It wasn’t by design, but Hillsboro junior Jaxin Patterson carried the ball a season-high 37 times in the Hawks’ resounding 45-19 win Friday at Poplar Bluff.
With junior quarterback Griffin Ray piloting Hillsboro’s option offense like a crafty veteran, Patterson at times was the QB’s last read on a running play. The workhorse halfback finished with 289 of his team’s 480 yards on the ground.
It was the seventh straight win for the Hawks (8-1) and earned them a bye this week as the No. 1 seed in the Class 4 District 1 playoffs. North County, also 8-1, got the No. 2 seed; the Raiders’ only loss this fall was to Hillsboro, 42-7, on Sept. 17. North County hosts winless De Soto (0-9), the No. 7 seed, Friday.
Patterson has started at running back since the first game of his freshman year. This season, he’s rushed for a team-leading 1,373 yards, with 17 touchdowns, and now has 3,984 career rushing yards. Patterson made an unofficial visit to Kansas University in Lawrence on Saturday to watch the Jayhawks in their 35-23 loss to Oklahoma. Kansas led the third-ranked Sooners 10-0 at halftime.
Patterson said he enjoyed talking to the Jayhawk coaches.
“Personally, if (they) want to see me again, I wouldn’t think twice about heading back there,” he said. “It’s more than about football there, it’s about relationships with the coaches and players.”
A two-way starter in the backfield and at linebacker, Patterson makes contact on every play of a game. Hillsboro head coach Bill Sucharski has tried to spread out the offensive workload with
Ray, Austin Romaine, Payton Brown and Tyler Watson, but doesn’t micromanage the number of carries per player.
Patterson has lugged the pigskin nearly 600 times in his career and is hungry for more.
“I feel just fine,” he said after his quick road trips to Poplar Bluff and Lawrence. “Over the summer the coaches work us out and train us for stuff like that. Our practices are harder than the games. I carry the ball more than 38 times in practice and our scout team hits me like in games. The only rule is we’re not supposed to go for the legs in practice, but we deliver blows like in games. Our coaches love our intensity in practice.”
Poplar Bluff (6-3), the No. 3 seed in Class 5 District 1, beat the Hawks five times in a row, from 2015 to 2019. With the Hawk defense taking away the Mules’ running game Friday, star quarterback Kannon Carr went to the air, completing 21 of 35 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns. But Hillsboro, as it has all season, won the turnover battle with three takeaways and no giveaways.
After Ray and Carr traded touchdown passes in the first quarter, Ray scored on a 28-yard run with 1:10 to play in the period for a 12-7 Hawk lead. Kicker Nicholas Marchetti had a rare miss on his extra-point try following the first Hillsboro TD and Ray was stopped on the two-point conversion attempt after his scoring run.
Romaine, who hauled in Ray’s first touchdown aerial, scored the next three touchdowns for Hillsboro on short runs and the visitors led 31-13 with 8:55 left in the game. Romaine finished with 145 yards on 21 carries and has 815 for the season, giving the Hawks a realistic chance at boasting twin 1,000-yard backs.
Before Romaine’s last touchdown, Hillsboro had stopped the Mules on fourth down and got the ball back with about five minutes to go in the third quarter.
“I told Grif, we’re up two scores and they hadn’t stopped us all night running the ball, (so) I told him to bleed clock,” Sucharski said. “Some of (Ray’s) yards (came) when we did a good job of mixing in isolation (plays) with the option. Probably seven or eight times, Grif read the option and got it out to Jaxin. At times they took the dive and (on) others Austin got the ball and chewed up yards. Before the game, I challenged our offensive line because Poplar Buff is bigger than we are.”
Before Friday’s victory, Hillsboro had shut out its three previous opponents. In the past three weeks the Hawks held Poplar Bluff, St. Francis Borgia and De Soto to a combined 59 rushing yards.
“(The Mules) had to earn their points,” Sucharski said. “Their first drive was 11 or 12 plays and they hit a touchdown pass on fourth down. (Carr) threw seven or eight balls where we were there. The key was to make them play the entire field.
“I have to give credit to our kids; (they) play as a unit and fly around the ball. Because we’ve had success stopping the run, teams have looked at that and figured if they’re going to move the ball, they have to do it through the air.”
Speaking of passing attacks, Festus has a good one with quarterback Cole Rickermann, who guided the Tigers to a 49-7 rout of visiting St. Charles West on Friday. Festus (5-4) is the No. 4 seed in Class 4 District 1 and will host No. 5 Sikeston (3-6) Friday. The other first-round contest in the district will pit No. 3 Farmington (6-3) against visiting Perryville (2-7), the No. 6 seed.
Jags seek first playoff win
It’s been a season of crossing items off a checklist for the Seckman football team.
Beat Fox for the first time in 15 years: Check, with a 20-13 victory in Imperial on Oct. 15.
Win the Suburban Conference Orange pool championship for the first time: Check. The Jags were 5-0 in league play.
