Festus spent about $5 million in offseason improvements to its stadium.
And while the turf field wasn’t part of that renovation, it’s where the football team makes its home on Friday nights.
So when the De Soto players jumped up and down on the Tigers’ emblem at midfield before the start of the Class 4 District 1 first-round playoff game on Friday, the Festus players took note.
“We’re mindful of what our behavior should be on Friday nights and our kids do a good job of that,” Festus head coach Russ Schmidt said.
De Soto head coach Chris Johnson said his players weren’t trying to disrespect the Tigers or their fans, they were trying to make a statement about how they feel the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division rivalry is changing.
“Our kids have to believe they can beat people, be physical and hang in there,” Johnson said. “If they don’t believe that, I’m not doing my job. If we could have traded scores with them the first couple of possessions, it would have been a different game. We weren’t trying to be disrespectful, but we can’t back down. That fired Festus up and that’s alright. We’re not playing badminton. This is a physical game.”
The Tigers, the No. 3 seed in the eight-team district, chewed up the sixth-seeded Dragons for 420 rushing yards in their first meeting, a 28-18 Festus victory on Sept. 21.
The Tigers (6-4) scored five rushing touchdowns in the rematch and rolled up De Soto (5-5) by a 36-6 score.
Festus will play at the district’s second seed, Farmington (7-3) on Friday in the district semifinals. Top seed West Plains (10-0) hosts Sikeston (5-5, No. 5) in the other semifinal.
While junior running back Chalmer Brickhaus didn’t get into the end zone against De Soto, he led the Tigers with 22 carries for 218 yards and surpassed 1,000 yards on the season. Brickhaus had a 43-yard run early in the second quarter and on the next play sophomore Austin Anderson scored from 11 yards out to give Festus a 14-0 lead.
“We had our linemen make great blocks and that allowed me to get through,” Brickhaus said. “I tried to get around the safety, and when I did, I made some long runs.”
The anticipated matchup of De Soto wide receiver Clayton Snudden and Festus cornerback Jaylan Watson dissolved in the misty rains when Watson sat out with an injury. The Dragons’ pass-first offense was affected by wet footballs and a strong Tiger pass rush. Junior quarterback Briar Fischer threw four interceptions, two to safety Austin Coale.
Coale was thrust into the starting quarterback role as a junior and began this season alternating with sophomore Collin Doyel, who is now full-time under center.
“This year I’m having a lot more fun playing football,” Coale said.
“Austin Coale is football-smart and he demonstrated that tonight at free safety,” Schmidt said.
Doyel filled in for Watson in the defensive backfield and broke up a reverse pass by the Dragons in the third quarter.
De Soto hasn’t won a district game since 2011. Johnson went into the season trying to end losing streaks against
Hillsboro and Festus. He succeeded against the Hawks, but the Dragons haven’t come out on top against the Tigers since 1999.
While the weather didn’t do De Soto’s offense any favors, the defense didn’t stand up well against the rush again.
“As much as I don’t want to say conditions don’t make a difference, they do,” Johnson said. “We felt like we could spread them out and move the football against their man-to-man coverage. I’ll be darn, we’re about to kick off and here it comes, another Friday night of rain. For us this year, our (method of operation) is to move the ball through the air, and when it’s wet and soggy and the quarterback can’t get a grip on the ball, it’s not fun.”
Festus opened the game against
De Soto with a quick, six-play drive that was capped by junior Jaden Rystrom’s 28-yard touchdown run with 8:02 expired. Fullback Jack Robinson ran in the conversion and the Tigers led 8-0.
After Anderson’s first of two second-quarter TDs, Coale picked off Fischer at the De Soto 27-yard line. Two Brickhaus runs set up Anderson’s 21-yard scamper with 8:39 to play in the half. Rystrom ran in the two points and the Tigers were up 22-0.
“Every running back has his own nuance and signature play,” Schmidt said, referring to the Festus four horsemen of Brickhaus, Anderson, Rystrom and Robinson.
Festus had a chance to increase its lead before halftime when it used 14 plays to drive to the De Soto 10. On fourth and goal, Anderson was tackled by senior Jeremy Harman at the Dragons’ 5.
Anderson returned the opening kickoff of the second half to the De Soto 16. Three plays later, Doyel lunged for the goal line and fumbled out of the end zone for a touchback. The Tigers just missed another chance at extending their lead.
Coale’s second interception led to another Tiger touchdown. Brickhaus carried the ball four times to the De Soto 3 and Schmidt called Rystrom’s number for the touchdown to give Festus a 30-0 lead with 6:44 left in the third. Brickhaus scored on the two-point conversion.
