Week 9 was a truly strange occasion for Friday Night Lights in our area. St. Pius was defeated thoroughly by a smaller school after months of blowing out larger schools. Seckman and Hillsboro fell unexpectedly, and the Fox Warriors are somehow wishing they had seeded #2 instead of #1 due to Farmington’s forfeits. Oakville High nearly found a way to host Jeff County through 11/6, considering that OHS nearly finished #2 in C6D1. That would’ve dropped NHS or SHS to #4 … if not for the Lions’ comeback.
This week’s top two teams persevered against opponents who aren’t quite as accomplished as the Festus Tigers or the Northwest Lions. Festus punted only once against Kirksville’s strong defense, yet the Tigers went about 2-for-5 in the Red Zone and labored to win by seven. With just minutes to go at Oakville, Northwest was one more 4th-and-long scenario away from losing its new trophy.
The two key Ws under duress can give our other 10 teams inspiration to do the same in the playoffs. JeffCo had four district finalists and two state-playoff teams last year. Only sloppy mistakes and bad luck could keep us from matching or exceeding that in 2026.
Meanwhile, there is fresh intrigue lower down in the Jefferson County Power Poll. Does Jefferson deserve to jump up to the top half after winning the QCC? How does The Geek handle Crystal City, Grandview, and Windsor on the “Relegation Table” after CCHS arguably had the best performance of all three teams last Friday?
Don’t worry, Gateway Sports Hub – there are no Power Poll ties left to go around.
1 – Festus Tigers
Midmeadow Lane deserves its #1 undisputed ranking as much as any team that The Gridiron Geek has covered. For one thing, the Tigers waited a long time for it, fighting for media attention despite a seven-game streak and a high state ranking, due to the surreal performances of Seckman, St. Pius X, and Northwest this year. Festus R-6 has had three of its senior standouts leave the lineup at quarterback, receiver, and linebacker. But if the SPX Lancers are facing an elite “subschedule” of state-title contenders, the Festus Tigers are working on a time-lapse resume of great defensive performances against big-time opponents, holding HHS, St. Mary’s, and Hannibal to an average of less than 10 Points Against. If junior QB Quinnten O’ Brien’s offense continues to be reliable and responsible, the combination of mighty defense, Kamden Yates’ rushing, and Braydon Wilkes’ Wildcat can take the Tigers far.
The Geek has been waiting for just the right time to laud Tiger Nation’s amazing gameday media guides again this year. In a modern twist, you can now read Festus Football content in person or digitally, before every single game, even when the Tigers are performing on the road. The programs should be called “media guides” because the Booster Club, or “Festus BC,” obviously puts so much time and love into the publication that it is better than flipping through a team’s typical Homecoming booklet (10,000 ads, one football roster). The weekly media guides feature very well-written recaps, always more thorough and accurate than The Geek’s, and they’re always given a full chronology so that fans take in a diary of each season. The FHS media guide is outta sight!
Last but not least, the Festus BC’s reporting is really real – it’s better than most NCAA media guides that way. The authors go well beyond “Smith rushed for two touchdowns” and “we love our Pep Squad” etc. They wrote frankly about Kamden Yates’ struggle to get to 100% early last season, and they’ve acknowledged missing starters at critical points of the current campaign, well before most local teams feel comfortable acknowledging that such a thing as an “injury” even exists. This season, the Tigers’ press guide spoke of the club’s letdown of an 0-2 start. They might’ve even used a word like “slump” to describe early September’s 0-2 heartbreak.
HOORAY! When a school’s own media acts like nothing bad ever happens, the team and its fans know not to expect honesty, and then they’ll never get excited when they’re told that they did something great. It’s Boy-Who-Cried-Wolf in reverse – you attempt to tell players that they caught the wolf and saved the village, but they think, “That dude also bragged on us after we lost to East Prairie.” Honest reporting in a media guide is SPECIAL – many NFL and Division 1 teams are scared to publish anything but total fluff.
Kudos to Black & Gold on having the best media campaign around. Its fellow Festus school St. Pius X has the best social media effort around (Sophie Cunningham? WOO!). But it’s the Northwest Lions who may possess the county’s best traveling fan base.
2 – Northwest Lions
Northwest football is floating on air after coming back to win a conference title at Oakville. It’s strange – last year we thought that Oakville’s reasonably okay defensive effort in a District Semifinal at Jackson might give the Lions and Jaguars hope that they could actually win District 1, instead of competing for a silver medal. That didn’t work out so well. But it’s important for the Lions and Jags to be able to see the 2026 playoffs as a journey, instead of just one bye week plus one massive rivalry meeting. Postseasons of wonderful teams should last longer than 2-3 hours in Week 11. This season, the JeffCo teams can keep a happy thought – if Oakville’s defense makes any kind of noise at The Pit, that bodes well for the only two schools to beat the Tigers so far. First, Oakville has to survive a challenging quarterfinal game against Lindbergh, or else we’ll see if Lindbergh’s defense can do it.
