogs almost immediately, allowing one or two first downs before settling in, setting the edge, and slowing Rolla’s offense to a crawl, just like the Tigers did to the Bulldogs last summer. The host Bulldogs, who defeated St. Mary’s and St. Dominic back-to-back last autumn, would need a long pass and a kick return to score their only two TDs.
Then it was time for Parker Perry to steal the show. It was 3:00 in when Perry made like Cole Rickermann on a 3rd-down-and-10, hitting wideout David Russell with a perfect strike at the 50-yard line. Russell appeared to lose traction on Rolla’s natural turf before cleverly stopping to shake off his potential tackler, then scampering for the TD. Perry hit Jackson Frank for another long TD in the first quarter, later finding the TE Brayden Wilkes for two more TD passes that gave Black & Gold’s new gunslinger four touchdown tosses. Wilkes netted a night similar to TE Aiden Clifton’s epic Week 6 last season.
Perry’s running and scrambling ability also stood out, though it’s hard to share in the rush yards with a backfield of Leuontae Williams, Kamden Yates, and Omauri Anderson racing with the rock. Once blessed by a two-TD lead, the Tigers went into their mode of “taking the air out of the football” as Dan Dierdorf would say, utilizing time-consuming drives on the ground to wear down the Bulldogs. Yates and Williams were flying up the field on Festus’ second possession onward, so the choice to have Anderson take over in the second half was a big-picture move to get another RB warmed up.
A.J. Ofodile is the finest head coach in Festus pigskin history. There’s no longer any doubt about it. All due respect to Bob Hollmann, Joel Critchlow, and Russ Schmidt, but Friday’s debut win was so impressive that it almost didn’t seem real as it happened. Was that footage of 2024’s state runner-up Tigers on MSHSAA TV, with a Bulldog logo at midfield superimposed over the Tiger? Ofodile had complained about 80% of his starting defense getting turned over this year. The Geek complained about the loss of speed on defense with Trey Lacey’s alumni class moving on. Rolla High’s beefier-than-ever lineup will go on to average 300 rush yards against Large Schools in 2025. None of that seemed to matter, as the FHS defense swallowed Rolla whole again.
What’s more, Coach O has brought another A-#1 team into the fold just as Black & Gold was supposed to be having a hangover. We’ve watched Park Hills Central go from a Class 3 championship to 6-5 and a struggle to beat Fredericktown the next season. We saw Hillsboro’s runner-up team from Class 4’s Show-Me Bowl lose to Perryville in the playoffs less than a year later. For the Tigers to ward off the natural emotional letdown so quickly that Festus can take a long bus rude and spoil Rolla in Week 1 is fantastic. It puts Ofodile, along with Jim Sardo, Rob Pryor, and other long-time Festus coaches within a pantheon of the best gridiron teachers in eastern MO. Week 2’s opponent Francis Howell Central will visit one very happy campus at FHS.
Windsor 36, Herculaneum 28 (2 OT)
The Geek bears a burden as Jeff County’s only candid sportswriter when a score like “Windsor 36, Herky 28” comes across the wires. By tradition, the JCL and other newspapers will play-up Windsor’s dramatic win “to go 1-0” after pretending to rank all teams even in the summer. They treat it like the Carolina Panthers beating the New York Giants in overtime to go 1-0 for the new NFL season. Who says Carolina can’t go to the Super Bowl? The Windsor defense will get credit for stuffing QB Keaton Reeves’ opposing offense on the goal-line in Double OT, and the Owls richly deserve that. Imperial’s got a new sophomore starting-QB in Jett “Who Needs a Geek Nickname” Black. It’s good to know his offense began with a big day.
But every NFL season is a brand-new deal. That’s not the case for Friday Night Lights, in which we’ve been waiting for the two bottom-ranked teams in the Jefferson County Power Poll to have a lopsided game in Week 1, which would tell us that the lopsided winner was ready to take on #1 thru #10. That would be worth one boring game at Windsor or Herky, but every bout between the two programs just seems to get closer and closer. Windsor gave up way more yards than any of four other Mississippi Conference teams would surrender against a Small School with one win in the last dozen games.