Festus sophomore Jacob Folk intercepted a tipped pass with 6:01 left in the third. Starting on another short field, Brickhaus gained 15 yards on the first play and Rystrom ripped off a 25-yard gallop. As if the Tigers didn’t have enough talented running backs, sophomore Cayden Glaze burst for a 17-yard gain before ending the drive with a 2-yard scoring run. With 2:51 left in the third, the Tigers led 36-0 and the running clock was briefly turned on. Glaze is another speedster Schmidt can use to give the other backs a rest.
“They’ve got speed. We have two or three kids that can fill the gaps, but we don’t have the speed to cover the outside,” Johnson said. “Once they start working those jet sweeps, we can’t keep up with them.”
The Dragons didn’t want the game to end under the mercy rule and they prevented that from happening by scoring their final TD of the season on the next series. Fischer made a great play to avoid a sack before completing a 19-yard pass to Snudden. On the next play, Fischer found senior Camren Krodinger for a 25-yard pass play. Sophomore Levi Fischer caught his older brother’s TD pass from 25 yards on third-and-5 with 10:20 to play in the game.
Blue Jays host semifinal
Andrew Graves has scored more touchdowns than all but three football players in state history.
The Jefferson senior running back scored five times against Malden in a 43-8 victory in the Class 2 District 1 tournament. Graves has 113 touchdowns in his four-year career, which was cut short as a junior when he had knee surgery. He rushed 20 times for 252 yards against the Green Wave and leads the St. Louis area with 33 TDs and 206 points.
The Blue Jays (No. 2 seed) improved to 9-1 and host Caruthersville (8-2, No. 3) Friday night in the district semifinals. Charleston (9-1, No. 1) hosts St. Pius X (8-2, No. 4) in the other District 1 semifinal. Caruthersville beat Valle Catholic 56-42 this season. The Warriors shut out Jefferson 20-0 on Sept. 28.
“I was extremely pleased with the way our boys came out ready to play from the opening whistle,” Jefferson head coach Alex Rouggly said. “We played with a sense of urgency all night. I believe this is the best game we have played in all three facets of the game. This is a great time of year for that to happen.”
Graves scored first against Malden with a 6-yard run 36 seconds into the game. Lucas Vaughn was 5 for 5 on extra points and the Blue Jays led 7-0. Colby Ott gave Jefferson a 14-0 lead with a 22-yard run with 5:12 left in the first.
After Graves made it 21-0 with a 15-yard run with 7:07 left in the second, the Green Wave scored on a 90-yard touchdown pass from Trey Miller to Gavin Bristow with 5:46 to go in the first half.
Graves scored two more TDs before halftime as the Blue Jays took full control. Graves scored on an 82-yard kickoff return following Malden’s score and from 27 yards with 17 seconds left in the half.
Ott gained 88 yards on 13 carries. Ben Breeze toted the ball eight times for 46 yards and Jefferson finished with 388 yards on the ground.
Ethan Deal and Brandon Floyd each had sacks for a defense that’s allowed just one touchdown in three of the last four games. Floyd and Graves each have five sacks this season. Ott leads the Blue Jays with seven interceptions and they’ve picked off a pass 18 times this season. Daniel McWhorter had 10 tackles, including two for a loss against Malden.
“Our preparation has got to be on par this week, in order to put ourselves in position to have success against a very good Caruthersville team,” Rouggly said.
Lancers go to Charleston
Quarterback Dre Townsend completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Riley Naeger with 43 seconds to play and St. Pius X came back to beat visiting Kelly 18-14 in the Class 2 District 1 game on Friday night.
Freshman kicker Logan Jacobson gave the Lancers a 3-0 lead over the Hawks with a 22-yard field goal in the first quarter. Kelly (6-4) scored on a 63-yard TD pass and had a 7-3 lead at halftime.
St. Pius reclaimed the lead on senior running back Jarrett Kort’s 4-yard run in the third quarter. The Lancers held that 10-7 lead until the Hawks returned an interception for a score with just 2:00 remaining.
Kort led St. Pius with 55 yards on 12 carries and the Lancers rushed for 195 yards. Naeger caught three passes for 27 yards. Jalen Thornton and Josh Ruble had interceptions for St. Pius.
The Lancers’ two losses were to I-55 Conference rivals Valle Catholic and Jefferson. Charleston’s lone loss was 70-8 to Class 1 powerhouse Hayti.
“It’s a great opportunity for two teams that had great seasons to square off and move on to the district championship,’ St. Pius head coach Jerry Woods said.
“We expect Charleston to be big, fast and athletic. All we have to do is play with controlled aggression, maintain discipline and take advantage of their mistakes.”