Windsor 34, Jefferson 20
The Windsor Owls found a way to produce that “long game” that Mississippi Magazine considered Windsor’s simplest path to glory in Week 1 – score really, really long touchdowns and keep those Referee’s Timeouts coming! The Owls’ junior QB Jett Black scored on an 80-yard gallop to open the contest that showed off Jeff County’s new mastery of the sport of pigskin, a Grade-A intelligence play that began with an option Keep-Read. Black was facing the Windsor sideline after faking the B-Back hand-off, and not only did the quarterback have Blue Jays’ claws reaching for him already, he had no daylight in his line-of-sight and no evidence to suggest that daylight would appear. It didn’t view like a designed Counter Option run into the flat behind Black, because the quarterback’s eyes scanned from right tackle to guard looking for a lane before Black decided to reverse field and try something spectacular. On what seemed an educated guess that there was daylight on the JHS sideline’s side of the pitch, Black tacked leftward and wrestled with Jefferson’s defense instead of plowing north-to-south behind his blockers, as coaches have always taught imperiled Flexbone QBs to do. Lo and behold, once Black had successfully turned a 180, he discovered that there was NO ONE waiting around the other hash. Black shook off the Blue Jays’ attempted takedown, went on afterburners, and raced away for a crazy six points. Footage of the play is available on the Live Stream STL on-demand replay, which TGG will link rather than clip here.
It’s a “Play of the Year” candidate – to begin Windsor’s debut 48:00! The Geek is scared shoeless about the Dirty Dozen’s coaches taking his off-the-cuff advice, ever since Crystal City “protected the ball” and wound up being tied 0-0 with minutes to go against the Gateway Jaguars, and TGG thought that Chris Buechting and the rest of the Hornets’ coaching staff were going to chase him into hiding in Halifax. But it’s likely that WHS’s quarterbacks coach told Black to look for explosive plays in Week 1, and eschew any “cattle drive” tactics that would wrap things up by 9 PM, because the explosive Windsor Owls kept it up in the moments to come, manufacturing two more TDs on 70+ yard scores by Black and senior Jack Kuda by the early stages of the third quarter. It was the rising star behind center who sealed the deal with another field-length rumble, making the score 34-20 with 2:39 remaining. The Jefferson County Leader boasted “Black’s three TDs = 239 Yards!” on its live blog for Friday’s only county-vs-county contest.
It’s not time to call the Albino Birds the spoilers of this year’s Mississippi Conference. But Windsor’s defense did show improvement against a regrouped R-7 team that reacted with courage when Windsor kept threatening to blow them out. Meanwhile, the Owls’ offense looks like more of a potential powder-keg than it was in 2025. When a play works for them, they take it to the house.
The winning and the losing side benefit from several Week 1 outcomes in Mississippi Magazine’s sphere, and Windsor vs Jefferson was one of them. The Blue Jays maintained their poise and kept the scoreboard close despite the occasional pratfalls on defense. Should the Owls be as good as we think they can be this year, Jefferson R-7 can shake hands with Hermann High School, and reminisce about how hard it can be for Class 2 to take down a Class 4 contender, no matter how long the scrum stays tight.
Windsor’s takeaway from Week 1’s whole conference scoreboard is even brighter than the Owls’ recap from Friday. DeSoto was hapless to take advantage of a reloading Class 2 visitor this weekend, falling to St. Vincent 14-7 in what at least The Geek considers to have been an upset. The North County Raiders, despite retaining a zillion juniors from 2025’s lineup that led Festus 24-21 in the fourth quarter, bellyflopped against Farmington on Friday, losing 48-3. Farmington and Fenton could be headed for a November showdown in Class 5, but you would still have expected Bonne Terre to show signs of life in HC Wyatt Compton’s first game. Windsor, as quickly as Jett Black can reverse field for a TD, has gone from No. 5 to No. 3 in the Mississippi’s field of five.
