St. Pius X High School junior running back Cody Shaver rushed for 191 yards on 22 carries and scored his team-leading 10th touchdown of the season in a 28-6 win at St. James High School on Sept. 26.
It was the second consecutive road win for the Lancers, who improved to 2-3 this season. After five weeks, Shaver leads the St. Louis area in rushing with 925 yards on 107 carries (8.6 yards per). He has rushed for at least 152 yards in every game.
“He’s absolutely a monster right now,” St. Pius head coach Frank Ray said. “Cody is a hard-nosed runner, but I’ve seen a lot of good running backs at Hillsboro and Cody’s vision is getting better every game. He has a knack of finding that cutback lane and that turns two yards into seven. He’s real patient, finds those holes and has great acceleration into them.”
Special teams gaffes, penalties and turnovers – the Lancers committed seven in a 39-22 home loss to Fort Zumwalt East High School – were instruments in their 0-3 start. Sophomore quarterback Evan Eckrich threw six interceptions against the Lions. In a 33-25 season-opening loss to Caruthersville, St. Pius had more than double the offensive yards but gave up a TD on an onside kick, and a bad snap on a punt gave the Tigers the ball at the Lancer 4 for an easy TD.
“We felt like we were doing a lot of good things, but were also doing things to counter those,” Ray said.
St. Pius began its turnaround with a 42-0 shutout win against Roosevelt High School in St. Louis on Sept. 20. It turned out to be the Roughriders’ final game of the season because of a player shortage. Shaver gained a season-high 226 yards on the ground.
Eckrich has played much better since the game against FZE and is over 800 yards passing. His favorite target is Ray’s son, Harrison, a sophomore wide receiver who is averaging 20 yards a catch. Ray had 47 receiving yards, caught his fifth TD of the season and had one rush for 25 yards against St. James (3-2). Ray also had two interceptions against the Tigers and has three for the year.
St. Pius missed three extra points in a 21-20 loss to Knob Noster on Sept. 12, but junior kicker Nathan Heredia was 4-for-4 on PATs against St. James. Heredia also averaged 47 yards per punt.
“We put a lot of focus on the (PAT) in practice,” Ray said. “Special teams have really turned around.”
The Lancers host winless Cuba (0-5) for their homecoming game Friday night. The Wildcats are allowing an astonishing 51 points per game and almost 600 yards on the ground the past two weeks to Herculaneum High School and Jefferson High School.
Just past the midway point, St. Pius is seeded third in Class 2 District 1, behind Jefferson and Caruthersville, who are both 4-1.
“Losing early for us isn’t a bad thing,” Ray said. “I feel like we’re inches away from being 5-0, but if we were, this is probably one of those weeks you have a hard time reigning them in. But the guys are practicing with a different purpose right now. Normally, this is one of those weeks a coach dreads, but that start was hard on them. In their mind they’re not preparing for Cuba, they’re preparing for week 10.”
Jags win tough conference road battle
Before beating Oakville High School 14-10 in a road Suburban Conference (Orange pool) game Sept. 26, the last time Seckman High School won a game scoring 14 points or less was in 2018.
The defending Orange pool champion Jaguars (4-1, 3-0) beat the improving Tigers (3-2, 2-1) under head coach Mike Genge twice in 2024 by a combined score of 64-7, including in the Class 6 District 1 tournament. This year’s tussle featured no scoring in the second half.
“It came down to clock management,” Seckman head coach Nick Baer said. “Oakville had a fourth-and-10 from (its) 40, threw the ball up and their wide receiver dropped the ball inside our (5-yard line) and it was a turnover on downs. They put the ball on the ground four times and we never got on top of it. It was another solid performance by (senior linebacker) Dylan Lappe and the DBs kept everything in front of them.”
Oakville led 7-0 going into the second quarter, but Seckman cashed in on two long scoring drives to take the lead. Senior RB Kylar Huckfeldt only carried the ball twice, but one was for a 17-yard TD with 11:50 left in the first half. Senior kicker Ben Bajric’s PAT tied the game 7-7. Junior RB Chance Ruble put Seckman ahead for good with a 1-yard TD run at 5:50 and the Tigers kicked a field goal for the game’s final points with six seconds left in the half.
“Both scoring drives were long, sustained drives,” Baer said. “We were mixing the pass with the downhill run game and we felt good in the second half. We just couldn’t find that execution. Oakville plays a really good out-of-conference schedule.”
Seckman hosts Pattonville (2-3) on Friday night. There are five pools in the Suburban Conference. From a standpoint of strength, the Yellow pool is the top one. The Orange is the fourth tier and the Red is the second. Because of their sustained success, the Jaguars move up to the Red next year; Pattonville will stay there.
“Pattonville plays a tough schedule,” Baer said. “If it was a track meet, they’d probably beat us. We want to win the physical battle at the line, protect the football and do what we do.
“Winning should always be celebrated. The margins are extremely tight. Winning football games is hard and the details matter.”
Dragons top Owls in MAFC tilt
De Soto High School head coach Russ Schmidt said his team’s goal going into the Mississippi Area Football Conference game at Windsor on Sept. 26 was to rush for at least 300 yards and pass for at least 100.
