Festus 20, Hillsboro 0
The “fearsome” defense that our site promised Festus Tigers fans in 2026 didn’t show up often in Weeks 1-4. Sure, the Tigers had promising moments without the pigskin versus St. Mary’s, and even Summit before that. But then, losing most of a second quarter against the DeSoto Dragons in Week 4 seemed to put the unit firmly back in the blue-collar category. It appeared unlikely that the defense would have a signature performance at Hillsboro – win or lose – since they were up against a sizzling-hot Hawks offense.
Guess what? The Tigers thought that the Highway A Game was a perfect moment for this year’s dominating defense to emerge, and they didn’t care about the stats that their opponent had racked up prior to Friday night. Hillsboro’s quarterbacks Aidan Fleming and Cody Reese were snowed under by QB sacks and hurries from start to finish. Hillsboro RB Jadyn Rice was trapped for massive losses in the Hawks backfield. Fleming was held well under 50% through the air in the opening half, leaving the arena to a refashioned FHS attack that minted the winning six points almost right away on Aiden Schirmer’s first-quarter TD run,
Antonio Pinkston was all over the place, manufacturing as many as five combined sacks and tackles-for-loss in the senior’s first truly menacing performance of the year. The Geek has to think that Pinkston read last week’s “Are You Injured?” passage in the Jefferson County Power Poll, and got upset enough to yank the Poll right out of the Field Turf, taking it out on the Hillsboro Hawks for a full 48:00. The Tigers’ EDGE master had a ton of help, however, including big nights from Beau Canaday and Galin Hall, who pulverized Fleming for the victory’s final coup-de-grace sack. Hillsboro’s offensive backfield, thinned by fresh injuries to Trey Zimmerly and Nathan Bulback, was battered by a Festus front-seven that TGG rates among the best in MSHSAA Class 4.
Correction: The Geek was fooled by a couple of calls/reports that had Preston Ross on the field for Hillsboro. Based on HC Bill Sucharski’s Saturday-morning remark that “Preston was missing” from the starting lineup, they must have meant Auston Ross.
Black & Gold coaches made the adjustments on offense that we’ve been waiting for. They brought Schirmer onto the field without automatically taking Kamden Yates out, matching Yates and Braydon Wilkes against Hillsboro’s vulnerable secondary via downfield receiver’s routes. Wilkes had another fine receiving outing, catching a 14-yard touchdown toss on an effective scramble by O’Brien, while also getting into the action as a fierce “Wildcat” rusher who plowed through Hillsboro’s tacklers in the Red Zone. The strategy really paid off when Yates turned a tentative Quarter 3 around for the Tigers on 3rd-and-10, hauling in a down-and-out throw from O’ Brien and speeding up the near sideline for a momentum-swinger of a 50-yard completion to the Hawks’ 10. As TGG suggested, an all-positions philosophy for Yates’ usage did not make him less effective as a tailback against Hillsboro. Yates was Week 5’s “Roger Craig on Tecmo Bowl” weapon as a RB, the player who could take that surprise carry and get R-6 out of a down-and-distance jam.
The Tiger with the biggest breakout night had been a receiver all along. Dylan Clinton was spectacular in the role that we thought a sidelined Gus Drinen would be playing by now, catching and running with a 65-yard TD pass that put FHS firmly in command at 14-0 late in the first half. Clinton could have delivered the real coup-de-grace with a few minutes left, when he snagged a deep Post pass and went racing down the middle for what appeared to be a 26-0 Tigers lead. That play was called back on one of the tilt’s 25 or 30 play-killing penalties, an angle that lets the Hawks take a reassuring deep breath, even though the refs were so annoying at times.