At least it was a lively game full of offense. That’s the best news for Herculaneum or Windsor fans, once the smoke clears from Friday’s drama anyway. It would be worse to see Windsor and Herky holding each other to 200 yards in a “16-7” type of defensive battle, which would tell Mississippi Magazine that Windsor and Herculaneum retain hard-working, passionate groups on defense – and defense only – to go with more sludgy offense like 2024’s. Reeves and Black should go about hypnotizing their troops into thinking Fredericktown = WHS and Affton = HHS respectively, and they’ll be alright in Week 2.
Parkway West 28, Seckman 27
Russell Korando tried to warn us. The Jefferson County Leader published its one-and-only preseason profile of a St. Louis player when Korando spent a paragraph to praise Parkway West’s quarterback Brett Ottensmeyer. The Missouri State recruit rocked Seckman’s defense for 300+ yards and 4 touchdown passes to outscore the Jaguars by a point this weekend, putting an end to Imperial’s 22-consecutive-game win streak on the home turf of Rock Creek Valley.
Seckman never has it easy against great passing teams. If Parkway West turns out to be as dangerous as Jackson when passing the bean this season, then allowing just 28 points (and none in the 4th quarter) is a step up for the Seckman Jaguars against a wide-open title contender. What’s more disappointing is that the Jaguars’ offense sputtered, never manufacturing enough yards on the ground to open up QB Brody Kube’s own receivers on the outside. Seckman, frustratingly, spent the last 18:00-or-so of the contest sitting behind 28-27, but unable to get even a FG to win.
Seckman’s upside is that that sloppy Half #2 by both teams had “Week 1 Extended Jamboree” written all over it. We will know more about the Jaguars after a massive Week 2 tilt at Fox that the SHS kids might’ve been looking forward to.
Northwest 56, Sullivan 6
Woo hoo! Korando’s reporting shines again as Northwest validates Scott Gerling’s forecast of “lethal” Lions offense this season. Cedar Hill manufactured 535 total yards, forced more turnovers than touchdowns allowed, and passed for two scores without throwing a single, solitary incompletion.
Cohenn Stark is everything we thought he would be as a junior. The upstart QB led his team with a thrilling 271 rush yards and 4 TDs on the ground. The Geek forgot that Omarion Frazier was returning for a senior season at WR, giving Stark a magnificent long-bomb weapon against teams that try to load up their run defense. Winning is doubly good for Northwest right now. It gives the Lions a path to bigger things, and it quiets complaints about Gerling.
Jefferson 52, Priory 7
We’re pleased to see Jefferson off-and-rolling with a bigger blowout of Priory than the Blue Jays mustered in 2024. Only half of QB Cooper Frisk’s stat line appears to be uploaded at STLToday (maybe only 24:00 worth?) but a scan through MSHSAA TV’s footage from Friday reveals that Frisk jumped on the first opportunities he had to take command against the Ravens, throwing a smart 50-50 football to WR Noah Buehler on Jefferson’s first play from scrimmage, then capitalizing on sophomore Parker Taylor’s punt return into the Red Zone to score via a shifty 11-yard run on JHS’s second turn.
Park Hills Central’s hangover of 2024 did not help Jefferson against CHS at this time last summer. But following a crisp debut from a Blue Jays team that even grumpy old coaches are willing to call prodigious on the practice field, we’re guessing the Rebels won’t waltz away from JHS on Turbo Clock time after the recent MSHSAA Class 3 champs from Park Hills Central cross over a Plattin Creek bridge (or two) to visit Jefferson High School this Friday.
Fox 27, Mehlville 7
We’ve ragged Mehlville for its meek losing seasons, to the point of giving the MHS Panthers the nickname “Meh.” Friday’s 27-7 loss to Fox, however, is a rare case of a single unit from a losing team becoming the story of the game with its courage and persistence. Mehlville High couldn’t stop QB Chandler Price’s offense from accumulating first downs, and it especially couldn’t do anything worth a lick on offense, netting less than 100 total yards. MHS quarterback Cameron “Colonel” Trautman threw almost as many interceptions (4) as completions (6) as Fox won the yardage battle three-fold.