Rockwood Summit 38, Festus 34
Wow, it must have been a barnburner at Tiger Stadium! Two likely playoff contenders, hurling bombs and scoring from all over the field! People must have gagged trying to swallow the school’s trademark mega-boss-bratwursts from the Tiger Tailgate Party when the fur began flying in the first quarter, right? Err – yes and no. Festus vs Fenton wasn’t an electrifying shootout at the outset. In fact, spectators had plenty of time to eat, grab dessert at the concession stand, and small-talk for a while. It was a defensive tilt for the first 36:00, so grudging that it produced a “baseball” scoreboard, and opponents which wound up trying to outwait one another.
The score was 15-6 in Rockwood Summit’s favor when Parker Perry’s offense went icy. For the second time in two games, the most accurate QB in the STL Metro could not move his team in the third quarter, going on an 0-for-5 streak which had streaming viewers rubbing their eyes and replaying the downs. But the FHS defense stubbornly stopped the Falcons as the Tigers punted again and again, clinging to a deficit’s single-digit margin by holding Summit’s RBs to 177 yards, and picking off junior QB McCoy Brown.
Who blew a whistle and said “GO”? Mother Nature. Even the 80-degree field temperature of Friday’s action was enough to cause fatigue, cramps, and the loss of motor for 22 defensive starters playing their guts out in a summer game. Perry faked a hand-off, then nailed senior WR Max Foglesong on a rainbow pass that sent Foglesong to the opposing 1-yard line early in the 4th quarter, setting up a Kamden Yates’ only rushing TD and his second touchdown of the encounter. A two-point conversion made it 15-14. Scarcely did the fourth-quarter crowd know that a couple of tough defenses were about to look way more vulnerable than that!
On your marrrrk, get set, anddddd … WOO! It was the moment each quarterback said, “They’re gettin’ tired, let’s rock and roll!” Perry fed his classmate Yates touches through the air, and the latter speedster responded by having one of the best 12:00 frames catching the ball in the history of fourth quarters at Festus High School. Yates snagged a downfield dart from Perry and took it to paydirt on a zig-zagging 49-yard touchdown catch to give Festus a 20-15 lead. After the Falcons responded with a scoring drive, Midmeadow Lane’s linchpin took an 86-yard screen pass to the house. Bored with dominating Rockwood Summit as a dual-threat running back, Yates ran a more traditional pass route and got behind the defense for another 52-yard TD minutes later. Don’t ask Mississippi Magazine the last time one of our RBs caught four TD passes on one Friday. It might’ve been Yates who did it then.
Fenton didn’t have so many explosive plays in its arsenal, but the Falcons found other ways to retaliate. Summit’s superior KR team engineered a 67-yard runback for a TD that gave the visitors a 31-28 edge prior to Yates’ fifth and final touchdown. With just under 2:00 remaining, Brown expertly led the Falcons’ hurry-up offense on what would become an epic winning drive. Rockwood Summit senior Kindall Young, similar to Yates in his ability to shine as a tailback, receiver, and cornerback, hauled in his sixth catch of the evening to put the Varsity Falcons back ahead 37-34, and spoil the Tigers’ final goalline stand with merely 1.5 seconds left. The surprising Brown is taking over for Chase Barringer, who has transferred to IMG Academy. Brown might be more accurate!
51 combined points in the fourth quarter feels like a Tiger Stadium record, even if you count all of the years on the current plot as “Tiger Stadium” years. Once that smoke clears, Festus can take many positives away from the loss, besides the program records each school’s playmakers may have set in that final quarter. AC Jim Sardo’s defense played better than Summit’s in the late-going. Black & Gold offense was so incredibly explosive in the final 12:00 that it actually worked against the Tigers. It is difficult to manage a comeback, and then hold on to the lead, without a sustained scoring drive along the way. Festus held up nobly on defense in August conditions, but Summit’s ability to gain just a few yards at a time helped the Falcons work the Game Clock.
The Festus Tigers did have one major weakness exposed on Friday, and that’s special teams. Friday’s loss was a Blunder Bowl on special teams on behalf of players, coaches, and everybody, and the Black & Gold would probably be 1-0 if Week 1’s guests were not two-thousand-times better in the return game. We’ll spell out the strife & struggle in the Week 2 Jefferson County Power Poll.