By the way, BroBible tried to manufacture a controversy over the final missed field goal at Oakville. Not even many OHS fans are buying into the tall tale that Northwest-CH “egregiously” roughed the kicker and that the referees robbed Oakville with their ‘no-call.’ That’s absurd! The Geek is embarrassed that his recap – a rare Week 9 one! – thought it covered all of the bases of Oakville High’s championship game clock-issues and referee baiting in the final seconds, only to miss one of the things that “Manager-Umpire” argument at the end had to have been about. But it’s also not Mississippi Magazine’s fault, because we do give all coaches assumed propers for knowing the rules around here. You don’t look for every penalty call that isn’t even in the rulebook.
Oakville’s kicker Paul Curran tripped over Cohenn Stark’s ankle and flopped forward after missing the Tigers’ comeback field-goal try. Stark had already come and gone from the play, flopping onto his stomach nearer the center-field paint on an angle far away from where Curran was pointed. Curran wanted to follow his own kick and held up his secondary follow-through to watch the football, by then flying beyond the line-of-scrimmage. Curran got his feet tangled and fell on his own tummy. That wasn’t a roughing (or a running-into-the) kicker penalty call – it’s so obviously not a roughing call that it didn’t seem worthy of a VAR.
What caused the tangled legs was not Stark’s angle of attack, but rather the fact that Curran was using his plant foot to leap forward, taking an overly anxious hop-step as if to run after his own rushed kick. That took away some of his PK privileges, as per the zebras, although we believe that the referees at Oakville also took into account that the contact was accidental, incidental, and didn’t hurt anyone.
Even in the NFL, in which specialists’ hands and feet are protected like gold, “Contact that occurs due to the kicker’s natural motion or follow-through does not draw a call.” NFL kickers usually draw a flag when their plant leg is taken out and they go down, instead of tripping and flying forward in the pile. One or two Oakville players did indeed petition the referees after the fateful play, but it was really half-hearted. The Tigers knew the rules better than their coaches did, if the baseball-manager assistant coach was really just yelling about Curran’s banana-slip. However, you wouldn’t know that from his frantic pointing in all directions. The fact that Curran had strained toward his kick, wanting to get upfield and help it fly, was as “natural motion” as it gets in the refs’ view, and TGG’s.
One or two parents from the losing team can go on a clickbait campaign and whip up something like the BroBible crap. The same “Northwest hit the kicker” headline appeared in another Facebook news source this week, getting 0 Likes and 0 Shares. It has to remind The Geek of when Crystal City defeated Charleston in the 2024 playoffs, followed by a handshake-line fight that had a sign waving up over it that said “Charleston Started This,” and a Charleston dad made a video claiming that Crystal City had a radical conservative, race-restricted campus. You wonder just how many of Crystal City’s Black football alumni, LGBTQ couples, and Hispanic running backs such a bald-faced liar actually pushed his way through before leaving CCHS and recording that.
We don’t mean to say that Curran took a dive. But the principle of the rule is the key. If Curran had stood to avoid falling down in the pile, as NFL kickers and punters do, it’s possible he would have been legit toppled over by some part of Stark’s sprawled digits, compelling a friendly “Ed Hochuli” to make the running-into-the-kicker call. As it stands, the referees clearly got it right.
It’s a “Playoff Time”-style distraction for Northwest, and it’s more than a week until the Lions’ playoff quest can begin. The good news is that Northwest vs Seckman can’t help but sharpen the focus of two rivals. NHS will forget BroBible, and SHS will forget Week 9.
3 – St. Pius Lancers
Cedar Hill probably not quite as talented as St. Pius X this season. Oakville would surely lose to Farmington or Gibson Southern. If Oakville feels like a hypothetical favorite over Vianney at this moment, it’s because Vianney’s hatred of facing power-blocking teams has caught up to the Golden Griffins’ shaky defense late in October. But the Varsity Lions have done more than just look promising. They’ve claimed a championship. For now, the Lancers have to regroup from a surprise blowout loss, while the NHS Lions feast.
Before anyone overreacts to Week 9’s score, though, it’s good to consider just how dynamite Valle Catholic is proving to be. Valle is fun to watch when it’s not facing JeffCo kids, because 2026’s Warriors aren’t quite the biggest, the fastest, or the deepest lineup in Missouri, but they are one of the sharpest and the most efficient. If you’ve got any subtle weakness – such as St. Pius X’s lack of a reliable early-down passing game – the Warriors will identify it, exploit it, and romp to the win before you can say Jackie Robinson. Mississippi Magazine is ready to rate Valle above almost any team in the STL Metro. We’d favor Valle ’26 to beat Cardinal Ritter.
4 – Seckman Jaguars
There’s nothing to be ashamed of in falling short of a conference title. All told, the Seckman Jaguars had a marvelous miracle of a regular season. 7-2 is a testament to overcoming adversity in The Valley.
