Festus Tigers at DeSoto Dragons
We laugh at how out-of-conference victories make true favorites and steep underdogs into targets for “surprise” blowouts in Friday Night Lights. Festus and Windsor appear destined to meet at 2-0 in every year forevermore, and those “2-0” records (one earned against Class 5 and Class 6, the other against Small Schools and have-nots) will keep tricking people into calling for a tight tilt between a conference’s top team and its bottom-ranked team. Festus versus Desoto goes in the same category, now that the Dragons are putting decent W/L records together. Even if FHS and Joachim Junction are tied/almost tied in wins and losses, the Festus Tigers remain a massive favorite in the series. Midmeadow Lane has beaten DeSoto by an average of 41.4 points in seven games in the 2020s.
This Friday is a date for the “cosmetics” to actually make a difference at Joachim Junction. DeSoto head coach Russ Schmidt was as tough on the DeSoto Dragons after last year’s 50-point loss as at any time during his young tenure with the Greenies, forcefully knocking his team for not making a better fight in a matchup Schmidt thought should be way closer. Since then, the Dragons have played two good games against the North County Raiders, and a decent game against FHS’s archrival Hillsboro. It could be time for a quarterback like Cannon Kisner to genuinely bother the Tigers a little bit. At some point, the confidence of that improved W/L record has to help DeSoto on the scoreboard, especially when they’re playing on home turf for a growing crowd that’s starting to believe in the Dragons.
Festus-at-DeSoto can be compared to Seckman vs Northwest, which makes it weird that we aren’t calling for a five-TD romp in the Week 4 contest. But the Dragons can play sharper football than Northwest right now, not making the kind of death-by-a-thousand-cuts errors that last week’s visitors made at Seckman. Festus has another wonderful team in 2025 but the Tigers aren’t necessarily as fast in the open field. That means if the DeSoto Dragons can manage to be fundamentally sound, they’ll hang around. PREDICTION: TIGERS 31, DRAGONS 13
Photo Credit: Purchased from Rivals
Hillsboro Hawks at North County Raiders
It’s quicker to explain why there will be a tight scoreboard at North County – and maybe an explosive one. Hillsboro’s talented, rapidly shifting offense is poised to compile points at NCHS like always, in light of the fact that North County does not “always” lose four award-winning linemen in the same offseason. But the Hillsboro defense hasn’t shown it can stop a familiar foe in 2025’s flip-flop-schedule rematches. The North County offense will get a boost of confidence upon finding daylight in an HHS defense that’s been performing like it’s 2015. PREDICTION: HAWKS 35, NORTH COUNTY 27
Clayton Greyhounds vs Windsor Owls (at Brentwood)
Here’s the first of Week 4’s games at remote venues, though both “home” teams (Clayton and Webster Groves) will retain cheering-section advantages while they compete away from their regular Varsity fields this weekend. Clayton, for instance, has absorbed what was left of Brentwood’s disbanding program, so the Greyhounds decided to throw the Galleria’s kids a bone. (Please, no riots.)
(MSHSAA lists the Clayton Greyhounds as having two Homecoming Games in a row, which can only be a theme of letting the Clayton-Brentwood athletes take part in back-to-back Homecoming weeks at the pair of schools. Double your chances that a couple’s fight will screw up a quarterback’s mental game, why don’t ya.)
One of Missouri’s mysteries is why teams seem to get worse, not better, when welcoming the players from a school that gave up Friday Night Lights. Clayton played St. Pius X in its first game after the leftover Brentwood athletes came on board, recovered about 200,000 fumbles, and still lost. The Greyhounds did make their one-and-only run up the postseason ladder with a 7-5 overall mark that season, which made us think that a two-school football team finally got things right. Since then, though, the Greyhounds are 5-8 vs a laughably soft schedule, and they’re on a five-game losing streak.
