Festus 36, DeSoto 8
So what, DeSoto Dragons, if Friday’s final score fell about the same as the Festus Tigers’ other recent wins in the series? Anyone who watched the contest knows exactly what you accomplished in that second quarter. Facing an all-too-typical 0-14 deficit against Kamden Yates’ talented team, the 1-3 Varsity Dragons (W/L records can be as deceptive as final scores!) commanded the second 12:00 of Midmeadow Lane’s last summer soiree of 2026, turning a short-field opportunity into a methodical TD drive that was highlighted by a play-action pass from Cannon Kisner to senior TE Nolan “The Tonic” Selsor, soon to be followed by Cannon’s elusive 15-yard dash to paydirt. Kisner made a bullfighter’s deke to produce a 2PT conversion and a tight 14-8 scoreboard. The Dragons jumped for joy running back to the sideline – their upset bid was legit, and the opposing Tigers were flesh and blood!
Alas, the upset wouldn’t happen. Despite the Dragons’ impressive drive using up all but about 1:00 of the remaining clock, the Tigers mounted a vintage retaliation drive that was capped off by a Quinnten O’ Brien touchdown toss. Kamden Yates and Braydon Wilkes showed great stamina, playing an effective Iron Man 48:00 that put FHS prohibitively ahead as usual, sparked by a backbreaking midgame INT from No. 3 and Wilkes’ crushing tackles on defense. Festus has not lost to DeSoto in the reign of Coach Ofodile.
The Geek has noticed something strange about O’Brien, the Tigers’ de facto QB for the rest of this regular season. He seems to have made “senior” strides in quarterback development already – or he already made them on the practice field – and meanwhile, the trappings of O’Brien’s game paradoxically don’t compute to his senior-like skills in finishing plays. O’Brien does a lot of things newbie signal-callers are supposed to do, like having 1-in-4 option plays blown up in the backfield, making conservative choices when chased from the pocket to the sideline, and mainly trying not to do anything that would make Coach O or Coach Martucci unhappy after a series. But when O’Brien throws the football, why, hot damn, it goes exactly where he wants it to, and his wide receiver catches it! His arm’s as accurate as summer days are long. In fact, we think O’Brien’s numbers of touchdown passes and incomplete passes are nearly alike after three games. Does FHS have two of the region’s most laser-accurate arms in its quiver?
Crystal City 44, Confluence Prep 16
HOORAY! The Crystal City Hornets snapped their losing streak with an impressive 44-16 win over a Confluence side that has given Bradley’s Farm trouble in recent years. The Hornets left little doubt who was going to win as of the encounter’s first quarter, in which Crystal City came close to racking up a 24-0 lead before Confluence could say “What’s that train doing here?” It turned into a lovely Homecoming despite the heat, with such unique fanfare in the Sunken Place that the train seemed to adjust to get a better look. (If the train conductor was a Hornets fan who was trying to get a glimpse, that’s the Jefferson County Leader‘s lead-line of the year.)
We’ll say this about CCHS head coach Craig Collins: If Friday’s win over a weaker lineup was a preview of what Collins wants the Bradley’s Farm offense to become, then he might just have something brewing. QB Kolton Adams had one of his best performances since joining the team as a freshman, catching The Geek’s eye by sprinting for the pylon instead of trying to wish-cast a TD pass during one Red Zone sequence. Crystal City’s scoreboard malfunctioned and didn’t show the extent of the Hornets’ lead, but nuclear-level EMP zappers couldn’t have dimmed the bright spot of Adams hitting WR Alex Parham on a 50-yard beauty.
Did you see that “Stop-and-Go” route from Parham?! Jerry Rice called it “The Houdini.” It makes your defender *POOF* disappear.
Pattonville 35, Seckman 0
Some scores tell a story, yet still others are deceiving to look at. Sometimes, the dichotomy works half-and-half. Seckman’s “0” is a clear reflection of where the Jaguars are in the backfield presently, stuck in the fallout from two devastating injuries to QBs who appeared to be equally great for the Jags’ offense in their own ways. It’s back-to-the-drawing-board time for SHS after the catastrophe. Seckman’s offense that scored 71 points in Week 2 would not have found “36” insurmountable at PHS.
