Northwest 14, Seckman 7
A theme of today’s recap is things that went “WHOOP!” right over Mississippi Magazine’s head, coming down right on the broad shoulders of the Dirty Dozen’s student-athletes. The fact that Northwest and Seckman had a brutal defensive struggle, and not the “31-27” shootout forecasted by the site isn’t the half of it. Plenty of Cohenn Stark’s passes still went “WHOOP!” over the Seckman Jaguars’ heads as the Northwest Lions roared to victory in The Valley. But of all the ways NHS could have won, Friday’s was the least expected.
We were ready to shake our heads pitifully over the Northwest Lions’ lost chances, all over again. Cedar Hill had an opportunity to jump on top of Imperial when Stark stunned the host Jaguars with a 60-yard TD pass on the Lions’ opening play. The junior sensation whipped a slant pass to Northwest’s unheralded WR Adam Banks, who raced for the run-after-catch points in an early lightning bolt comparable to Seckman junior Nick Weidler’s early “RAC” touchdowns that caught the visitors by surprise back on September 12. But even though the Lions foiled the Jaguars in the Red Zone to preserve the 7-0 first quarter lead, the Lions had another cold spell on offense like they had endured against Oakville. Northwest’s second-quarter drives ended on fourth-down misses. Meanwhile, a fumble set up Seckman’s Chance Ruble to tie the game with a 12-yard touchdown run.
Stark fumbled in Seckman’s real estate on Northwest’s first drive of the second half. QB Brody Kube of the Jaguars threw incomplete on fourth down on Seckman’s first turn of the third quarter. Half #2 of the semifinal remains a great one because each team accepted what it was and tried to win with its own game. Without a breakaway TD threat in the backfield, the Jaguars were moving the sticks, controlling the ball, and shortening the game, leaving precious few turns for Stark to get the Lions offense going again.
That’s when the Northwest Lions embraced the crazy and stopped worrying about being a “responsible” team. Penalties, fumbles, and miscues had ruined many more chances to take any kind of a lead on Seckman. There was no guarantee that the Lions would be able to march down the field without screwing things up in Quarter 4. But head coach Scott Gerling made the canny call of recognizing what his team is and what it is not. Northwest-CH decided to go for broke to win, letting the chips (and the flags) fall where they may.
When the Lions encountered a 4th-and-1 on their own 25-yard line, Gerling called for the offense to stay on the gridiron. No, The Geek would not have clobbered Gerling in print if Northwest gave the ball up on downs and Seckman won 21-7, because last year’s goofy 4th-Down-and-the-Field-of-Play decision to go for it occurred as the Lions led the Parkway South Patriots. With about 6:00 left and the Lions badly needing a spark at Seckman, calling for a wild gamble was the right thing to do. Stark’s run made the first down … only for Northwest to be saddled with a longer fourth-down scenario while still langishing in its own territory. Gerling made a bold choice on that snap, too, running a fake punt on which Jefferson County All-Star wideout Omarion Frazier broke away with a catch for 27 yards. Stark, putting a stamp on a clutch performance, raced for a 35-yard TD and the tilt’s winning points not long after. Kube bravely took the Jags into striking range again with 2:00 remaining, but the Lions defense made its own statement by sealing the deal.
Whether it’s the Clemson Tigers or the Seckman Jaguars, the times are gloomy for cats who dwell in a “Valley.” Seckman must deal psychologically with going 0-1 in the MSHSAA playoffs for the first time since 2020. Kube and Ruble’s celebrated seasons have ended on a sour note. But in a fall of local head coaches’ stock going way up and down, the worst burden is on HC Nick Baer, who let the Seckman-Northwest matchup get away from him in a fashion similar to manager Gregg Berhalter letting Team USA turn into booed-and-whistled heels at their own 2024 Copa America. Baer stoked the flames of a rivalry that didn’t even need to exist as such, putting a target on the Jaguars’ backs in Week 11.
