With his team trailing Festus 21-0 in the first quarter of the Class 4 District 1 football championship Nov. 10, Hillsboro head coach Bill Sucharski had a moment of truth.
“It’s 21-0 and you’re thinking this is one of the worst starts we’ve had,” Sucharski said. “We can fight back or get turboed (beaten by 35 or more points), and we picked the first option.”
The Hawks mounted a furious comeback into the fourth quarter. A 30-yard interception return by Hawk senior defensive back Dalton Ross set up junior quarterback Preston Brown’s touchdown plunge from one yard to shrink the Festus lead to 28-27 with about six minutes left to play. Sucharski eschewed the PAT to tie the game, and when Brown ran in the two-point conversion, the top-seeded Hawks led for the first time at 29-28.
No. 2 Festus (8-4) drove into Hawk territory in the closing minutes, but Sucharski’s son, Chase, a senior, intercepted a pass inside the Hillsboro 10-yard line to seal the 29-28 victory. It’s the Hawks’ second consecutive district title, both against their rivals in the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division.
“The play before (the interception), they threw it up in the end zone and we got (flagged for) pass interference, so I knew I had to make a play to win this game,” Chase said. “Instinct took over and I did what I had to do.”
The elder Sucharski said because the Festus ground game had been so effective, there wasn’t any question about going for two points instead of sending out senior kicker Nick Marchetti, who’s virtually automatic making extra point tries. Hillsboro’s all-time career scoring leader in soccer, Marchetti was three-for-three on PATs and punted five times for an average of 35.6 yards.
“After (Brown’s) touchdown, Festus had an injured player, so we had time to talk about what we were going to do,” Bill Sucharski said. “There was about six minutes left and their running backs had some success, so we made that decision to go for two.”
Besides the interception, the younger Sucharski made four tackles and caught two of Brown’s three completions for 79 yards and a touchdown that cut the Festus lead in half at 28-14.
“I told Preston we had to score quick,” Chase said. “Preston put the ball on me on a catch-and-run and it was a great momentum swing before halftime.
“We were completely shell-shocked (at) how hard (Festus was) willing to play us. They came out with a chip completely on their shoulder and for the first six minutes it looked like they were going to run away with it.”
Brown gained only 30 yards on the ground, but ran for three touchdowns. His brother, senior Payton Brown, led Hillsboro with 127 yards on 11 carries. Payton, at linebacker, also led the Hawks with 8.5 tackles. In two games against the Tigers in 2022, Payton was held to 64 yards rushing. This season, he was a thorn in the Tigers’ paws with 280 yards.
Both teams turned the ball over twice and struggled to convert on third down, the Tigers two-for-13 and the Hawks one-for-11. Hillsboro was two-for-two on fourth downs; Festus only one for five. The Tigers were penalized 14 times for 111 yards but outrushed Hillsboro 285-167.
Despite all the stats, the rivalry between the two teams has been one-sided for several years. The Hawks have beaten the Tigers in six straight games and in 13 of the last 14 meetings.
“It was a game of momentum and once we got it back, we were able to hold on,” Bill Sucharski said. “I’ve heard coaches say momentum is overrated, but I don’t think it is. As a staff you break down film and we’ve got a good team. Festus lost to three good teams. I overanalyzed this game, having already played them. We told our kids, don’t play with any fear and pin your ears back and play physical.”
Hillsboro (10-1) travels to Pacific to play the District 2 champion Indians (7-5) in the state Class 4 quarterfinals Friday. Pacific pulled off its own dramatic win, knocking out top-seeded Sullivan 21-20 for the District 2 title in a battle of Four Rivers Conference rivals.
“If you look at (Pacific’s) record, Sullivan (8-3) was a Class 3 semifinalist last year and (the Indians) beat St. Clair (9-3),” Sucharski said. “Union has been an outstanding program. The (Four Rivers) has some very good teams.”
Seckman’s best season comes to an end
Top-seeded Seckman entered the Class 6 District 1 championship showdown against No. 2 Jackson with the wind at their back.
The unbeaten Jaguars had shut out their two previous opponents and allowed 3.4 points per game in their last five outings.