Pattonville’s 35 points? Oh, that’s deceiving! Nick Weidler’s defense did a courageous job of slowing Pattonville’s offense down, against all odds, to a veritable crawl in moments of the first and second quarter. The Jags simply weren’t doing enough with their turns to keep that defense from getting tired eventually, on a night where any defense that played 26+ minutes was in trouble. September 25th, it must be noted, is not the ideal time to host the Fox Warriors when they’re emerging from a funk again.
Ladue 27, Fox 14
Wow, does this final score ever tell a story! It tells the story, of how Fox’s defense fought bravely to try to earn the Warriors second straight upset win over Ladue High, causing so many interrupted drives and pale field-goal attempts that Ladue’s total TD count for the previous two Rams-Warriors games – six TDs – now happens to match Fox’s TD total in the two encounters, each of which have occurred on Ladue’s home turf where the Rams are the strongest. That’s an achievement of rare caliber in the Suburban League. So was Jude Pribish’s breakout as a relentless rusher from the QB spot, producing 131 tough yards against the Varsity Rams.
The Gridiron Geek is working on a story called “Sorry, Warriors, for the Stephen A. Smith Treatment,” a full-throated and deeply apologetic “mea culpa” for royally mixing up the facts on Fox Football more than once this summer. The Geek will try to explain to the Varsity Warriors how he reversed last season’s 26-20 Fox-Ladue score in his mind, taking a spectacular upset away from a county that’s badly in need of more of them, in a First Draft that never would’ve gone to print if not for a dozen minor disasters on Publish Day. In short, it was a matter of misremembering Fox’s critical hot streak of late 2025 as “Parkway North and Poplar Bluff,” and not simply because those names look alike when tired eyes are squinting. Last autumn’s Parkway North meeting was when the Arnold kids shook off their past miscues and began to compete harder, using the next 10 quarters to show that the unexpectedly competitive bout with PNHS was not a fluke. Will Fox’s fine effort at Ladue lead to another uptick, just in time for The Valley?
St. Pius 54, Park Hills Central 0
We know the Jefferson County Leader themes for St. Pius X in advance, also. The sharp Russell Korando will be the first to point out that Hill Valley has posted two consecutive shut-outs for the first time in four years, doing so against tougher opposition than the 2022 lineup’s shut-outs of Grandview and 0-10 DuBourg. He’ll also state that the Varsity Lancers should be considered the runaway favorites to win Class 3, District 2. Park Hills has been royally thumped. Herky has had a letdown start, and Potosi doesn’t possess 12+ All-District athletes who can hack against the rising force-of-nature known as St. Pius Lancers football. St. Clair can claim to have a little more juice in ’26, but PHS shut the Bulldogs out 12-0. The path is open for ‘Pius to return to the state playoffs.
St. Pius X could have beaten Park Hills Central by an even wider score; the Lancers’ game management in Week 4 showed that they would rather avoid the distractions that an out-of-hand final score can bring. Cody Shaver touched the ball less than 10 times. Evan Eckrich attempted only eight passes against the Rebels. Attempting to restrain the Lancers’ offense is probably a lost cause, however, and if the offense isn’t allowed to score, the defense will. Harrison Ray and Brody Ervin both scored pick-six touchdowns on Homecoming, a shining hour for the junior-senior duo that reflects what The Geek really, really likes about this Lancers lineup. There’s so much talent on hand that you can overlook an All-Star such as Brody … which he hopes more opposing QBs will do.
Jefferson 27, Cuba 0
Dang. WAY TO GO, Blue Jay Way! Jefferson’s defense, not heralded as one of the county’s best prior to Week 4, shut down and shut-out a previously 2-1 visitor in Cuba, an opposing team that had scored 112 points in its first three games! In a summer that has lacked statement wins from JeffCo, the stout, stubborn Blue Jays just quietly set a new Quad County Conference standard for defense this year by FREEZING the crafty Cuba Wildcats offense on an evening so hot, it was 95 degrees in the shade.