Baer answered a Week 3 question on Live Stream STL the wrong way, and now he’s got to answer for falling into the trap of “be careful what you wish for.” Baer got cocky about the Jaguars’ 49-14 win over the Lions that week, roasting Cedar Hill’s administration on the air: “They have some reason for not scheduling us going forward, to heck if I understand it, heh. At least we gave them something to remember us by.” At the time, it felt like an elephant (Seckman) of a program was picking on a puppy dog (Northwest) and rubbing it in that Northwest wasn’t good enough to compete in a Turbo Clock contest. But if you think the Varsity Lions didn’t “remember” that episode while they were hog-tying the proud Jaguars repeatedly on Friday, then you don’t know how football teams operate. Baer overlooked the potential that Northwest would come back with a superior effort in Week 11. He was confident that if Seckman did play Northwest again, the result would be the same. Gerling could have thanked Baer in postgame for giving the Lions a world of motivation to vanquish the Jaguars, and in doing so, prove that they belong in the championship race. Seckman’s team paid a price for its head coach’s unnecessary “trolling” of NHS.
Cedar Hill, not Imperial, will make the “Plank Walk” to The Pit for Week 12’s District Championship Game at Jackson. But will it be another runaway win for the Jackson Indians, or will Northwest’s late-season surge show up in The Pit at least a little bit? Northwest’s defense can brag on an in-season uptick that’s among the most insane of any unit (offense, defense, or special teams) this side of Hillsboro in 2017. Drew Spratt’s defense gave up three straight scoring drives to the Mehlville Panthers in Week 2 before letting Seckman manufacture points-at-will in the Lions’ first visit to Seckman. Then they gave up 35 points to one of Webster Groves’ flakiest teams ever. Since then? WHOA Nelly! Northwest’s tacklers have allowed (gulp) four meaningful TDs in the last six games, including tough matchups with SHS, Fox, and Oakville. #4 seed Oakville’s defense was pretty decent against Jackson’s world-beating attack on Friday night until the Tigers got too tired. Northwest will get tired against Jackson too, but unlike Oakville’s offense, Stark’s ensemble remains a powder keg waiting to explode. 14 points won’t be enough to even scratch the Jackson Indians. Yet the potential is there to score 28+ in Jackson with a fresh game plan.
Feast well, Lions. This is the moment when your team becomes a powerhouse. Oh, and you’ve earned a top-two rung in the Power Poll no matter what happens in Week 12.
St. Pius 41, St. Vincent 33
More problems with MSHSAA TV prevent Mississippi Magazine from detailing the first and fourth quarter at Hill Valley this weekend. But oh, snap, was it ever worth $10.60 to witness the glory of two quarters in between! St. Vincent, having fallen behind Cody Shaver and the explosive, punishing new offense of the St. Pius Lancers 28-13, made a terrible game-management error at the end of the first half. St. Vinny’s scored to draw within single-digits at 28-19, then called for a 2-point conversion attempt to try to make the score 28-21. Indians head coach lost his nerve and his fundamentals on that decision, because there’s not much difference between a 28-20 or a 28-21 deficit going into halftime. There’s infinitely more difference between 28-20 and 28-19. Danny DeGeare’s defense pounced wuth a gang-tackle at the 1-yard line that not only kept St. Vinny’s more than one touchdown behind, but quieted a sizable visiting crowd from Perryville, and gave the Lancers their opening to grab the momentum right back once halftime was over.
Shaver got free around left end for a scintillating run that gave St. Pius a 34-19 lead and clear sailing in the third period. Regretfully, that’s when The Geek lost track of the same district-semifinal stream from Hill Valley that went LOOP-LOOP-LOOP without a picture in the first quarter, came on to show PPV customers the midgame, and then switched to MSHSAA’s good old “Made Unavailable by Owner” screen in the final quarter. We know St. Vincent made a rally and had the score 41-33 with six minutes to go, but SPX’s monumentally improved run-blocking effort makes the Lancers the best “Six Minute Offense” going around. St. Vinny’s might have never even gotten the football back.
St. Pius X held on for a 41-33 victory to draw its District Championship Game rematch (so many playoff rematches this year!) at Caruthersville in Week 12. It could be as tough and dramatic of a November date as the Lancers’ memorable fight at Caruthersville under Coach Dan Oliver in 2019.