Hillsboro probably didn’t get shut out – though Festus probably didn’t score only three times. FHS did well enough on offense to mint 30-40 points, and HHS played well enough to score 10-20 points. A crew of shortsighted, overbearing, and (we gotta imagine) fame-seeking Missouri referees decided to be the stars of the show, nullifying several of each school’s most beautiful plays in the county’s crown jewel of a Friday Night Lights event. It wasn’t a question of the zebras favoring one team. They made it almost impossible for either side to score points. It was ironic that when the flags finally could have helped someone score, Hillsboro failed to capitalize on numerous FHS defensive flags when Rice fumbled at the 2-yard line and gave up a touchback. The pigskin gods – or perhaps the gods of hurtful eager-beaver refereeing – were saying, “No! Tonight’s dumb number of flags is here to prevent entertainment.”
Hillsboro’s Homecoming Game of Week 5 was the one home-field Homecoming that our Week 5 preview failed to pick up on. TGG felt was though he had missed an obvious “Homecoming Blues” theme when the Hawks, who never should have made an annual conference title game into their Homecoming date in the first place, took nervous five and ten-yard penalties on the first three series against FHS. But as the night wore on, and the referees took over as the contest’s center of attention, it became clearer that the penalty problems weren’t Homecoming Blues at all. It was just one of those nights with a referee crew that needs to go join Broadway, since they can be the center of attention on Broadway without stealing a Homecoming Game from people.
Have no doubt, the Festus High defense would have looked just as mighty in a regular bout with legit referees. Heck, the Hawks might have had to endure over a dozen QB sacks if it had turned into a shootout. Good on Hillsboro that the Hawks have two quarterbacks to give each other breaks. Good on R-6’s defense that Leon Hall was given no breaks whatsoever on Friday.
Seckman 26, Fox 20 (OT)
Oh man, it happened. The Jaguars and Warriors went to overtime for a second-straight year, and Seckman’s -ROLL JAGS!- host legion was enough to survive an Arnold team’s comeback bid that did not include a field-goal try on 4th-and-goal on Fox High’s only possession of OT. Fox head coach Brent Tinker would say that Seckman was about to produce a touchdown for six points anyway, added to the fact that Arnold’s critical extra-point try following Jude Pribish’s tying fourth-quarter TD carry went tantalizingly wide. Jaxson Jablonski’s QB sneak to win the overtime for SHS was the shortest, clutch-est, and most historic run you’ll ever see.
It feels like a MSHSAA Final Four outcome in the sense that The Gridiron Geek can recap it, but no one is relying on him to. Due to the taxing circumstances of multiple, severe injuries to potential starting quarterbacks – not to mention an outrageously historic run of back-to-back nailbiters with Seckman’s literal school district rival – Friday’s conquest will go down as one of the Jags’ best ever. Mississippi Magazine can’t do much to recap a finish that’s about to be memorized by every Middle School athlete in Imperial. However, a rare SEC-style development as the contest ended is something that it’s up to this reporter to dish on.
There was a good old-fashioned “handshake confrontation” between Tinker and Seckman’s coaching staff after the OT winner, once the Jags had massed on the turf to run around in a joyful “College Football Playoff”-style mob of excitement. Tinker told Live Stream STL in postgame that he “didn’t like how Seckman ran to our sideline.” TGG will come down on the Jaguars’ side of any debate that occurred over the team’s field-storming, because it was just natural for the Jags to run away from their own sideline and toward the other one – it wouldn’t feel correct to jump forwards and backwards back onto your own sideline, like a student who had decided to storm the field and then thought better of it and sat back down. The momentum of Seckman’s thrill took the Jags running toward Fox’s sideline – they probably wouldn’t have cared if it was the Rolling Stones over there.
Angry incidents such as “storming a sideline” tend to occur between two or three kids who’ve lost their tempers after 48:00, not a whole team storming another. Incidentally, we think the Jaguars might’ve expected a crowd-storming after OT, and were surprised not to be in one!
It was fascinating to hear Tinker answer Ray Halbrook’s handshake-line questions in classic Harbaugh style. “It’s fine, everything is fine, we like each other, never an issue” etc. But if Tinker’s auditioning to advise NCAA programs on Public Relations, he might have an emerging running back which he can suggest to some of them as a recruit. The 5’9″ underclassman Jacob Edwards had a terrific performance that belied his previous season-average of about 100 yards per game (still impressive), via 201 yards and two TDs on merely 16 carries against a tough SHS defense. The Warriors’ backfield is falling into place like a jigsaw puzzle of Captain Jack’s.