Seckman 33, Oakville 14
Oakville’s greenhorns were in trouble when Seckman had the football. The Tigers didn’t look bad on offense though! Oakville High appears to have shifted its Institutional Focus around this offseason, giving up any pretense of filling out a championship defensive depth chart, in favor of playing its fastest and most talented athletes in more of a wide-open offense as often as possible. That’s a significant change for an OHS team that upset Northwest by a score like 2-0 last year. Seckman did well to not allow 15+ points.
Senior QB Brody Kube’s offense was under some pressure, but the Jaguars’ leadership and experience paid off in an excellent second half. Jaxson Jablonski had a 100+ yard night, hopefully the first of many this season. His fellow junior running back Connor Baer showed speed and tenacity on a home-run touchdown carry that helped keep the Jaguars ahead 21-14 in midgame. OHS grabbed a rare INT off of Kube, but the dual-threat QB looked great on the run, while averaging 17.43 yards per completion.
There’s only one troubling piece of info – Kube took a harsh tackle on a carry with minutes left in Week 1’s game, and hobbled off the field, right into the arms of his coaches. TGG hears that it was handled like a serious injury. We’ll wait for word on No. 12’s status.
Gibson Southern 37, St. Pius 21
Saturday’s “bowl game” broadcast from Gibson Southern began as a friendly, impartial review of two teams in a national showcase. GSHS’s commentators were kindly enough to take mention of The Gridiron Geek and Russell Korando’s Lancers reporting as pregame festivities sang in a low key. That was super nice and appreciated, since the best acknowledgment that a team’s media usually gets when it is performing in front of people from 500 miles away is “Gosh, I heard that they’re really hyped on this team down there.”
Then the opening kickoff happened, and the St. Pius Lancers shook up the event. They shook up Gibson Southern, the town of Fort Branch … heck, they shook up the freaking Midwest by threatening to simply clobber the Varsity Titans. Hill Valley led 7-3 in the first quarter when junior QB Evan Eckrich faked a Wishbone run and found his classmate, WR Harrison Ray, on an 86-yard play-action touchdown pass to give the Lancers a stunning 13-3 lead. Titans signal-caller Caden Rochleau’s hurry-up offense turned into a necessity instead of a luxury, as Gibson Southern’s indignance at falling behind would prompt the Titans to toss 30+ passes.
Were the Lancers too successful in taking a double-digit lead at Gibson Southern? All that The Geek can tell you is that once SPX went up by 10 points, the event was no longer the “United Fidelity Bank Bowl.” It became a Gibson Southern home game in earnest, replete with chippy altercations on the field and panicked shouting from the stands. The Titans responded like a championship team, going on a 20-0 comeback run before the Lancers could finally respond with a scoring drive. Gibson Southern did not allow a point after halftime of the Titans’ 16-point victory, but there was a palpable sense that the home-field setting had served to rescue the favorites from a potential Lancers win. It was one thing that the United Fidelity Bank Bowl’s announcers changed their tone from “This is an outstanding matchup” to “-We- need to dominate up front!” as soon as SPX took that 13-3 lead. It’s another issue altogether that the bout’s referees – as skillful as MSHSAA’s absolute best crews overall – joined in and helped the Titans.
The Lancers drew penalty flags for sitting on the bench on Saturday. They were penalized for walking around, chewing gum, and eating sunflower seeds. Gibson Southern’s first TD drive was aided by 30-40 yards in SPX penalty calls. By The Geek’s count, Hill Valley wound up incurring 23 of the contest’s 28 penalties for more than 200 yards. Indiana’s referees had zero interest in watching Gibson Southern lose to some out-of-state interlopers, to fall to 0-2 on the season. Personal-foul flags flew after ordinary contact. “Phantom” altercations drew Unsportsmanlike Conduct flags on St. Pius X, on which a lack of any opposing players in proximity made even GSHS’s on-air alumni question the referees’ calls. Shaver drew a 15-yard flag for getting thrown out-of-bounds.