What the Panthers did do was tackle. They tackled, contained, and corralled the Warriors’ efforts at breakaway runs again and again following D.J. Cox’s lonely long scamper for a TD in Quarter 1, leaving Arnold ahead only 13-0 at halftime of a game in which bad breaks were followed by punts instead of explosive plays to catch up to the sticks. Mehlville forced Fox into another “Cattle Drive” that was foiled by a 95-yard scoop-and-score that produced Mehlville’s only touchdown. Cox ran for a TD on the ensuing kickoff return, establishing the senior as Fox’s foremost weapon until further notice.
Did it help both teams? Mehlville can now say it has a defense, at the very least. Arnold’s kids showed resilience in a scenario that could have been the Perfect Storm – a team letting down in the final 12:00 because it can do everything but score points. Fox goes straight into hosting a massive game against Seckman in Week 2. Mehlville’s defense has a fascinating Week 2 matchup with Northwest that’s coming up the pike.
Sikeston 70, Crystal City 6
It was a catastrophe from start-to-finish. Crystal City embarrasses the Sunken Place with its worst performance at home since losing the District Q-Finals to Louisiana in 2022, spoiling head coach Craig Collins’ debut with an ugly loss to a team Crystal City High School led at halftime of Week 1 last year. Sikeston also becomes the new leader of all teams to ever out-play their Friday Night Predictions, with nearly an 80-point swing in favor of SHS.
The CCHS Hornets played like a team scared to screw up in front of Collins, the most ballyhooed new coach of at least a decade in Crystal City pigskin. As a result, they screwed up badly, over and over again. The hapless Hornets coughed up two footballs in their own territory right away, while blowing more assignments on defense than the Detroit Lions letting George Plimpton score a touchdown. Sikeston took advantage of every opportunity to FINALLY look like a legitimate Class 4 team after all these years. The visiting Bulldogs poured it on for a Turbo Clock in the second quarter.
Crystal’s postgame stats look about right for a team that just lost by 60 points unexpectedly. What’s weird, though, is that much of the Hornets’ yardage came in the early going against Sikeston’s senior troops. Once they knew an 0-1 record on home turf was inevitable, the Crystal City Hornets couldn’t wait to get off the field and go to bed. The emotional crash hurt Crystal City far worse than any of Sikeston’s forced turnovers in the game’s first half.
The Geek has a feeling that if Sikeston is beating Poplar Bluff by midseason, some of the sting of Week 1’s loss will go away at that point. Crystal City’s boys will know then that an upset win – and it would have been an “upset win” no matter what Mississippi Magazine got wrong – against Sikeston would probably have come at the cost of a bruising, bloody battle that left too many Hornets injured. Crystal City football is not designed to defeat Hillsboro’s playoff rivals from Class 4, District 1, and it shouldn’t be asked to try. A better Week 1 effort might have led to another halftime lead, but not to a W.
This week’s road trip to Louisiana High might help the Hornets settle in and start to play well. Moreover – believe it or not – Week 1 was a GREAT week for Crystal City’s team for reasons that go far beyond Friday’s lousy loss. MSHSAA has played Crystal City, Grandview, Louisiana, and Van-Far in one of the fairest and most evenly matched Districts that we’ve ever gotten in Missouri’s Class 1 bracket – or any Missouri bracket. No matter what happened Friday at the hands of Sikeston and Quincy Notre Dame, we ought to know that this season’s Grandview and Crystal City rosters are capable of beating Louisiana and Van-Far, leaving the two Jefferson County schools to vie for a District Championship without having to beat a private-school powerhouse or a “demoted” (and punchy) program from a bigger school like Charleston to claim the prize this November. The Gridiron Geek calculates about 75% chances that either the Big River valley or Bradley’s Farm (attached to the BIG river’s valley) will host a District Championship Game this Nov. 14.