The Dragons (2-3, 1-2) accomplished both stats (351 rushing yards, 152 passing), led the Owls (3-2, 0-2) 19-0 at halftime and cruised to a 42-14 victory in Imperial.
Senior RB Eli Thebeau is the school’s all-time career leader in rushing yards, and he tacked on 132 yards on 11 carries. Thebeau scored on a TD run where he burst off tackle, cut across the grain and tight-roped the sidelines. His second TD of the night was on special teams when Cory Flack blocked a punt in the second half, and Thebeau grabbed it out of the air and scored.
“I felt like we were going to block the punt, or the punter was going to run out of the end zone for a safety,” Schmidt said about the play. “Eli had a hell of a football game.”
Senior RB Brenton Drummond had six carries for 53 yards. Sophomore QB Cannon Kisner rushed six times for 104 yards and two TDs, and was 7-of-10 passing for 152 yards.
“He threw an interception late in the game. So what? He’s only getting better,” Schmidt said. “We ran the option, off-tackle veer and he held on to the ball until the last second and he got lit up, but that allowed our RB to get 10 more yards on the carry. He’s a 4.0 student who’s making 4.0 decisions on the field.”
A week after rushing for 642 yards against Clayton, Windsor ran for 273 against De Soto. Senior RB Logan Wilson gained 145 yards and scored the Owls’ first TD in the third quarter. QB Jett Black fired a 23-yard TD pass to Charlie Gabriel in the fourth for Windsor’s other TD. The Owls turned the ball over on downs four times in the first half.
“When you play (Windsor head coach Lee Freeman) and that offense, you can’t take away every play from them,” Schmidt said. “We looked at their four or five top running plays, they ran inside the guards and we didn’t respond well to that.”
De Soto hosts winless Fredericktown (0-5) on Friday for its homecoming game. Windsor is at Hillsboro (3-2, 1-1) in an MAFC contest.
“I call those trap games,” Schmidt said about the game against the Blackcats. “I thought North County was one. Given their (Raiders) opponents, I didn’t want our kids to think they were as good as they always are.”
Tigers close in on MAFC title
Festus High School throttled Hillsboro 40-14 Sept. 26 to improve to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the MAFC, which they won last year before advancing to the Class 4 state final. The Tigers can repeat as undefeated conference champions with a win over North County (1-4, 1-1) in Bonne Terre on Friday night.
The win over the Hawks helped solidify the No. 1 seed for Festus in Class 4 District 1.
Explosive Blue Jays improve to 4-1
Jefferson High School scored 50 or more points for the third time this year with a 50-20 Quad County Conference victory at Bayless High School on Sept. 26.
After not playing in a 64-16 win over QCC rival Cuba High School the week before, Blue Jay starting QB Cooper Frisk ignited the offense by throwing TDs of 59 and 22 yards to senior WR Noah Buehler, and rushing for two 1-yard TDs as Jefferson built a 26-0 lead. The Blue Jays failed on three of four 2-point attempts after those TDs. RB Aiden Kentch led Jefferson (4-1, 3-0) with 172 yards on 21 carries and his 30-yard TD in the third made it 34-0. It takes a 35-point lead in the second half to start a running clock.
Bayless scored the next TD on an interception return, but Frisk made up for the pick six by guiding Jefferson down the field before scoring on a 1-yard plunge to make it 42-7. Frisk rushed for 112 yards and passed for 193. After the Bronchos (1-4, 0-3) scored the next two TDs, Kentch closed out the scoring with a 6-yard run. He also had six tackles and a sack. Junior Brandon Crader had three rushes for 37 yards, two catches for 66 yards and five tackles. Junior Holden Green made 17 tackles.
Jefferson travels to play Perryville High School (3-2) in a nonconference game Friday night.
Lions crush Patriots in Orange pool game
Northwest High School led Parkway South 49-0 at halftime and played the second half with a running clock under the mercy rule (35-point lead or greater), eventually winning, 49-14.
The winless Patriots (0-5, 0-3) beat the Lions (4-1, 3-1) 28-27 last season, but were no match for an offense that had little trouble moving the ball on the ground or through the air.
Junior QB Cohenn Stark accounted for more than 300 yards of offense with 221 passing and 81 rushing. Stark completed 8-of-9 passes for 3 TDs. His first was to Kaleb Belcher for 20 yards less than a minute into the game. Stark then rushed for a TD, and on South’s next possession, Jeremiah Clines picked up a fumble and rumbled 32 yards for a TD. Will Murphy rushed for a 15-yard TD and the Lions led 27-0 after one quarter.
WR Omarion Frazier caught Stark TD passes of 78 and 48 yards in the second quarter and finished with four receptions for 155 yards. Kicker Cayden Richard had a 24-yard FG (his first this year) and Stark ran for a 3-yard TD to close out the scoring. Richard missed three PATs, but has 26 this season.
Northwest hosts Fox (1-4) on Friday night. The Warriors, who are in the Red pool, have lost four straight.