Add in the St. Pius Lancers losing the turnover battle in both halves, and there was no way that Hill Valley was going to pull off the upset. But it did come a lot closer than anticipated. If The Geek doesn’t report that part, it won’t be reported, because the Indiana media’s recaps of Saturday’s second game are just crazy!
Gibson Southern made “too many unforced errors,” writes Kyle Sokeland of the Evansville Courier & Press. He quotes Rochleau griping, “We kept making mistakes and beating ourselves up,” and quotes GSHS head coach Nick Hart complaining that the Titans had too many “silly penalty calls” to be successful. HA! Spoiled much? How would Hart sound if his team had drawn 23 of them. NHL fans know what a Kelly Chase Humble-Brag sounds like. “We played so bad, or we would’ve beat Chicago way worse.”
Hill Valley can use Week 1’s defeat as inspiration, and a teaching tool going forward. The Lancers outgained a state-title contender from a (supposedly) superior pigskin state 416-282, leaving no doubt that SPX would’ve cruised to a victory if GSHS had had the three fumbles while taking 20+ penalties themselves. St. Pius X’s fierce physical style, and polarizing status among MSHSAA’s big-shots, means that the Lancers will never benefit from as many penalty flags as their rivals will, so the squad’s newcomers got the chance to get used to it. It was like having a strict teacher on Day 1. It gives the Lancers focus to sharpen their form in Week 2.
The Geek has to try to keep the rest of Week 1’s recaps short. Not because Imperial, Jefferson R-7, and Festus (and Fenton) are more important than other stone’s-throw football neighborhoods, but because MSHSAA’s late-as-a-contractor bracket reveal of 2026 came out while the teams were competing this weekend. There is a ton of AMAZING news for Mississippi Magazine’s mid-sized schools in the unseeded District brackets. It changes a lot of TGG’s reporting. Read on, Lancer Nation, this impacts you too!
Herculaneum 42, Affton 0
Herculaneum defeated Affton 42-0 as the Blackcats rushed for more yards than ever, paying off the promise of Week 1’s rock & roll-themed Herky meme. While the Affton Cougars appear to have an offense as hapless as Mehlville’s from 2025, their defense did battle hard against Dunklin’s drastic size and power advantage, making it impressive that HHS outscored its prediction by 16.
NOW. That’s out of the way. Move over, VFW, Blackcat Drive has way bigger fish to fry. Herky’s good news from Week 1 extends far, far beyond a blowout win! MSHSAA laid such a delightful surprise on the fans of our Class 3 teams (and Class 4 teams) on Friday that it makes The Geek recall what Bill Walsh said, “Sports writers change their minds in 24 hours.” This one has!
The Herculaneum Blackcats are drawn into Class 3, District 2, with St. Pius X and Park Hills Central:
It’s exactly what The Geek was praying for! But wait – no, it’s actually better. This year’s state bracket pits the winner of D2 against the winner of D1, the latter of which has been drawn up as an all-Public School race featuring the St. Genevieve Dragons. The relegated powerhouses Country Day and Lutheran North are together in Class 3, District 3, and they’ll run into each other.
Now look at Week’s 1 scoreboard, and wow. The dark clouds have parted to give Herculaneum a winnable path to Week 12. Park Hills Central is 0-1 following a blowout loss to Sikeston. The CHS Rebels have gone an unthinkable 6-7 in their last 13 games.
That ‘beast’ of a Class 3 state field Herculaneum and St. Pius X were supposed to be in? Fiddlesticks! Blair Oaks has been slated into Class 2 after the summer of fresh enrollment figures. Lift For Life Motorized Scooter Company has been lifted into Class 4. Perryville dropping into C3 helped to push former C5 teams into a spot where they can’t be a threat before Week 14.
The Geek doesn’t want to get out over his skis, like Eddie the Eagle. The HHS Blackcats still have a long regular-season trek ahead of them. But this year’s C3D2 district race is going to be extremely fun, given the knowledge that if the Blackcats and the St. Pius Lancers play up to their potential, the Dirty Dozen will have one guaranteed state-playoff slot in the bag going into Week 12. Furthermore, the winner of that potential HHS-SPX clash would not be faced with an unbeatable opponent on Nov. 20.
