Fall begins today (Sept. 22) and the prep football season is already a month old.
Crystal City walloped Confluence Academy in St. Louis 42-0 on Sept. 16. The same night, Hillsboro shut out 2021 Class 4 semifinalist North County in the second half of their Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division game and pulled away at home for a 31-10 victory. Both the Hornets and Hawks are 4-0, the last two unbeaten football teams in Jefferson County.
Despite quarterback Jackson Dearing completing 27 of 42 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns, and receiver Lucas Bahr pulling in 11 receptions for 197 yards (17.9 yards per catch), Herculaneum (3-1) fell from the ranks of the unbeaten after losing 19-16 to St. Vincent in an I-55 Conference clash in Perryville on Sept. 16.
While it might not surprise most area football fans that Hillsboro hasn’t lost, Crystal City’s remarkable turnaround has become the talk of the county and beyond. The Hornets are proving it’s not how many players you have (they dress a couple dozen), but the quality of the ones who made the sacrifices to improve from 0-10 in 2019 to two wins in 2020 and three last season.
Both spotless records will be severely tested this week when Crystal City travels back to St. Louis on Saturday for a noon kickoff against Gateway STEM, which is 3-1 after a 32-8 win over Soldan last week. Hillsboro hosts Festus; the Tigers improved to 2-2 and 2-0 in the conference after shredding De Soto 56-7.
St. Pius X won its third straight game to go 3-1 after a 27-12 road win at I-55 rival Jefferson on Sept. 16. Like Hillsboro against North County, the defending conference champion Lancers won the game in the second half, shutting out the Blue Jays while St. Pius quarterback James Smith threw two of his three touchdown passes, both to Matt Miriani, covering 57 yards.
St. Pius is 2-0 in the I-55 and hosts Herculaneum (1-1) on Friday night at 7 p.m. St. Vincent (4-0, 1-0) is the only other team in the I-55 without a conference loss. The Indians visit the Lancers on Oct. 7.
Obviously, all of this is setting up a crazy-fun month of October. Some local teams are legitimate threats to win district titles and advance to the state final four. Crystal and St. Pius are in Class 1 District 2, along with Grandview of the I-55. Although long-time head coach Charlie Elmendorf retired from Duchesne last year, the Pioneers (2-2) look to be the favorite in District 2 with wins over Vianney and St. Francis Borgia. The Lancers didn’t have any trouble eliminating the Hornets in last year’s district playoffs. I think a rematch would be much more competitive.
If Crystal gets past Gateway, there’s a strong possibility it could be 8-0 going into its final game of the regular season against Herky. What a matchup that will be either way. Both teams have hard-driving head coaches – Dan Fox at Crystal and Blane Boss at Herculaneum – who are doing everything they can to revive the past glory of their programs. And both have the best teams at their schools in years, if not decades.
Maybe such improvement, plus an entertaining game between the Hornets and Cats, will shut me up about the two schools merging their football programs.
St. Pius head coach Dan Oliver is wary of the Blackcats’ weapons. The Lancer defense has played exceptionally well in the last three games, allowing just the 12 points to Jefferson.
“(Dearing) has been throwing the ball well and Bahr is a heck of a receiver, and (senior running back Mike Moloney) is a great running back. They’ve got some weapons,” Oliver said. “They’re going to be a handful. They’re in the second year in the system with (Boss) and this will be a difficult game for us. We have a lot of experience and seniors who’ve been through games like this.
“All of these neighborhood games, you can throw records out the window. We’ve got kids who grew up going to elementary school with those guys.”
Smith was 10-of-16 for 193 yards passing and also had a 5-yard touchdown run for the Lancers, who gashed the Blue Jays for 304 yards on the ground despite no 100-yard rusher. Miriani averaged almost 20 yards on his four carries for 79 yards. Kole Williams completed only seven passes for Jefferson, but two went for TDs to Nate Breeze to tie the game 12-12 at halftime.
Dabrien Moss of St. Pius had 57 yards rushing and 24 receiving and moved the chains on several occasions. He’s averaging 107 yards per game rushing and receiving.