5 – Fox Warriors
The Geek covered Fox’s surprise #1 seed, district rival Farmington’s forfeits, and Ryan Joggerst’s new record in Sunday’s update.
Arnold could prepare to blitz Joggerst and DB Nehemiah Glanville at Farmington QB A.J. Robbins’ pocket on 11/6. A mild pass rush was the Warrior defense’s curse in the second half of last year’s semifinal defeat. This season, senior LB Gavin Pecoraro has only one sack despite leading the team in tackles, while classmate Cole Theobald leads the Warriors with just two QB sacks. That’s related to Brent Tinker’s preferred defensive schemes more than any player’s deficiency in getting around the edge, but an adjustment to a “Jet” or edge-pressure defense could confuse Robbins into turning the football over with interceptions.
6 – Hillsboro Hawks
The Hillsboro Hawks were defeated 14-7 in Poplar Bluff’s spoiler of a Senior Night visit. At least one phony score at MSHSAA ‘s site gave Hillsboro the 14-7 win temporarily, a low blow for a Varsity Hawks squad that has already taken it on the chin with injuries.
Wait – MSHSAA isn’t the only one. This version of the score remains up at STLToday, to go weirdly with the recap beneath it:
Hillsboro coach Bill Sucharski did not air a presser on MyMoInfo last Saturday morning, which is what happens after Hillsboro takes on key injury cases. Aidan Flaming did not appear as the Hawks’ starting quarterback. Backup Cody Reese is still missing, which meant that Trey Zimmerly stepped in as the QB against Poplar Bluff. It’s no surprise that Hawks-Mules was a misadventure.
Zimmerly did well, though, tossing five out of six completions, while making a devilish option-play combo with RB Jadyn Rice. Don’t count Hillsboro as in trouble against Sikeston in Week 11, even if Fleming and/or Reese aren’t available for the district playoffs.
7 – Jefferson Blue Jays
Jefferson most assuredly has more momentum than Hillsboro at this moment, but the Hawks’ superior effort against common rival Windsor – and Hillsboro’s overall record against Class 3 – helps keep the Blue Jays and other Small Schools in the bottom half.
8 – DeSoto Dragons
The Varsity Dragons have to be prepared to fight for everything this Friday. It’s not enough to give it the old college try. Beating the North County Raiders, who have improved like crazy down the stretch, would mark DeSoto as an up-and-coming program. Falling in defeat to Bonne Terre again, by any substantial margin, would put the Dragons in the kind of weird repeating cycle Windsor is in.
9 – Herculaneum Blackcats
Herculaneum has an outside chance to upset St. Clair in Week 11. It hurts that the district rival Bulldogs are getting an off week in Week 10 while the Blackcats have to play. However, the Cats’ upcoming Q-Final against Lutheran South could help HHS get its offense cranked up. We’ve noticed in the past that Herky’s play-calling remains extremely conservative when Dunklin leads in a quarterfinal game – when playoff wins are precious and the run game is clicking, you stick to it. Herky has to see a trash-time opportunity, if one comes in Week 10, as the chance to get a few nifty short passes working. They’ll be needed at St. Clair, demonstrably a way better defensive team than Lutheran South, and one against whom 40 rushes in a row won’t work.
10 – Windsor Owls
Hillsboro could be as vulnerable as it was when Perryville upset the Varsity Hawks in the 2024 playoffs. Could the Windsor Owls be another Cinderella to take advantage when Highway A’s western outpost is ailing? We’ll have to see if Windsor’s fan base travels nearly as well as that of the Northwest Lions, who were all over the place at Oakville during Week 9’s winner-take-all soiree.
11 – Crystal City Hornets
The Geek is so excited about Crystal City rising up to seed #2 in Class 1, District 2 that he wrote a separate article about it. What a triumph it will be to see the Hornets host a playoff game – and a famous Mizzou alum – at Bradley’s Farm after a Centennial season.
12 – Grandview Eagles
There was even a thought that Crystal City would rank #10 until Windsor finally had a better day last Friday. If it sounds crazy to rank the Hornets as so improved because they whipped 0-9 Grandview … did you see the Eagles blocking and tackling against St. Vincent in Week 8? Crystal City got better and knocked off the Birds of Prey in a minor upset, after Grandview had scored three times against a team that CCHS would likely have been whitewashed by if the Hornets had faced the Indians in midseason.
Grandview was always our team that could overachieve or underachieve by 50 points on a given night. Now that the Crystal City Hornets outplayed their Friday Night Prediction by a cool seven-TD margin, could it be GHS’s turn to surprise? There’s no reason that Grandview High can’t vie for its own minor upset over #4 seed Veritas Christian Academy in Week 10’s rematch, should the Eagles get back to the OL/DL form that they briefly boasted against a big-shot opponent. A brave effort from Grandview this weekend could create an unbelievably great scenario, in which Crystal and Grandview are each still alive this Week 11.
Photo Credits: Gateway Sports Hub Facebook, Francis Howell Schools