Northwest 26, Francis Howell Central 13
Suburban League teams are known for shifting their lineup-selection focus from offense to defense, and vice versa. We saw it the Seckman Jaguars’ dynamic playbook utilized to try to win 14-7 and then 100-99 during the Jags series with Valle Catholic’s souped-up team of the COVID era. Oakville’s debut this season made the Tigers feel like Buddy Ryan had been replaced by Mike Martz. Northwest has trumped all of Seckman and Oakville’s Iron Man moves this campaign by giving QB/LB senior Cohenn Stark a starter’s role on defense to go with his linchpin’s role handling the bean on offense. The plan worked perfectly on Friday.
Stark made a 90-yard interception return to foil a long Francis Howell Central drive, giving Northwest a decisive edge via a 14-point swing. Then, later in the game, he directed two TD drives for the offense, and capped them off by running the ball in himself. The Northwest Lions are utilizing Cohenn Stark like Crystal City utilized Cale Schaumburg. Can a Class 6 Iron Man keep this up? Classmate Jeremiah Clines snagged two interceptions against FHCHS, showing that Stark is not the Lions’ only elite LB.
Maybe it will work against Cedar Hill’s challenging-but-fun set of upcoming foes. Or, Stark could get banged up if he’s responsible to generate 300 combined yards and make 10 tackles. Stark can be so brilliant on special teams that you’d like for the coaches to find glidepaths for No. 5 on defense, and plays on which to rest, so that Jeffco’s ‘Cam Newton’ can still go “BAAACCKK!” and be a KR. Should the Lions keep coming up with vastly alternative game plans to win 55-49 or 14-0, The Geek will try hard not to ever ask “What the heck just happened?” in a recap. These “Class 1” tactics can make the much-maligned Suburban League unique.
St. Vincent 14, DeSoto 7
Okay, forget that. What the heck just happened!? The DeSoto Dragons of 2026 took the season’s opening kickoff and wandered into an upset defeat. An expert St. Vinny’s punting game saddled the Dragons with too much bad field-position to get junior QB Cannon Kisner and his Graduated Wing-T motoring. DeSoto could not capitalize on a 65-yard catch-and-run for The Omen, disappointing scary-movie directors around the globe when junior Damian Pogue’s receiving corps fumbled the final act.
One explanation for the episode is that St. Vincent doesn’t look half bad. The ’26 Indians debuted with an OL-DL combo of relatively short, stocky big men, evidence that there’s a hefty underclass contingent toiling for the QCC’s defending champs. That was enough for St. Vinny’s to produce that “stalemate” at the line-of-scrimmage that Mississippi Magazine feared was the Dragons’ only danger.
Joachim Junction doesn’t want to psych itself out against a beatable schedule, though. TGG felt that some of HC Russ Schmidt’s preseason quotes almost sounded too fearful for DeSoto’s boys, risking the team’s newfound confidence by saying things like, “We’ve got no business playing a tough Class 5 team.” Heck, a previous Dragons’ coaching staff took DeSoto High to meet Fort Zumwalt North in a road game. DeSoto didn’t win, but the Dragons made hay and belonged on the field. It could be a mistake to imply to the kids that they’re being protected from a losing season via all of the scheduling against a Small Schools league. Be confident and assertive about the deepest roster that DeSoto has had since 2019. It might be a cure for the summer nerves.
Hillsboro 48, Kennett 6
Hillsboro’s double-dose of good news involves a Turbo Clock debut mixed with Class 4’s bracket reveal. If “the clouds are parting” is a theme for Class 3’s local teams, it’s most certainly an angle for Hillsboro, Festus, Windsor, and DeSoto. The path to a Week 15 bid has never glistened so brightly going into a season as in 2026. In short, our contingent of Mississippi Conference teams will feel at right at home this postseason, even when they’re on the road … performing against teams who they’re pretty sure they can beat.
St. Mary’s is promoted to Class 5. Lutheran North is relegated to Class 3. This will be a District 1 vs District 2 quarterfinal season, and District 2 probably won’t become any more of a hotbed than it was last autumn, which is to say that the times are hard in the Meramec Valley. There are no prohibitively good private-school teams lurking in D3-D4, unless you count promoted Lift for Life.