“Dabrien shut the game out with his runs at the end,” Oliver said. “We took a knee and ran the clock out. We were more efficient in the second half offensively.”
Hawks brace for Tigers
Twice Hillsboro took on Festus at home last year, and both times the Hawks won tight battles.
Since most MAFC Red games double as potential district matchups, each result holds the utmost importance for seeding, and hosting or getting on a bus. Neither Festus head coach A.J. Ofodile or Hillsboro head man Bill Sucharski needs reminding of those facts.
This is an intriguing matchup because the Hawks have their best team in years, certainly since 2017 when they went to the state quarterfinals. Festus runs a two-QB system with sophomore Essien Smith and junior Jeremiah Cunningham alternating series. They’ll face a hard-hitting, agile defense led by Kansas State recruit Austin Romaine and his fellow senior and linebacker/running back buddy Jaxin Patterson.
North County senior running back Jobe Smith rushed for 1,928 yards and scored 34 TDs on his way to second-team all-state honors a year ago. In their regular-season win over the Raiders last year, the Hawks held Smith to 17 yards. In last week’s win, Hillsboro outrushed North County 299-51 and held Smith to 1.7 yards per carry.
Romaine (55 yards) and quarterback Preston Brown (36) and his brother, Payton (31), had rushing touchdowns for the Hawks in the second half against the Raiders.
“It’s exciting at any level of football – high school, college, pro – and these games are always special, even more so when you’ve got a team like Hillsboro who’s in the middle of a special year,” Ofodile said. “They have two players (Patterson and Romaine) who are safe to say will be hall of fame players at Hillsboro. They’re generational-type guys and I’ve been fortunate enough to coach those types of players. They’re really talented and are the heart and soul and lifeblood of your program. We’re looking forward to preparing for them.”
Sucharski’s defense will be tested by Festus wide receiver Arhmad Branch, who had a 1,000-yard season last year and showed his incredible talent with a breakaway catch-and-run for a 78-yard touchdown against De Soto last week. Senior defensive back Griffin Ray has two of the four Hillsboro interceptions and the Hawks have jumped on four fumbles.
“The two quarterbacks they have are quality kids,” Sucharski said. “With what they can do with their legs, they get them in space. We’ve got to be aware of that. It’s going to be a tough, physical game. They find ways to get (Branch) the ball. We will keep an eye on where he’s at and make sure we don’t let him get loose.”
Jags continue to roll after losing opener
I asked Seckman head coach Nick Baer if the Jaguars are playing with a chip on their shoulder after their fourth-quarter meltdown loss to Valle Catholic last month.
The Jaguars have rolled University City, Northwest and Mehlville 191-19 since then to improve to 3-1. Seckman’s 58-7 win at the Panthers on Sept. 16 moved them to 2-0 in the Suburban Conference Orange pool, right in the thick of the conference lead with Parkway South (3-1, 3-0) and Oakville (3-1, 2-0).
“We’ve played four really good games, minus the fourth quarter of that first game,” Baer said. “The boys are very motivated and we challenged the defense after (Valle) and they responded very well. We made some tough personnel decisions to get guys in the right places on defense.”
As long as Cole Ruble is under center, there is no other decision for Baer but to make sure his offensive line is happy and healthy and Ruble has the ball in his hands.
Against Mehlville, Ruble scored the game’s first four touchdowns and five overall. His rushing total of 158 yards, modest by his lofty standards, nevertheless pushed him past 5,000 for his career. That’s 50 times up and down the full length of the field. Tommy Gibbar usually lead-blocks for Ruble, but Gibbar joined in the fun with 114 yards rushing that included a 54-yard touchdown dash.
Ruble leads the St. Louis area with 100 points and is third in the STL with 754 rushing yards. He’s scored 65 career TDs.
The Jaguars are in Arnold on Friday night for their annual grudge match against Fox (1-3). A year ago, Ruble scored all three Seckman touchdowns, including the game-winner with a minute left for a 20-13 Jag win. In 25 years, Seckman has never won at Fox.
“They’ve had a tough schedule and have been hanging in there with tough teams all four quarters, and we expect their best when we see them,” Baer said of the Warriors.
“Up front, they always have a physical line and that’s something that showed again this year.”