Windsor’s close call with Clayton at its own 2024 Homecoming could portend another tight tussle this September. Then again, the Owls were favored by 21 points in that game. Will the memory serve to drive WHS harder in preparation for what could, should, and ought to be a decisive Week 4 win vs Clayton-Brentwood-at-Wherever? The Geek thinks Coach Freeman has learned enough about the Greyhounds to procure a comfortable lead as opposed to the nail-biting of last year, but it isn’t probable to become a sexy final score. PREDICTION: BLACKBIRDS 26, CHS-BHS @ W/E 9
Principia Panthers at Grandview Eagles
It’s easier to gauge a rebuilding (or just “building”) project like Maty Mauk’s at Principia with the benefit of a flip-flop schedule from 2024 to 2025. If this was one of the 50% of MO’s seasons in which independents can take on nine new schools if they choose to, attempting to measure the progress of Mauk’s team could be worthless. As it stands, we’re still not sure what Grandview is up against. Mauk’s new team debuted by defeating the Clayton-Brentwood co-op, then losing to Dupo in the reverse of how The Geek thought the first fortnight of Principia’s slate might go. Then the Panthers beat Affton by about Windsor’s margin in Week 3. What’s obvious right now is that Principia has nice passing game.
Mauk has to know that there’s a limited supply of big, fast nomads in the STL area who will enroll at a given private school if the football team is making enough headlines if they’re fond of *ahem* the Science faculty. It’s MSHSAA’s “college” division except that the teams that aren’t honestly demanding in the classroom, like St. Pius, create a disparity that’s greater than Friday Night Lights is known for. If you’re not an attractive location for Little League Dads and their football kids, or if your private-school team has been bad for a stretch of years, you’re starting from scratch against “Cardinal Ritter” teams… and if you’re a Catholic school like Principia, you might already have to play the powerhouses. (Principia is lucky enough to have scheduled private school have-nots in 2024-25, so that the Panthers’ absolute toughest test of nine weeks is a tilt vs Orchard Farm.)
Did we mention there’s a big-time QB already at Principia? Mauk has skipped over the part where you build patiently and hope for a 15-year-old talent to come along and say, “I prefer your school’s *ahem* Science department” after a couple of seasons. An older, more seasoned ace named Tristin Coon is currently on campus and behind center for Principia, having one of Class 4’s best 2025 debuts when he passed for 333 yards and 5 touchdowns in the win over Clayton. Kayd Luckey never looked so dangerous.
Principia’s 56-38 win over Affton in Week 3 makes the Panthers’ offense look more consistent and more dangerous, at least through the air. But at the same time Principia scored more points against the Bananas than Jett Black’s team did, Principia’s defense broke down early and often against an Affton “attack” that didn’t add up to 38 points in two previous nights, including a Week 1 contest against weak Lutheran South. Grandview may be in for a “Miami versus Boston College” (or “TCU vs Baylor” or younger folks) classic in which GHS rumbles for touchdowns, followed by Coon’s contingent catching TD balls left-and-right as the Panthers try to win by a basketball score. The trick for Cory Hangar’s staff is keeping the Eagles loose in that scenario, since Principia is so much scarier than it was in 2025, and to remember that even a 10-point defeat against Class 4 is a District boost. Grandview is in such an evenly drawn District race with Louisiana, Crystal City, and Vandalia that there’s no cause to panic if it’s a 55-54 shootout that comes down to execution, considering you can lose early in a Class 1 year without much penalty because other C1 teams are losing to big schools too. (Put another way, Grandview is now in the MAC.)
One good thing about Principia’s scary point total is that the Panthers did not score all of those points by Week 3. For some reason, Affton and Principia have insisted on pushing their matchup’s timing way back into Monday of the next week. Principia beat Affton less than 48 hours before this preview was written, and the Panthers must now perform for a second 48:00 just four days later. The Gridiron Geek is surprised that MSHSAA allows this, but whatever Grandview’s disadvantage in having had less film to study on Monday, Principia’s disadvantage from a lack of rest and prep time is worse. Principia has a thin lineup right now. We’re skeptical that the Panthers will be fresh enough for Quarter 4.
