#1 – Hillsboro Hawks
The Gridiron Geek made an inaccuracy (imagine that!) while explaining to fans why Hillsboro shouldn’t care about going 9-0 this regular season. There can’t be “6 elimination games” left to go for Bill Sucharski’s team, just 6 elimination rounds, the 1st of which Leon Hall will need not participate in due to being the #1 seed in a 7-team District.
Though 6-team and 7-team District brackets may make MSHSAA seem a little sloppy, the system is working as it should. Hillsboro vs Perryville (or Hillsboro-DeSoto Part Deux) would be a Halloween-themed whitewash not worth anyone’s time, and so the Blue & White will be scheduled to meet the victor of a #4 vs #5 Quarterfinal, potentially the Farmington Black Knights, after dispatching of the Poplar Bluff Mules this Friday night.
#2 – Seckman Jaguars
The bracket section at MSHSAA.com is going into its terminal maneuvers for 2022, and it’s interesting to look back at Jamboree Week of this season, when the Seckman Jaguars couldn’t stop crowing about taking-on and potentially defeating Jackson in a Class 5 District championship. TGG recalls thinking “whoa, wait a second,” as you never know what surprise inconveniences that Missouri’s playoff system will produce next.
Getting hit with a Class 6 bid in Week 1 was a potential TKO blow that affected the Jags’ preparation for Valle University. It has to sting ever more now that the Jackson Indians, lo and behold, appear mortal in ’22. “What if” may be a dumb question, though sometimes it’s hard not to ask.
But as the state bracket taketh-away, the state bracket giveth. The favorites of C6, D1 have collectively shown to be as flaky, and potentially beatable, as the top schools in C5’s southeasterly District. Better yet, we’re not speaking of St. Louis U. High’s dismantling of top seeds last November, but rather, the weekend box scores of 2022.
CBC recently allowed 4 meaningful TDs to the .500 DeSmet Spartans, and has done lots and lots of messing-around with out-of-state contests this fall, not always against the best of opposition. Incredibly, the ’22 Christian Brothers College Cadets do not have a W over a Missouri team with a winning record. Only a single CBC opponent has posted 5 wins.
Seckman’s main edge in the District playoffs could be that several tough rivals will be beating each other’s brains out in Week 10. The Varsity Jaguars cannot finish below 2nd in the current 3-way logjam of CBC, Marquette, and SHS, because QB Cole Ruble is about to rush for 17 touchdowns in 9:00 against the 1-6 Webster Groves Statesmen.
#3 – Festus Tigers
Whoops – in another accident, TGG has inferred that Cape Girardeau was sending a team to the C4D1 bracket too, but unlike in the old days, the “Super-District” now consists of 7 teams. Perryville’s revival of its old berth in Class 4, District 1 could have been a disaster, except that the Pirates stand among MSHSAA’s most-improved squads since August.
FHS will chomp a cupcake, the 1-7 Sikeston Bulldogs, in Week 10 thanks to earning a #3 seed with last Friday’s cool, confident win at Farmington. North County is even luckier, though, getting a “virtual bye” vs DeSoto before taking-on the Tigers in Bonne Terre to open (and maybe close) November’s slate. Farmington’s current lineup does not strike The Geek as a suitable spoiler for Hillsboro’s awesome attack in Week 11, which means we could be looking at a spiffy scenario in which all 3 District 1 contenders are healthy, happy, and humming going into each of the scrums played between the triumvirate.
#4 – Fox Warriors
We’re going to have to talk about Fox’s plight in C5D1 at some point, so why not get it over with? There’s little hope of Fox High School, growing pains-and-all following the shock collapse of late 2021, out-lasting the Ladue Rams in Week 9. That leaves the Warriors with 0 home playoff games, and a possible visit to Jackson – something the Red & White clearly didn’t look forward to last year – in the semi-final round.
But plug the water tower stop the presses, there’s actually hope of a winnable Week 10 scrum for Arnold. Fox’s potential Q-Final pairings include Oakville, a scrappy underdog of its own, Poplar Bluff, a 4-4 enterprise that would not savor facing the Flexbone again after this weekend’s likely onslaught, and TGG’s personal favorite of the lot, a possible #3 vs #6 quarterfinal at Cape Central between the slowly-improving Tigers and a visiting Fox team on a similar path.
CHS offers spectacular sights watching a contest, and a Week 10 scrum featuring Tigers vs Warriors would almost serve as a friendly “play-in” game to determine a team that’s good enough to make a playoff run. Nobody could keep their dignity and still throw a fit after losing a quarterfinal between 2 teams currently treading water. Cape Central is garnering a likely #3 or #4 seed on the basis of 2 glorious upsets over Poplar Bluff and Farmington, but has lost bigly to 3 other favorites.
#5 – St. Pius Lancers
It’s hard to suss-out exactly what’s going on with Class 1, District 2’s potential pairings, as MSHSAA has been known to wait until after Week 9 to release its “graded” District bracket with seeds improved or diminished due to strength-of-schedule. Even if the currently #1 Duchesne Pioneers lose badly to the MICDS Rams in Week 9, there’s no way Duchesne’s opponents’ win-loss records wouldn’t combine to lift the division-killer ahead of #2 Brentwood going into November. But are the District standings on MSHSAA’s slightly-upgraded site now “graded” in perpetuity for opposing W/L records? Or will there be a Week 10 shake-up as opponents’ records are finally multiplied into the mix again?