But impressive stats and an intensive week of preparation were no match for the Indians’ rapid-fire offense that turned the first quarter of Seckman’s biggest game ever into a rout.
Playoff experience showed through for the Indians (10-1), who romped 55-21 before a beyond-capacity crowd at Imperial Nov. 10.
“We knew their offense was going to be fast, but it’s tough to simulate what it’s going to look like and we obviously weren’t prepared for it,” said Seckman head coach Nick Baer, who in the last three seasons has guided the Jaguars to a record of 28-6 and three consecutive Suburban Conference Orange pool titles.
Jackson plays two-time defending Class 6 state champion CBC (9-2) in the state quarterfinals Friday.
Seckman’s defense spent the evening chasing Jackson freshman running back Jaylon Hampton, who scored three times in the first quarter on runs of 47 and four yards and a reception of 23 yards from quarterback Drew Parsons. The sophomore QB was starting because of an injury to starter Adrian Fox, a senior. Junior wide receiver Kai Crowe was a favorite target for Parsons, and as kicker, Crowe converted seven of eight PAT tries.
“(Hampton) does a great job of rewarding his blockers and reading the hole,” Baer said. “We missed more tackles on Friday than we did all year.”
Seckman lost the battle on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Trailing 28-0 early in the second, the hosts finally made their own break when sophomore linebacker Dylan Lappe recovered a fumble at the Jags’ 35-yard line. But they were forced to punt, and Crowe gave the Indians a 35-0 lead with 9:08 left in the first half on a 74-yard touchdown catch, sprinting down the sidelines.
“Our inability to put the ball in the air didn’t help us run the ball, and we couldn’t move them up front,” Baer said. “We hoped we could match their physicality; we didn’t get a lot of movement.”
The pattern of Seckman punts and Jackson touchdowns continued until the Indians took a 48-0 lead to the locker room for halftime. Junior Zach Crump scored on a five-yard run and senior wideout Blayne Harris caught a 51-yard scoring pass from Parsons.
Jackson poked holes in a Seckman secondary that had snagged 14 interceptions this fall, including five by senior Eric Miller.
“Jackson has a lot of talented wide receivers and that puts stress on the corners, and we had guys get behind us for the first time all season,” Baer said. “When you get the ball out that fast, that neutralized the D-line. And they were our strength all year.”
Seckman finally got on the scoreboard when freshman quarterback Brody Kube threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Kade Heinemeier with 10:34 left in the third. The first of senior kicker Evan Behnke’s three PATs made it 48-7. Heinemeier led the Jags this season with 22 catches for 416 yards.
Jackson played its reserves throughout the second half, and freshman Brock Reagan pushed the Indian lead to 55-7 on a 20-yard TD run at 9:50 of the third.
Seckman senior QB Tommy Gibbar ran for a 20-yard TD with 8:19 left in the fourth and sophomore back Mason Fowler capped the scoring from four yards out with 20 seconds to play. Gibbar paced the Jaguars with 17 carries for 116 yards.
Taking over for the graduated all-world quarterback Cole Ruble this season, Gibbar led the team with 1,437 yards rushing and 27 touchdowns. He rushed for 200-plus yards in back-to-back games against Fox and Parkway South and didn’t throw an interception in 66 pass attempts, with seven TDs.
Baer said playoff experience does matter, despite the typical turnover of players every year.
“(Jackson is) a well-oiled machine and a program with a lot of tradition,” Baer said. “And we’re in the early stages of trying to be that.
“Sometimes it takes a game like this to grow. We’re going to turn the page and get back to what we do. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel because of one loss. Let’s start getting ready for next July.”
Hornets shut down high-powered Tipton
Crystal City employed a clock-chewing ground attack and stalwart defense to defeat Tipton 8-6 Nov. 10 and advance to the championship game in Class 1 District 2.
It was a remarkable turnabout from the second-seeded Hornets’ first-round battle the week before with upset-minded Harrisburg (3-7). The No. 7 Bulldogs capitalized on Crystal’s missed tackles and missed assignments to rack up 30 points before falling 40-30 at J.J. Commerford Stadium.