Friday’s outcome still comes back to Grandview’s much-maligned pass defense. It’s the bugaboo that has haunted the Birds of Prey since 2022. The curse could come to roost again if a rearranged coaching staff can’t keep Coon’s deep shots in front of the Eagles. But on a hopeful note, Dupo High caused severe problems for Principia’s Week 2 ground game, which turned into a token as the Panthers became badly one-dimensional. Grandview’s defensive front might just be big, strong, and seasoned enough in 2025 to stop Principia’s RBs without much help, leaving Brock Poole’s defensive backfield free to hawk the pigskin. PREDICTION: EAGLES 42, PRINCIPIA’S PANTING PANTHERS 28
Crystal City Hornets at Confluence Titans
Three Rivers Confluence, along with a handful of other schools from Greater STL, has forfeited, scrapped, scuttled, and scrubbed more planned football games than any other group of schools in the Midwest, and The Gridiron Geek is profoundly tired of worrying about it. They never have the gumption to tell anyone what’s going on either, which makes it so much worse. Confluence has a forfeit loss to Portageville from Week 3 that went completely unreported except for a small note on Portageville’s school homepage. Confluence makes zip, zero, and zilch effort to publicize the team on any other webpages or apps that you could scroll to find the reason for last weekend’s date winding up the way it did.
Did the Charter school run out of healthy student-athletes? It wouldn’t seem so, since Confluence’s official roster has 25+ players listed on it. There’s no uproar in Portageville about any kind of funny stuff on the field, so The Geek’s best guess is that Confluence never showed up in Portageville after the Titans administrators failed to pay for a bus to get there. Should that be the case, then maybe we’ll have a Crystal City at Confluence game with the help of working CCHS buses. Then again, the Confluence Titans play their “home” games at a remote field, because of course they do. We can’t afford to be optimistic about this crap anymore. PREDICTION: CONFLUENCE FINDS A WAY TO CANCEL
St. Pius Lancers at Roosevelt Rough Riders (Saturday at Noon CST)
Ahh, geez. It’s the same vibe with Roosevelt, which forfeited to Jennings in the middle of last game and either is-or-is-not taking time-out from Friday Night Lights, which nobody knows because the people at some schools TAKE A PACT NEVER TO GIVE OUT INFO ON SPORTS THERE. Jennings and Roosevelt have been clam-shut-mouthed about what occurred a few nights ago, to the point that they’re blatantly ignoring anyone who asks. The Geek likes Roosevelt football and clearly likes SPX football. He had to try anyway!
Roosevelt has even more student-athletes signed up to play than Confluence does, so once again, it doesn’t seem to be a “Grandview 2017” theme of a team just coming unstuck Making everything worse, though, is the fact that Roosevelt has its Homecoming Game scheduled as this Saturday’s. You have to think if the team isn’t suspended, it will play.
We’d like to focus on SPX-Roosevelt as a matchup of course. St. Pius is poised to finally get into the win column against a far easier opponent than the Lancers faced in Week 3’s long road trip. But man, oh man, the Magazine is tired of dead-air, no info, SKETCHY football games in what’s supposed to be the Tri-States’ newest hotbed of STL and Jeffco.
THURSDAY UPDATE: GAME ON. It turns out that Roosevelt simply ran out of healthy players at Jennings, not because of low overall numbers, but (we surmise) due to leaving its frosh team off the bus to JHS. Everyone dresses out for Homecoming, so it won’t happen again on Saturday. PREDICTION: LANCERS 33, ROOSEVELT 14
Jefferson Blue Jays at Cuba Wildcats
Herky has taken its revenge on Cuba for last year’s defeat, without even having to conquer the Cigars first. By pushing the Jefferson Blue Jays to the limit last Friday, the Blackcats have ensured that there will be ZERO chance of QB Cooper Frisk and the Jays taking another underdog too lightly. Cuba will get the best R-7 has to offer. PREDICTION: BLUE JAYS 44, BONNERS FERRY 9
St. Vincent Indians at Herculaneum Blackcats
It’s so hard to get a grip on St. Vincent’s seasons in the early-going. We’ve been lulled into thinking our small schools had a better chance against the Varsity Indians in midseason, only to see St. Vinny’s turn into the same old reality-check, pain-in-the-neck opponent in late September.