No one ever seems to know for sure, except for coaches and administrators, who often seem to magically know weeks in advance who their quarterfinal foe will be, even if their (accurate) predictions look completely out-of-whack with the in-season “standings.” That’s why we’ve been working on a correspondence platform (and maybe a live Friday scoreboard, like STLToday in the old days!) for the new blog site, so that TGG can resume chatting with North County coaches about All-Japan Wrestling learning facts from the best source available – teams themselves.
In any case, St. Pius X must hope against hope to avoid Duchesne in the bracket, at least until Week 12 by which time the Varsity Lancers can work further to mend several key injuries. As it stands, the team is wounded in pride and body, but also looking at a number of favorable Q-Final bouts.
If the current standings shake-out with no shake-up, then we can expect a SPX-Grandview rematch in Week 10’s quarterfinal, though the Birds of Prey are dealing with even more injury woes than the Lancers are. Regretfully, it looks like a CCHS-SPX playoff game might be off the table, in addition to Crystal City getting paired against any I-55 Conference program at any point. TGG, however, maintains that it is those “mysterious” playoff dates that boys look forward to most.
T-6 – Herculaneum Blackcats
It’s clearer after the Perryville loss that the Herky Blackcats peaked in September, and are lagging a little bit now. But remember that whole “bracket giveth” thing? It’s lucky that the C3 District that Herculaneum is seeded in is so thin as to create a wide-open path to Week 12 no matter what. Whoever plays Cardinal Ritter in Week 12 will have to play superior to Hillsboro or else lose the game, so realistically, the ‘Cats have just less than a month to get-well and build toward a respectable finale vs Ritter.
HHS and CCHS alums should know that if Duchesne and Cardinal Ritter do the expected and romp through everyone in the Class 1 and Class 3 brackets, then at the very least it will help to get their arses out of the small-school ledger with fresh promotions, clearing the way for less artificial rosters to settle the score fairly next season.
Herky-at-Crystal is yet another marquee kickoff that may be more peaceful and friendly than it otherwise might be, due to circumstances. Dunklin R-5 probably can’t fall to a #4 seed and is ironed-into facing University City in the semifinal round. The Felines probably need a win more badly than Crystal City in Week 9 for reasons of momentum (CCHS has come too far not to give every District opponent its absolute best shot) but there are silver linings to a loss for either side, such as Herculaneum avoiding any path to a #2 seed and thus getting a solid warm-up date vs Bayless, instead of cupcake Bishop DuBourg…an opponent so weak that it gave ailing DeSoto a rash of harmful overconfidence in early September.
T-6 – Crystal City Hornets
There’s a silver lining for Crystal City too, should the Hornets fall in Friday’s beautifully revived rivalry-game in the Tri-Cities. The only way Crystal City can draw a brand new opponent in Week 10 is by seeding #4, not #3, and therefore hosting the Grandview Eagles of the I-55 league. Grandview at CCHS would be a welcome surprise booking for both programs, as the Eagles would like to face a lineup that’s less physically mature than St. Pius X, and there’s not as much potential value in the Hornets reliving the episodes of Week 7 against scrappy #6 seed Van-Far. Duchesne’s possible drop into the #2 slot could leave CCHS as the luckiest losers (of a single game – don’t take TGG out of context, dear padawans) in pigskin history, and even bring a potential Week 11 upset over fatigued Brentwood or SPX (fresh off a #1 vs #4 war) into play.
T-6 – Jefferson Blue Jays
The Geek realizes this is the only time he’s ever tied 3 teams in the middle of the Power Poll. But the up-and-down (and up) rides of the Tri-Cities’ small-school programs in 2022 are making it harder not to punt.
Herky smashed Jefferson in a head-to-head meeting, but JHS has been markedly better in recent common-opponent games. HHS and Crystal City will soon battle in what’s certain to be a tight scrum at the Sunken Place, but it’s hard to imagine either school as a favorite in a playoff game with the Blue Jays following JHS’s near Dragon-slaying upset in Week 8.
No program belongs on top of the small-school heap except St. Pius X, because the Festus campus is 2-0 against the lineups now ranked #6 and may completely avoid facing the 3rd such team.
#9 – Windsor Owls
We finally have a nice contingent of Albino Birds boosters browsing Mississippi Magazine again (Thank You!!!), and that’s perfect timing with Windsor about to bid for a leap up the Power Poll in 2023.
Windsor’s impending road lay-up over Cuba could help improve Imperial’s currently #6 seeded playoff berth, but an unavoidable problem is that Class 4, District 2 is among the deepest brackets in the state.
#10 – Grandview Eagles
See above. Grandview should 100% hope for the Crystal City contest, since the Eagles would get a chance for epic, long-memory style revenge against the brand that swiped what could have been revived GHS’s only victory on the season in the “Consolation Bowl” played 4 years ago.
#11 – Northwest Lions
Mehlville comes off a 35-point loss to Lindbergh, and so the 2-6 Panthers should only be handicapped as a cautious 57-touchdown favorite over Northwest in Week 9.
#12 – DeSoto Dragons
Week 9 opponent Orchard Farm is 1-7 and failed to score on a decidedly 2nd-tier Class 1 foe in Brentwood, making the Varsity Eagles a potential upset victim for DeSoto this week. However, there’s nothing the Dragons can do to avoid visiting Bonne Terre for a dead-in-the-water Q-Final.