Seckman has flattered Mississippi Magazine by inferring that we should interview Baer sometime. But there are people who are way better than The Geek at interviewing head coaches, and Halbrook of Live Stream STL is one of them. Ray nurtured another tearjerker of a postgame talk out of Dr. Baer on Friday, when Baer confessed that he prayed to his grandma for “divine intervention” on Fox’s all-important XP attempt with the clock running down. The skipper also confirmed that the Jaguars are being especially secretive with their adjustments until opponents see them on the field, like turning senior defensive back Boyer Hart into an Iron Man utility player. Baer claims the team is missing “eight starters” from summer training camp … which makes Seckman’s squad look even more resilient at 4-1 on the season. The Jags will celebrate with a thoughtfully booked Homecoming Game in Week 6.
DeSoto 40, Windsor 12
DeSoto’s head coach Russ Schmidt had another insightful presser in Friday’s postgame. From what you can work out from how the HC described his Windsor game plan, it appears that the skipper pinpointed Windsor’s characteristics that helped make the Owls an example to the Dragons, just just another local rival that you’d prefer to beat, and gave DeSoto’s kids a tactical lesson to take away from their 28-point win. The Owls, as Schmidt pointed out, not only run the football 90% of the time, but it’s their identity and it’s what they’re best at – better than passing, special teams, or run defense or pass defense. Such as it is, the lesson “Stop the run and you can win more often” finally sunk in on the Dragons, who stuffed Jett Black’s attack for a miniscule 3.78 average yards-per-carry.
QB Cannon Kisner was labeled “special” and “evolving” by Coach Schmidt after factoring in close to all of the Dragons’ 40 points in Week 5. Kisner repeated Black’s trick from Windsor’s debut win when the junior raced for 80 yards and a TD on DeSoto’s opening Week 5 play. Moments later, he lobbed a beauty downfield to Nolan “The Tonic” Selsor for a 14-0 lead and clear water. DeSoto improves to 2-3 and escapes the cellar of Class 4, District 1, leading into another winnable contest versus Fredericktown.
St. Pius 57, Caruthersville 12
Caruthersville began Friday’s bout in the Bootheel as though the Tigers would be the first club to surprise the 4-1 St. Pius X Lancers all season. The CHS Tigers took the field confidently and matriculated the bean into the Red Zone, though the lack of running room for Caruthersville tailback Nick Fonda portended the fate that was about to befall Caruthersville’s blockers. Two SPX pass-rushers burst freely into QB Charman Tillman’s pocket on Caruthersville’s next passing down, provoking a failed scramble attempt and a fumble that Dawson Litterall picked up and took 75 yards to the house. Lynnden McCoin, who appeared to force the fumble, manufactured the play after lining up as a defensive end, making McCoin the most versatile “safety” since Larry Wilson.
It only takes one spark for the Lancers’ powder keg to explode. Brody Ervin scored to cap SPX’s first drive with a 42-yard Wishbone carry that echoed the senior’s coup-de-grace touchdown in 2025’s District Final triumph in the same stadium. CHS responded with a long TD pass to make the score 21-7 following Cody Shaver’s first touchdown run, but it wasn’t long before Shaver and Ervin had combined for 12 more points. St. Pius ended the first half by crumpling Tillman again, and scoring their second defensive TD.
We haven’t seen the last tight game between St. Pius and Caruthersville. CHS came into Friday’s contest with a 3-0 record against Missouri teams that was not reflective of the Tigers’ blue-collar limitations this year. However, the way that the Lancers bested a C2 stronghold was impressive in a way that transcends whatever circumstances the Tigers are in lineup-wise. “Bootheel blowouts” tend to be long slogs in which one offense succeeds and the other one falls short. It’s less typical to see the proud Caruthersville Tigers blown-up at the LOS to the point where the offense is responsible for as many touchdowns-against as TDs-for. St. Pius X will absolutely need to reverse-handicap itself to keep from hanging 80+ points on struggling Lutheran St. Charles in Week 6.