Hillsboro 45, North County 13
The Hillsboro Hawks, at a perfect 4-0, are the only unbeaten team left standing in Jefferson County. Hmm … will The Geek defy all that he said about “records and schedules” over the past two weeks to rank Hillsboro #1 in the Dirty Dozen again? We said that whoever shot up to #1 next needed a statement win, which none of our top-half brands have managed to pull off yet. But the argument can be made that the Hawks’ 16 fabulous frames of pigskin thus far made a statement of their own. Stay tuned.
Saxony Lutheran 52, Windsor 24
A stunner at Saxony! The Windsor Owls seemed to regress to their early-2020s form on Friday night, losing to Class 2’s Saxony Lutheran Crusaders by the variety of 50-something to 20-something score that you might expect one of Jeff County’s Large Schools to lose to Jackson High School by, instead of JHS’s new little sibling. Windsor squandered 400 rushing yards, and a massive night on defense from the diminutive-but-determined junior Ethan Cobb. Somehow, after performing well against Jefferson and nobly hanging in there versus Festus, Windsor’s defense has sunk into the pits by letting Saxony score its season-high point total.
It’s worrying that Saxony Lutheran scored more points on Windsor than Festus did, even if Friday’s tilt was full of blunders and giveaways by the visiting Owls. It’s become clear that Windsor’s kids still suffer from a lack of confidence, brought upon by those Mississippi Conference defeats, and the fact that Imperial’s been spinning wheels with 4-5 records forever. The fact that this is psychological – without a doubt – is also a ray of light for WHS. The team is better than Week 4 showed, and we all know it.
Veritas Christian Academy 40, Grandview 22
This could be called Grandview’s low point of the last two years, having fallen to a brand that couldn’t come within 14 points of the free-falling Priory Ravens last season. But that wouldn’t be fair. The Geek maintains that the Varsity Eagles were unlucky in Week 4, a careworn and injured squad forced to battle a fresh lineup that has had very little wear-and-tear after just eight quarters of play over the last month. MSHSAA shouldn’t let schools book COVID-19 schedules that turn a 19-man roster into motor-murder.
Grandview’s season now turns to the goal of program survival. GHS would hate to do it, but in TGG’s view, Dittmer should consider Cuba’s strategy of calling for just one or two strategic Forfeits, maintaining enough healthy bodies to make a return by Senior Night. Cuba High School’s 2025 season was a model for how to bring a team back from the brink. Grandview must do the same in 2026.
St. Vincent 42, Herculaneum 7
Are the St. Vincent Indians bound for the state playoffs again, even though HC Tim Schumer’s promoted squad is vying in Class 2? Don’t look now, but the Indians’ district draw appears to be almost as favorable as St. Pius X’s stunning blue-chip status in Class 3’s brackets. St. Vinny’s probably won’t lose to Saxony Lutheran’s new “remora” of an enterprise from Jackson, nor should the Indians be underdogs to a 3-1 Caruthersville team that has needed to defeat lightweight opposition throughout September.
Northwest 35, Mehlville 6
Ha! Finally a “Blowout Gulch” prediction on which the game itself belonged in the same category. Northwest ran out to a Turbo Clock lead and then backed off the gas pedal, giving Mehlville its only points with 0:25 left in the fourth quarter. The shortest “return to normal Game Clock” scenario in Missouri history ensued for 24 seconds. Chase “Cuz” Belcher led the RBs with 92 yards.
Northwest’s next opponent McCluer North is off to a surprising 3-0 start, fulfilling The Geek’s forecast that Cedar Hill would have to endure some upset bids from smaller schools along the way in ’26. We’ll get a better look at MNHS versus Oakville on Saturday.
Photo Credits: Blackcat Blitz, Crystal City Football Facebook