St. Pius X junior Cody Shaver became the first player in school history to rush for 2,000 yards when he did it against East Prairie High in the Class 2 District 1 tournament on Halloween.
Shaver gained 212 yards on 22 carries and scored four touchdowns as the Lancers (5-5) shut out the Eagles 64-0 and advanced to the semifinals against St. Vincent High (7-3) on Friday night. Shaver has rushed for 200 or more yards in six games this season despite playing with a broken thumb on his right hand. Shaver is right-handed and broke his thumb a couple days before practice started in August.
Shaver’s hand isn’t in a cast. He called it a club. Either way, it’s remarkable to even him he’s been able to reach 2,000 yards. When practice started, his sights were set quite a bit lower.
“At the beginning of the year, I didn’t think I’d get 500 yards but I worked at it,” Shaver said. “I got my balance really good. Every game my vision got better.”
A broken thumb wasn’t the only injury Shaver has been playing through. During his sophomore wrestling season, he tore his meniscus. He had knee surgery and was unable to participate in summer football camps. Unable to run, he focused on upper-body workouts to the point he was doing 100 pullups a day.
St. Pius head coach Frank Ray described in gruesome detail the nature of Shaver’s thumb injury. Ray and Shaver admit that the injury and club have led to fumbles.
“He’s just a tough kid,” Ray said. “Essentially, his thumb detached from his hand, held on by the ligaments and skin. They said he needed surgery and he said he wasn’t going to miss (football season). He asked the doctors what would happen, and they said it would heal wrong and they’d have to rebreak it and have surgery on it when the season was over. I had a conversation with his dad and we talked about his knack for running the football and this was his opportunity to be a feature back. He was in the weight room every day. I felt like he was going to have a special year. The crazy part is the consistency.”
Shaver’s lowest output this season was 152 yards against Fort Zumwalt East High, and his highest was 251 against Roosevelt High, which suspended its season days after losing to the Lancers.
On some occasions, senior Cayden Payne and junior Brody Ervin line up in the backfield with Shaver. Ervin will also spread out wide in a tight end role, while Ray calls Payne, an offensive tackle last season, a prototypical fullback. Ervin and Payne have combined for 10 TDs and Payne has run in five 2-point conversions.
“We started in a lot of spread formations where Brody was in the slot,” Ray said. “We made the switch in week 4. The offense has embraced being a power running team as their ID.”
And St. Pius doesn’t have to rely on one half of its attack with sophomore quarterback Evan Eckrich having completed 56 percent of 158 passes for 1,531 yards and 13 TDs. Eckrich’s pitfall this year has been 14 interceptions, although six of them were against Zumwalt East. Sophomore wide receiver Harrison Ray, the coach’s son, is Eckrich’s favorite target with 30 receptions for 815 yards and eight TDs.
“The offense likes lining up and punching you in the mouth,” Frank said. “We’ll get into wishbone. Something that matters to a football team is when they embrace something. We feel we can run at any time.”
Despite being private Catholic schools less than an hour’s drive apart, St. Pius and St. Vincent, of Perryville, haven’t played each other since 2023 before the Lancers were cast out of the Jefferson County Activities Association and I-55 Conference (football only). The I-55 is defunct and the Indians just won the Quad County Conference, which includes I-55 refugees Bayless High, Jefferson High, Grandview High and Herculaneum High.
Ray concedes that county teams haven’t had much success at St. Vincent and it’s a hard place to win.
“I think that’s what everyone says. At the end of the day, you play on a field with the same measurements and same rules. Sometimes in district play you get two- or three-hour car rides, so it’s nice to be at home. They have tall receivers who make plays, and a QB that can get them the ball. They run a true spread wide open offense. They take a lot of shots down the field and put pressure on your defense to maintain their coverage.”
That will fall into the hands of senior Jack Michaud and Harrison at cornerback and juniors Mathew Thomas at safety and Kvion Townsend-Flores at cornerback. Ray leads the team with five interceptions and Flores has two.
When he’s not adding to his rushing totals and scoring TDs, Shaver also plays linebacker and leads Pius with 73 tackles and 10 sacks. Senior Danny DeGeare has seven tackles for a loss playing inside linebacker.
“Danny is stacked inside,” Shaver said. “It’s going to come down to our coverages on our defense. Valle (Catholic) couldn’t pass on us or run on us. The Valle game (a 14-7 loss) was winnable. It comes down to the mindset.”
Blackcats shoot down Bombers with big first half
When you beat a team that’s won nine state championships on your home field to extend your season, it’s a bell-ringing occasion. Herculaneum has such a bell. And they rang it loudly after staying alive for another week.
It’s been 10 years since John Burroughs High won a state title, but they carried their prestige – that includes 2016 Dallas Cowboys No. 1 draft choice (No. 4 overall) Ezekiel Elliott – to Herculaneum for the first round of the Class 3 District 2 tournament on Halloween.
Instead of the Bombers taking the Blackcats’ candy to the district semifinals, Herculaneum, the No. 4 seed, was handing out IOUs for another time and led 28-0 in the third quarter. By the fourth, the Bombers (5, 5-5) had closed the gap to 28-21, but senior RB Clark Struckhoff scored the game’s final TD, the two-point conversion was good and Herky won 36-21.
At 6-4, the Blackcats guaranteed their first winning season since 2022. Herculaneum travels to Ste. Genevieve on Friday night to play undefeated top-seeded Valle Catholic (9-0) in the semifinals. Only four teams have won more state titles than John Burroughs, and Valle is one of them with 15. Webb City has the most (16).
The Blackcats and Warriors were rivals in the I-55, and Herky was the only team in the conference to beat Valle. That was in 2012.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Herculaneum head coach Blane Boss said. “They’re one of the best teams and programs in the state. Not beating ourselves and playing four quarters of mistake-free football will give us our best chance. I like our guys, they’re going to give their all and compete. (The Warriors) seem to replace their QB like they’re growing them on trees down there. Their kids are always confident.”
So are the Blackcats when Struckhoff has the ball in his hands, or his hands wrapped around an opposing ball carrier at linebacker.
With starting QB Keaton Reeves out with a presumably season-ending injury, Struckhoff has rushed for more than 200 yards in the last two games. He carried the ball 30 times for 205 yards and two TDs against the Bombers. That put him over 1,000 for the season at 1,143 and counting.
Sophomore Michael Hankins had rushed for 68 yards all season before turning in a complementary performance to Struckhoff with 122 yards and three TDs.
An all-state wrestler at 175 pounds last winter, Reeves faces the possibility of not being able to get on the mat until January. In his place at QB, junior Chase Luebbert is about to face a steep learning curve. Sophomore Dallas Fritschle has also taken snaps this year.
Dragons fall to Raiders for a second time
De Soto High (3, 5-5) hosted North County High (6, 4-6) twice this season, and both times the Raiders went back to Bonne Terre victorious.
The second time on Halloween in the Class 4 District 1 tournament put an end to the Dragons’ season.
North County beat De Soto 14-13 in a Mississippi Area Conference Football game in week 3. The Raiders put even more separation between them with a 21-6 victory in the district rematch.
North County is at Perryville High (2, 7-3) in one district semifinal Friday, while Hillsboro High (4, 5-5) is at top-seeded Festus (7-2) in the other. Coming off a berth in the state championship game last December, the Tigers beat the Hawks 40-14 in their MAFC game in September. Hillsboro beat Sikeston (5, 3-7) 35-21 in the first round. Perryville ended Windsor High’s (7, 4-6) season with a 39-14 victory.