Meanwhile, we’ve got a fascinating update on the Lancers and Indians “Blackout Game” from Mr. Jeff Jercinovic of the MSHSAA Facebook Group! “Stats are in from last night for the Pius St Vincent game. Pius 642 yards rushing on 68 carries. That’s good for the #5 spot all time in Missouri for a single game. Our lead running back Cody Shaver continues to dominate with 483 yards on 44 carries. That’s 6th all time in Missouri for a single game.” Shaver rushed for 483 yards against St. Vincent? That’s stupefying. We haven’t seen a stat line like that anywhere near Jefferson County since Cole Ruble and the 2023 Park Hills Central Rebels graduated. The fact that St. Pius is matching some of the 600-yard rushing nights of dedicated run-first, run-second, run-all-the-time teams while still putting QB Evan Eckrich in solid position to pass and make plays is even more impressive.
Head coach Frank Ray celebrated a birthday along with Week 11’s win. St. Pius should celebrate having a running back who could dominate the Tri-State region by 2026.
Festus 41, Hillsboro 0
Easy-peezy-Japanese-y. The Festus Tigers scoff at TGG’s suggestion that Class 4, District 1’s top seed would have a “slow start” against the rival Hillsboro Hawks, dismissing the Blue & White’s offense three-and-out immediately before blocking the bejeezus out of Hillsboro on two early TD drives. Parker Perry scarcely needed to put the pigskin in the air as RB Leuontae Williams raced for a 30-yard touchdown, followed up by his partner-in-crime Kamden Yates scampering for a 44-yard score with a weaving blaze of speed and agility. Hillsboro’s blow-up came moments later when the Hawks tried for a 4th-and-2 conversion and fumbled to Tigers junior Galin Hall, whose scoop-and-score minted a 21-0 lead.
The Hillsboro Hawks fared better in a scoreless Quarter 2. Festus was foiled on its next drive attempt by a Hillsboro defense that forced rare incompletitions out of Perry, then took over following Dylan Dickerman’s QB sack early in the second frame. But even after the Tigers were stopped at the Hillsboro 40-yard line on another series of downs soon after, Hillsboro’s offense could do nothing with its good field position. Midmeadow Lane’s tacklers enjoyed a total turnaround from its leaky form in the last three encounters, stuffing a Hillsboro unit that was determined to run on first and second down with little success. Unluckily for QB Braxton Chazelle, the Hawks were often close enough to the first-down marker for Bill Sucharski’s staff to call more run plays on their late downs, again for no dice. Hillsboro was not allowed to cross midfield until the semifinal was out of hand.
Festus sealed the deal with a fun, unflappable TD drive to start the second half. First a kick return for a touchdown was wiped away by a penalty flag. Then a 65-yard touchdown run by Yates was called back with more laundry. But on third-and-forever from the 28-yard line, Perry scrambled to his right and hit TE Braydon Wilkes for 25 yards down the sideline in a signature throw-and-catch that will go on both players’ highlight reels when awards are getting doled out in December. Yates scored on a 5-yard run to cap off a 6-minute march.
Late Edit: Because the FHS program patriarch Dave Perry was kind enough to share today’s recap with the Wilkes catch quoted, here’s the clip for anyone expecting to see it. (Besides, if we don’t do this, Farmington will have the only highlight video on the scroll.)
Sucharski’s staff may be due for at least a performance-review this coming spring. The Geek didn’t recognize the Hillsboro Hawks who visited Festus this weekend, not considering the Hawks’ body-English and demeanor on the field. HHS players are taking after the personality of the head coach – calm, cool, and collected – but a dose of the old-school Hawks fury might have come in handy against the Tigers this time around. When Hillsboro trailed 21-0 in the second quarter, TGG noticed Hillsboro’s linemen Grant Sucharski and Kyryn Miller having to spin around and shout at their teammates to trudge off the field faster for time-out huddles. Hillsboro’s kids behaved as though their role was to show up, quietly lose, and go home. Leon Hall looked like it was okay with Festus winning in a way that you don’t expect from a bitter crosstown rival. There was a time not long ago when Hillsboro’s devoted soldiers would have Crisco’d their jerseys and gouged the Festus’ players eyes, sooner than they would so kindly agree to lose the Highway A Game.
