No matter what happens tonight (Nov. 11) in Hillsboro, Jefferson County will send a team to the Class 4 state football quarterfinals on Nov. 19.
Hillsboro hosts Festus in the District 1 championship as the rivals battle for the fourth time in two seasons. Counting last season’s 13-7 district win, the Hawks have won three straight over the Tigers.
After receiving a bye as the district’s top seed, Hillsboro battered No. 4 Farmington with 610 rushing yards in a 57-0 district semifinal win at home on Nov. 4. It was the second shutout of the season for the Hawks, who held the Knights (4-7) to 134 yards of offense.
“Our plan was to throw more, based on things we saw on film, but the wind was so bad – we saw that in pregame warmups – we kept it on the ground early,” Hillsboro head coach Bill Sucharski said. “Fortunately, Austin (Romaine) had two huge runs. Last year we had a similarly windy game against North County in the district championship game.”
The first carry of the night for Romaine, a senior running back and all-state linebacker, covered 70 yards for a touchdown less than three minutes into the contest. Nick Marchetti’s extra point made it 7-0. Romaine also had a 40-yard TD run in the second and an 80-yard ramble for a score in the third. He finished with 204 yards on seven carries (29.4 yards per carry) for one of the best rushing nights of his career. Senior Jaxin Patterson had 123 yards on 11 carries and scored a 31-yard TD in the first to make it 14-0. Later he ran in a two-point conversion after sophomore quarterback Preston Brown’s 48-yard touchdown run to make it 36-0 before halftime.
For the season, Romaine leads the Hawks with 899 yards and Patterson is right behind with 869. Both have 13 rushing TDs. Junior Payton Brown has 818 rush yards and 12 touchdowns, further enhancing the breadth of the offense.
The Hawks have stayed relatively healthy, with only one game lost to injury by an offensive lineman. Left tackle Barrett Silhavy, left guard Max Deranja, center Xavier Brown, right guard Wyatt Phillips and right tackle Wyatt Yaeger open the holes for the Hawks’ deep backfield.
Festus rotates two quarterbacks, sophomore Essien Smith and junior Jeremiah Cunningham, on a series-by-series basis. In the Hawks’ 58-23 win over the Tigers in a Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division game in September, Smith and Cunningham each threw a touchdown pass.
“If a team rotates their quarterback and it’s drastically different offenses, it can be hard to game plan for,” Sucharski said. “It’s not a wholesale difference between their offenses when either is in there. Coaches create tendencies to break tendencies. With those guys, they both throw and run well and don’t miss a beat.”
With the wind blowing hard Friday, Hillsboro used hard squibs on kickoffs. Twice they bounced off Farmington players and were recovered by the Hawks. When the Knights did have the ball, Sucharski said his team’s defensive front and linebackers did a good job of taking away their fullback.
“With what Farmington runs, they’re efficient with what they do coming down low and getting underneath your pads,” Sucharski said. “Our kids did a good job of not giving up any ground.”
Since switching from a three-man to four-man defensive front after the loss to the Hawks, the Tigers are dialing up more pressure.
“They’re much more aggressive defensively (over) the last few games,” Sucharski said. “They had three picks and eight sacks against North County. Their big linebackers were blowing stuff up. We expect them to try and do the same thing to us.”
That would please Festus head coach A.J. Ofodile, who guided the Tigers to a district title in his first season in 2020. His 6-5 team, the No. 3 seed, took a big step toward repeating that by upsetting No. 2 North County 28-15 in Bonne Terre in the other district semifinal Friday. Festus began the season 0-2 after losses to Ste. Genevieve and Valle Catholic, and was 2-4 after a 30-20 loss to the Raiders in an MAFC Red game. The only blip in the Tigers’ last five games was a 52-0 defeat at powerhouse Jackson.
“Our defense had a good game plan (against the Raiders),” Ofodile said. “We knew we wouldn’t completely contain (senior all-state running back Jobe Smith), but we paid a lot of attention to make sure they’re not gaining yards in chunks. On the offensive side we wanted to play with tempo and pace and had opportunities to push the game downfield.”
Festus scored all of its 28 points in the first half. The Raiders scored on a safety and Smith ran for a touchdown with 1:57 left in the game. Brady Nolen had two of the Tigers’ four interceptions and Eli Ortmann had a team-high three sacks.
The winner of District 1 will play in the quarterfinals against a team that wasn’t in Class 4 last season. St. Mary’s (8-2) and Rockwood Summit (10-1) vie for the District 2 title Friday in St. Louis. The Dragons were moved up a class after winning the Class 3 championship in 2021. The Falcons were Class 5 quarterfinalists a year ago.