Northwest 36, McCluer North 6
Cedar Hill plays even better against McCluer North than we thought the Lions might, helping RB Will Murphy post another critical 100-yard performance while Cohenn Stark does his thing and gallops for 200+ on the Stars. Head coach Scott Gerling was kind enough to the Varsity Stars to mention that QB Ramond Brown had gotten banged up, which imperils MNHS and worries TGG. McCluer North is one of the purest football settings in the St. Louis Metro, and we want the Stars to remain a very good team.
Perryville 63, Grandview 6
We weren’t trying to patronize the Grandview Eagles by suggesting that Grandview-Perryville had a chance to be a decent game. Without knowing if, or when, some of Dittmer’s upperclassmen will return to the gridiron, The Geek’s formula for handicapping the wounded Birds of Prey is simple – they’ve got a chance to compete against any of 2025’s close-shave opponents who have also taken a serious setback this year. If they’ve stayed at level par, or improved on last season, then Grandview’s excoriated lineup couldn’t have a chance. Based on Perryville head coach Brent Roth’s somber, gravelly postgame talk after the Pirates’ debut encounter with Fredericktown, it was easy to wonder if the Pirates were due for a gigantic step backward this autumn also.
But when you’re a Class 3 team with roster turnover, you’ve got a list of decent substitutes to keep things solid on gameday. When you’re the ’26 Grandview Eagles, and you’ve got underclassmen lining up wearing casts, and braces, and wraps, there is no such depth chart to fall back on. It was plum inspiring when the Eagles made an effort to spoil Perryville’s Turbo Clock party in the second quarter, when sophomore rusher Evan Wofford took off on a beautifully blocked 50-yard carry. However, GHS missed an ensuing 4th-and-1 try, leaving no doubt as to the next TD scorers. Dittmer’s defense was too battered to put up much of a worthy fight. Perryville’s campus, for what it’s worth, seemed surprised to be outplaying a Class 1 JV given how they were celebrating.
Herculaneum 35, Cuba 8
It’s awesome that Herculaneum made up for its previous road loss at Cuba with a decisive win Friday. We can’t tell you much about it at press time, since the Herky-Cuba live stream that would’ve been a nice “red eye recap” source had a subscription paywall at HUDL and MSHSAA TV, a rarity for a regular-season Quad County Conference matchup. Perhaps the CHS Wildcats are trying to boost their fundraising numbers with live-stream “ticket sales” after a nightmare in which the program almost went dark in 2025.
The Blackcat defense has had three pretty good performances in five turns this season. Herky will get into the soft patch of its slate after this weekend, almost surely bound for a 4-3 record going into a couple of very intriguing rematches at Perryville and DeSoto.
Veritas Christian Academy 27, Crystal City 26 (OT)
This one one of the out-of-town Homecoming Game scenarios that Mississippi Magazine whiffed on in Week 5, and it turned into an OT contest just like one of JeffCo’s crosstown battles. It couldn’t have been more opposite from the Fox-Seckman contest (which former CCHS skipper Dan Fox took part in) from a media and info point-of-view – there were no live videos, no stat lines, no Leader Publications updates, and no running updates on either school’s social media. What we do know is that it had to be a gut-wrenching defeat for the 1-4 Hornets, who probably can’t seed higher than fourth place in a five-team district without a lot of help following Friday’s letdown. But by all accounts, the team is starting to look solid, and we think CCHS may have 3-4 wins in the offing.
Jefferson 54, Bayless 12
Jefferson improves to 3-2 with a routine blowout of Bayless. It’s great news in a sense, since there were no such thing as “routine” wins for Blue Jay Way following 2025’s brief summer of promise. TGG is happy that Jefferson will host Perryville High this coming weekend, instead of the other way around, given Perryville’s confidence when R-7 is visiting its turf. The PHS Pirates’ giddy side-hopping attitude against Grandview could set the Week 6’s guests up for a shock against an infinitely healthier Blue Jays team.
Photo Credit: St. Pius Football Facebook, GB Images