We never dreamed that North County would be a bigger hurdle than Hillsboro in the District 1 race of 2025. But the Bonne Terre Buccaneers are hot, coming off an unexpectedly dominant 51-6 win over Perryville in Week 11. At the very least, North County might sing a little more on offense in Week 12, producing an anxious title tilt at Tiger Stadium.
Grandview 55, Louisiana 48
The Louisiana Bulldogs are a world-class pain in the ass. Here’s a team that upset the 8-1 Crystal City Hornets in 2022’s district quarterfinal round, going on to nearly knock another special Mississippi Magazine team out of the playoffs with an 0-1 record last night. They’ve got some kind of blackmagic against our schools. If you need proof, look at Grandview’s stat sheet that includes 600+ yards of total offense, a 200+ rushing game for QB Brendan Martin, another 200+ game for RB Isaac Walker, and a Louisiana offense that scored merely a small handful of TDs by its lonesome. Grandview tried hard to self-destruct with five combined fumbles and interceptions, four of which led directly to Bulldog points. An interception-for-TD was thrown by Martin after Louisiana took a kick return back for a score to begin the second half, sparking the Bulldogs to a 21-point comeback and a shocking 48-47 lead in the fourth quarter that was soon answered. Tucker Rhinehart blocked a 32-yard field goal try on Louisiana’s next drive. Walker fought off five Louisiana tacklers to score Grandview’s winning TD and produce a surreal 55-48 final. LHS didn’t need Pike County’s questionable referees to nearly ruin the whole party before Walker scored.
What does this mean for Van-Far’s visit in the District Championship Game next weekend? Thankfully, not much. It would mean a lot for predicting the Class 4 playoffs if FHS needs a blocked field goal and five broken tackles to beat North County’s greenhorns in Week 12, or if Vianney defeats Sullivan 9-8 on a safety. Class 1 is a different animal. The Geek has noticed that Class 1’s scores have an “NFL” quality to them in 2025, not tuned to the perceived power of each team as opposed to simply how the game goes that day. Grandview has survived its own bad day against a 3-win spoiler in Louisiana, giving the Varsity Eagles a chance to give the Van-Far Indians a bad day of their own in Week 12.
One wrinkle, though, is that Mississippi Magazine has misrepresented the style of football that Vandalia is playing this year. We were duped in a way that TGG will describe in the Crystal City recap on scroll below. Van-Far only stopped playing power-football for about one season and 11 games – this season they’ve pulled a “St. Pius X” and kept the Shotgun Offense look while adding the I-Formation, the Pistol, and a “Four Horseman” rushing attack that looks like what Notre Dame under Knute Rockne 100 years ago. It’s not bad for Grandview’s big, burly team to go against a Vandalia team that runs the ball more often than it did in 2024. That plays into the strengths of the Birds of Prey. What’s more, the district’s top seed has its own “Four Horseman” combo in Walker, Martin, Wyatt Keim, and Brock Poole. Let’s hope the visiting Indians already Won One For The Gipper.
Farmington 49, Fox 28
Fox does what it needed to do in Friday’s semifinal defeat, scaring the heck out of Farmington on its home turf with a first-half lead. Farmington’s flashy new team made a series of outstanding throws and catches to run off to a prohibitive 42-21 edge in the third quarter, making the careworn Warriors visibly distraught in their own end zone. Farmington senior Corben Phillips had one of the finest displays of sportsmanship seen all this season when he hugged Fox’s Gavin Pecoraro at the goal-line following the Knights’ coup-de-grace.
Farmington has changed coaches, playbooks, and quarterbacks in the past two years, but the Black Knights are still the most gentlemanly kids around as far as The Geek is concerned. The Fox Warriors might not agree after losing a tough second half in their final game of the year. Though if the Warriors’ surprise postseason un was going to come screeching to a halt after 72:00 of inspired pigskin, we can’t think of a nobler program than Farmington to have earned the win and a District 1 title bid against Cape Central.