Tipton (8-3), the No. 3 seed, came into the district semifinal averaging 41 points per game, including 50 or more in five of their eight wins. The host Hornets (8-3), meanwhile, had shown they could prevail with their defense, holding four previous opponents to single-digit points.
But you can’t win if you don’t score yourself, and the Hornets trailed the Cardinals 6-0 in the third quarter. Facing fourth-and-goal at the three-yard line, Crystal chose outside speed over interior brawn as senior Kanden Bolton took a pitchout from sophomore quarterback Cale Schaumburg and darted to pay turf for a 6-6 tie. That gave the Hornets confidence to try a two-point conversion and Schaumburg ran it in to make it 8-6.
“We noticed if we changed up a blocking scheme, we might be able to get outside on them,” Crystal City head coach Dan Fox said. “So we did a toss sweep to Kanden in the boundary and he did a great job of finding the end zone. He does a good job of that.”
It was Bolton’s team-leading 12th touchdown of the season, but the real workhorse in the hard-fought contest was senior fullback Caden Raftery, who threw around his body like a wrecking ball inside, grinding out 120 yards on 30 carries and topping the 1,000-yard mark for the season with 1,080 on 188 carries.
“We feel pretty good about getting (short yardage) with Raftery at fullback, he’s 205 pounds and has a good forward lean,” Fox said. “Cale is 6-3, 6-4 and (also) has a good forward lean, but he likes to lower the boom a little bit and run some guys over.” Schaumburg had the best yards-per-attempt number of the night (11.3), going 68 on six carries.
After the go-ahead score, the Hornets had to stand firm for the fourth quarter. Fox and Bolton both described the defensive effort down the stretch as “bend but don’t break.”
A number of Tipton drives were short-circuited by penalties and non-turnover fumbles, one in the red zone that led to a turnover on downs.
“Their guards pulled and (running backs) followed them, so we knew if we could read them, we could stop them at the line of scrimmage,” Bolton said.
Fox said he had warned his defensive tackles and linebackers to be ready.
“Our outside linebackers and tackles needed to be really stout, and they did a really good job of squeezing and not getting washed down,” Fox said. “We have three of the strongest defensive linemen pound-for-pound in the county.”
Raftery and fellow senior linemen Luke Holdinghausen and Seth Senter have done the prerequisite work in the weight room for four years to live up to their coach’s billing. While Senter was ejected from the Harrisburg game and served a one-game suspension, he’ll be back for the district final Friday in Perryville against No. 1 St. Vincent (8-3). Freshman Gage McPherson took Senter’s spot on the D-line, while freshman Trent Eisenbeis filled in for Senter on the offensive line.
The Hornets’ leading tacklers, with six apiece, were Schaumburg, senior Logan Gearhart and sophomore Ricardo Pastrana.
Crystal finished with zero passing yards on three attempts by Schaumburg, but it didn’t matter as the versatile Hornet running game took command. Bolton, besides scoring the winning touchdown, contributed 47 yards on six runs.
“Teams are focusing on taking away some of our explosive playmakers and forcing us to put together a drive,” Fox said. “Some games we haven’t been good at that, fumbling a few times. We focused on cleaning that up.”
Fox’s squad will have its work cut out at St. Vincent. The Indians are the I-55 Conference champions at 6-0 and are riding a six-game winning streak. Crystal City previously faced St. Vincent every season as a member of the conference but went independent after the 2018 season.
The two district title contenders had three common opponents this fall. St. Vincent was 3-0 against Herculaneum, Van-Far and Russellville, outscoring those teams 138-18, while Crystal had a 6-0 loss to Herculaneum, a 14-8 defeat at Van-Far and a 42-8 conquest of Russellville.
The Hornets have a playoff pedigree – just not recently. They played in the state semifinals in 1970 and won six district titles between 2003 and 2011.
“It’s no different than the past two weeks; it’s a playoff game,” Fox said. “(The Indians) notoriously score points and play good defense.”
Blue Jays fall short in final
Jefferson’s season came to an end after the top-seeded Blue Jays (8-3) fell 22-14 at home to No. 2 Lift for Life Academy (8-4) in the Class 2 District 2 final Nov. 10. After a 7-0 start, Jefferson lost three of its last four games.