There’s no denying, though, that the Indians have taken at least a small step backward following the graduation of last year’s amazing senior class. St. Vincent’s back-to-back season opening losses to St. Genevieve’s teams was the first time anything like that has happened in two calendar years. The Indians needed what was called a “Hail Mary” TD from QB Wyatt Winkler to Max Wheeler to vanquish Perryville last Friday night, although The Geek begs to differ about that play.
There’s only two kinds of “Hail Mary” winning TDs – the jump ball into a crowd (Doug Flutie) or the alley-oop to a single WR in the broken field (Cole Rickermann, Collin Smith). Winkler’s winning pass was to a receiver who got open on some kind of tight coverage that the Perryville Pirates shouldn’t have been in and was set up by his scramble to the LOS. He didn’t even have to throw it too hard. It sure as all-heck wasn’t a lucky break. Make no mistake, the St. Vincent Indians are still a championship contender. They’re simply a regional championship contender – i.e. in the Quad-County Conference – and not a state championship type of threat this fall.
St. Vincent’s trip to Herky could become another big-time reversal of fortune in midgame, as the Blackcats prove to be every bit as talented but not quite as deep in playmakers as the Indians. TGG thinks Winkler’s offense could react when “scratched” by an early Dunklin lead, trying to make the score look like an old-school St. Vincent-over-Herky domination in the end, yet bearing bruises from Clark Struckhoff’s punishing TD runs in the first half. Herky can utilize Keaton Reeves’ passing arm to move the chains versus a St. Vinny’s defense that let Perryville score on its second snap. PREDICTION: SAM VINCENT’S INDIAN CHURNS 27, BLACKCATS 18
Mehlville Panthers at Seckman Jaguars
It’s a cross-county gimme for the Seckman Jaguars after three emotional nights in a row. This is also not a “revenge game” style Friday night, Coach Baer. Mehlville can’t hurt you. PREDICTION: JAGUARS 49, MEHLVILLE 0
Fox Warriors at Eureka Wildcats
“Whenever the St. Louis Blues are chasing the Chicago Blackhawks,” The Geek’s father used to complain, “the Blues have to play the Soviet Red Army and the 1980s Edmonton Oilers. The Blackhawks get to play Pevely and Hematite.”
The Fox Warriors have to feel that way about Seckman this weekend, even though the padawans in both schools’ hallways are supposedly at the same institution now. Here the Warriors and Jaguars just had an epic battle for the ages, and Seckman follows it with games that seem to get easier each week. Fox has had to face those “Red Army” (Ritenour) opponents of which Eureka High may be the most powerful of all. There’s no Hassan Haskins-level tailback at 3-0 Eureka now, but the Wildcats’ highly skilled quarterback Patrick Hutchcraft has been buoyed by a magnificent defense.
Eureka’s 350+ yards of opposing offense allowed from Week 1’s win over Francis Howell (just Francis Howell this time) is a surprise in hindsight of the Wildcats’ dominant shut-out victories in the weeks that have followed. One bright note for Fox, otherwise a 17-point underdog in this Friday’s road kickoff, is that the Warriors’ TRICKY, methodical offense does tend to put a damper on an overconfident defense’s mood by Q2. PREDICTION: EUREKA 45, WARRIORS 21
Northwest Lions vs Webster Groves Statesmen (at Hixson Middle School)
Webster Groves quarterback Will Travers was the tip of the avalanche for Northwest’s embattled defense last season. Cedar Hill’s defense that had posted shut outs on the first three weekends had a merry time against Travers in the first half, then came back to play great by the last quarter of a furious comeback effort by NHS. However, the next week at Fox, the unit absolutely blew a gasket.
Travers was hot against Parkway South last week, just like Seckman signal-caller Brody Kube in the Jaguars’ thorough whipping of the Lions last Friday. Yet, TGG thinks that Northwest’s old-fashioned coaching staff is more likely to adjust into a Cover-2 against Travers than some of the county’s more bullish “we do what we do” defensive coordinators. Travers fell frustrated and became inaccurate against two superior defenses (as compared to Parkway South’s) at the start of this season. QB Cohenn Stark has become a counterpart who can match Travers in combined TDs. PREDICTION: LIONS 27, WEBSTER GROVES 24