Hillsboro 44, Moberly 34
Are the Hillsboro Hawks right back where they were in late 2024? Moberly’s blue-collar offense had a party on home turf. Lucky that QB Braxton Chazelle ignited the Hawks’ offense for six eventual TDs. That was the story against teams like Sikeston last campaign, and it reminds us that The Geek’s High School Football Principle #1 is do not rely on a single kid, or a single unit of the team for that matter. HHS must find a way to stiffen on defense in preparing for SLUH. The Billikens only surrendered 22 points to Chicago St. Ignatius on Friday, and don’t plan to give up 44 points in Week 2.
Caruthersville 33, St. Pius X 27
Caruthersville’s coach Dom Guglielmo tricked The Gridiron Geek. He “sandbagged” the Caruthersville Tigers’ new lineup to the point of telling SemoBall that the war band wouldn’t carry a tune this season. We figured, okay, if not even a bright-and-sunny summer preview – when every school is undefeated – touts CHS as a threat, then Mississippi Magazine won’t either. This is SemoBall we are talking about, where Chaffee is called a “contender” in July. (Chaffee smashed East Prairie by six touchdowns in Week 1, so maybe-just-maybe, the Red Devils are also looking good in August this time.)
With Caruthersville’s win streak over St. Pius intact after Friday’s 33-27 win, it appears that Guglielmo’s words were part of a bigger subterfuge and a tactical mind-game, played not only on Caruthersville opponents, but on the green-horned Tigers themselves. Caruthersville did not share any of its Jamboree film because it had no Jamboree appearances this August, with the coach likely telling his players that it was because “they didn’t want to get embarrassed” whether that was really the case or not. He knew that the St. Pius Lancers would be confident on home turf – too confident, maybe. The Caruthersville boys played like their typical selves, forcing QB Evan Eckrich’s passes off target for most of 48:00 and winning a contest that has been reported as “33-25,” but appeared to finish “33-27” on the game’s Twitter stream from CHS’s broadcast folks, perhaps due to a late “safety” safety.
St. Pius can take heart that a stagnant offense found clear water toward the finish line, and that the Lancers’ defense did its job at Hill Valley as usual. CHS scored three TDs on, or set up by special teams, as an overlooked unit spilled the drink and cost the Lancers precious points-against. SPX botched a punt snap that turned into a Caruthersville score and would go on to fumble another punt attempt to give CHS another freebie. Caruthersville’s first TD came off a St. Pius kick-and-recovery attempt with SPX having taken a 7-0 lead. The kick was pounced on at the 50 to be returned for the CHS points. (Can we stop calling for 10-yard tap-up-the-middle kickoffs now, forever & ever & always? It’s not even a real Onside Kick. It is a Middle Mistake.)
Looking for a silver lining? We said it was possible that all nine of St. Pius X’s regular season games will be close contests. In that category, Mississippi Magazine’s forecast for Hill Valley is 1-for-1. If it turns out that way, any kind of a winning season would be GREAT training for the 2025 Class 2 playoffs.
Freeburg 30, De Soto 14
This contest hosted by the Illinois association wasn’t on MSHSAA TV (or YouTube). We can see from a partial STLToday stat sheet that Freeburg rushed for about 6 yards at a pop against the disappointed DeSoto Dragons, although on the other hand, the Midgets’ usually staid “reform school” coaches let Freeburg’s QB Joseph Carmack throw a handful of pass-attempts which included a TD throw. The Geek won’t be upset at Russ Schmidt’s boys if they allowed 30 points from a better Freeburg – one with “wide receivers” and stuff. But if DHS gave up all those yards to a Flying Wedge, that’s bad juju.
Quincy Notre Dame 50, Grandview 6
Real Bad: Grandview loses by 40+ points – as anticipated – to the reigning Central State Eight champions.
Real Good: Isaac Walker runs for about 100 yards, and QB Brendan Martin throws a TD pass against the Raiders. It’s official – the 2025 Grandview Eagles have begun to block well enough to manufacture a special season, if GHS’s fine supporting cast of skill players can stay healthy.