Hannibal waved farewell to 5,923 seniors this summer, then lost decisively to Helias Catholic in Week 1. You can get to St. Joseph without having to beat Kearney or another west-central MO power first. Ladies and gentlemen, the Class 4 landscape is wide open! Adding to that happy tale is that Hillsboro expects to return to the C4D1 title game, the “springboard” into a promising state race.
Yeah, about that … Hillsboro hasn’t made District 1’s championship round once since going to the Show-Me Bowl in 2023. Hawk Nation, of course, has to worry about getting to Week 12 before they begin to worry about winning it. Perryville, which upset Hillsboro in 2024’s semifinals, is down in a Class 3 district. Sikeston and Windsor are semifinal spoilers to look out for.
Fox 49, Mehlville 23
Windsor vs Jefferson helped both teams. Festus vs Fenton helped both teams. Fox’s 49-23 victory over Mehlville helped both of its teams, too … and it did so against all odds! It sure seemed like it was going to be a boring, unremarkable day by the Water Tower.
Senior QB Jude Pribish’s offense got right to work on getting a Turbo Clock in motion against their inferior foe. Pribish was solid in the running game, but surprisingly terrific in the passing game, hitting Fox’s junior receiver Robbie “Waldo” Twitchell with a 49-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. The senior Iron Man Ryan Joggerst told Arnold’s coaches, “If Aiden Schirmer can do it, so can I,” and took to the backfield to net two early TD carries, helping the Varsity Warriors get to the 35-point mark before halftime.
But this was a summer game, and HC Brent Tinker knew that his team would win as soon as he saw Pribish directing such a nice attack. Fox began subbing – a LOT – and MHS relied on its points from an early kick-return TD to ward off a Turbo Clock to start the second half. That’s when an awesome thing happened. Mehlville’s offense found a spark against Fox’s reserves, then refused to relinquish the momentum, scoring two honest-to-goodness TDs to make the end margin an eminently respectable 26 bones.
Sure, it was trash-time. But a ton of teams have played their reserves against Mehlville over the last several years, and the Panthers were still shut-out constantly. Fox and Mehlville’s offenses each gained confidence on Friday, and linebackers aren’t even offended.
Louisiana 42, Grandview 6
The Geek didn’t even watch this one, not because he doesn’t love the Birds of Prey, but because he had a bad feeling going into it. Louisiana is going to be more than a “pain in the ass” this season – the Bulldogs are an instant contender to win Class 1, District 2.
Speaking of which, though, Grandview High has its own share of glorious news from MSHSAA’s bracket reveal, which is that the Eagles are in Class 1 once again. The Quad County Conference is the proper vehicle for Grandview to test its mettle against much larger schools. Not the playoffs! If you think the regrouping Eagles had problems coping with Louisiana’s new-and-improved lineup of 2026, just wait until you see Class 2’s smallest schools try to contend with Blair Oaks, which is back in C2 once again this year.
Winfield 49, Crystal City 12
Crystal City’s new roster seems to have inherited the problems of the prior one. Winfield’s rushers galloped through holes that were too wide, setting up passes to receivers who were left too open. It would be deceiving to write “the Hornets are getting blown off the ball,” since they’re not all getting blown off the ball. CCHS’s performances are uneven, so that the best tacklers still can’t do much to assist the struggling cogs. Senior DT Elias Miller is clogging up the middle, but he’s not the type of player who can compensate for half of the defense caving-in on either side of him. Meanwhile, the offense is still skittish, prone to missed blocks, and QB hurries.
Crystal’s getting six or seven kids at a time to play pretty good defense, so the Hornets can’t turn back on the plan now. This week’s contest against Affton is as glowing of an opportunity that Bradley’s Farm has had to defeat a Class 4 public school in a while. The Hornets just can’t give the Cougars any free turns. A better pass-blocking effort would settle sophomore QB Kolton Adams down.
Photo Credits: Nolan Naucke / The 7 Media, Francis Howell Central Facebook, St. Pius X Football Facebook