Van-Far 52, Crystal City 6
Crystal City’s effort has collapsed in late 2025, and The Gridiron Geek’s reporter’s fundamentals right with them. The Geek is concerned that Bradley’s Farm feels neglected by Mississiipi Magazine because of our mistaken description of Van-Far as a fancy “Spread” team at this moment. The blog totally misrepresented what the Hornets were up against last night. Maybe some folks think TGG didn’t take the time to properly review Van-Far’s season footage, which reveals a team that still utilizes its Spread Offense installed in 2023-24, but has added several other schemes to become a multiple offense with a ton of power-running much like Vandalia used to do, including an I-Formation and a 1920’s “Four Horseman” package. Van-Far clobbered Crystal City on the hash marks, Pancake-blocking the CCHS defense on their way to a 52-6 victory and a berth in the C1D2 title tilt at Grandview in Week 12, rushing for at least 400+ yards in the semifinal. It’s true – The Geek didn’t watch Van-Far’s film from Weeks 7-9 and didn’t see that onslaught coming.
Your humble reporter did watch Van-Far’s footage in preparing for Week 11’s predictions, though! Just not the right footage. Van-Far quarterback Kasen Christian’s highlight reel from 2025 shows him running finesse plays out of the same kind of Shotgun offense Vandalia began performing in after giving up on the Flexbone earlier this decade. “Well, okay, they’re still doing that,” thought TGG, believing that Van-Far’s neglect of power-football tactics had to have been the Indians’ downfall versus Russellville in the #2 seed’s worst outcome of the year back in September. In hindsight, wouldn’t a teenage QB manipulate his highlight reel to show ONLY the fancy “NCAA” plays? Why, of course he would!
We ask Crystal’s readers to trust that The Geek was excited at an opening for the Hornets defense to attack, and spent two hours coming up with an angle for the prediction instead of watching film of Van-Far putting its 57 kids in the backfield and handing-off 99 straight times. It wasn’t a matter of spending fewer hours on Bradley’s Farm football because the Hornets went 3-7. Crystal City remains the heart and soul of pigskin in Jefferson County, and the Dirty Dozen’s bravest enterprise always has a spot in the top headlines here.
Could the ailing Crystal City defense have stopped any old offense Vandalia decided to run? The answer is probably “no.” The Geek felt bad for Crystal City’s rushers and receivers while watching the blowout loss from Vandalia (an experience not worth $10.60) because while the Hornets made some nifty plays here and there, Rico Pastrana’s offense was in the same kind of straits that Herky’s defense was in at Valle Catholic. They weren’t having a bad game, but they had NO field position. NO breaks, and no spark to help them out. Crystal’s defense was overwhelmed by a team that couldn’t score more than 14 points the last two times it played the Hornets. It’s strange to witness a Class 1 team that’s not physically outmatched on offense get embarrassed on its defense with many of the same kids. CCHS has gone from stopping everybody to stopping nobody in three years.
It’s not Coach Collins’ fault because the Hornets’ defense was already slipping – badly – near the end of 2024’s season. Whatever fate has befallen the Crystal City defense isn’t due to one person, one playbook, or one injury. But the new HC does take a share of the blame for not foreseeing that the Hornets couldn’t succeed with the defensive Xs and Os they were trying this year. The whole thing needs to be blown up and started over from scratch. Otherwise, all of the TDs from Crystal’s talented skill players will be consolation prizes.
Valle Catholic 49, Herculaneum 8
Herky’s offense goes icy cold on a mild night in Ste. Genevieve. As stated in the Vandalia-Crystal recap above, the Blackcat defense wasn’t hapless to tackle Valle Catholic’s supply of Fallert-s, Basler-s, and Giesler-s, they just had no support from the offense or special teams and got bogged down in a hopeless cause. Herculaneum might be a team that only passes the ball about 15% of the time, yet it proved very critical to the 6-5 Blackcats’ winning season that Keaton Reeves could always threaten to throw long to Tanner Duncan. It’s unfair to blame the backup-turned-starter Chase Luebbert for Herky’s one-dimensional and stuck-in-the-mud effort on offense at Valle, because HC Blane Boss revealed on Hal Niesler’s pregame show that Luebbert is Herky’s third starting quarterback (counting practices and games) in less than three weeks since before Reeves went down with a severe injury. Dunklin was struck by the worst possible injury at the worst time, making Friday’s loss academic. However, the ‘Cats have to at least threaten to throw the football at some juncture next season no matter what the QB may be. There’s only so far you can go with an effort based on one or two kids, even if it’s the passing game of a running team.