Win the most games in program history: Check. Seckman won its seventh game of the season with a 42-7 drubbing of Parkway South on Friday.
Host a district playoff game: Check. The Jags open the Class 5 District 1 playoffs as the No. 2 seed and welcome No. 7 Cape Girardeau Central (2-6) Friday.
Now for the big one: Seckman has never won a district game. A chance to move on in a district dominated by defending state champion and No. 1 seed Jackson (9-0) has the entire football community excited about the Jaguars. Crowds have been growing since the Ladue game (Week 6) and head coach Nick Baer is ready for the challenge.
“Cape is a two-win team that plays a tough schedule, so we’re know they’re good,” Baer said. “Their offense isn’t new to us. We can almost run the same scout team for our defense that we did last week. (The Tigers) have a big tailback and we can’t let him get into the open space.
“We turned a good corner in the second half of the Ladue game (a 35-27 loss) and rolled off a few wins since then. But there are still some things we want to improve on.”
Two days before Halloween, Seckman will send their slasher to the field with Jaguar quarterback Cole Ruble in hot pursuit of a personal goal – to break Tyler Fischer’s school record of 1,966 rushing yards in a season, set in 2009.
Ruble, a junior, piled up 253 of the Jags’ 418 rush yards against the Patriots, giving him 1,931 for the season. The way Ruble tears off huge yardage – his last two touchdowns Friday covered 52 and 83 yards – he could break the record on the first play from scrimmage.
“He knows that 2,000 is around the corner and that’s a goal he’s set for himself,” Baer said. “More importantly to him is the team success.”
The seven points Seckman allowed the Patriots were the fewest for the Jaguars since shutting out De Soto in Week 1. Baer said he thinks his defense has turned a corner. Middle linebackers Jaydon Ashlock and Michael Stivers consistently lead the Jags in tackles, but they benefit from the strong defensive line play of Cam Wooldridge and Dom Medioros.
“(The linemen) have gotten better each week,” Baer said. “We gave up 13 points to a good Fox team. It’s been the guys in the trenches. Their effort might not show up on the stat sheet, but when the linebackers are making the tackles, they’re getting the job done.”
Seckman’s Ty Kitchen and Tommy Gibbar added touchdown runs of 22 and 29 yards against Parkway South.
“Ty scores on our second drive of the game. It’s always nice to score fast,” Baer said. “We got a meaningful TD from Tommy. We wanted to give him that opportunity.”
Lions travel to Marquette to open districts
With victories over Ritenour, Parkway South and Oakville, Northwest (5-4) closed out the regular season on a three-game winning streak, securing its third straight winning campaign before district play.
The Lions powered past host Oakville 35-9 in an Orange pool game Friday and will travel to Marquette (8-1) Friday for the first round of the Class 6 District 1 playoffs. The Mustangs, the No. 2 seed behind CBC, stampeded No. 7 Northwest 38-2 in September.
Approaching the final hurrah in his second stint as head coach of the Lions, Nick Hoth said he couldn’t ask for any more than he’s getting from his team this season. He knows how big a challenge it will be to keep the season alive against Marquette.
“We are familiar with them, so we’re excited to play them again,” Hoth said. “We did things well in that first game (that) the score didn’t show. We hung with them in the first half and they made some adjustments and took that away from us.
“Our kids are excited for the challenge. We feel like we can compete with them. We have nothing to lose, so we’re going to play our style. I like where our kids are right now.”
Junior running back Chase Viehland continued his ascent above 1,000 yards for the season (1,177) with 79 against Oakville. After the Tigers fumbled on the first play of the second half and Collin Rupp recovered, Viehland quickly scored on a 7-yard run and then dashed in from 21 yards late in the third as the Lions pulled away.
Drew Ficken scored Northwest’s first touchdown on a 5-yard run in the first quarter and Kristopher Hanson and Braden Newbold found pay dirt for the Lions in the fourth, Newbold galloping 40 yards for his TD. Landon Richards was 5-for-5 on extra-point kicks.
Each week Northwest selects a new set of captains before the game. Senior defensive back Connor Sullivan got the nod last week and responded by intercepting two Tiger passes. Ian McPherson joined Rupp in recovering an Oakville fumble.
“The back of our defense is getting better,” Hoth said. “We made (Sullivan) a captain and he sure played like one. When you do your job, the ball finds you.
“The defense has gotten better and better and that’s our biggest difference from the beginning of the year. Special teams and defense have won us games. Oakville’s defense gave us more problems than anyone all year. Chase had zero yards on his first six carries. Our defense gave us a short field.”
Blue Jays host Kelly in first round of Class 2 district
Jefferson earned a hard-fought 20-14 victory Friday over host St. Vincent of Perryville in the final I-55 Conference game of the season. The Blue Jays (7-2) finished 4-1 in the conference, behind champion St. Pius X (5-0). Jefferson enters the Class 2 District 1 playoffs as the No. 4 seed and hosts No. 5 Kelly (6-3) Friday. The Blue Jays beat the Hawks 40-7 in last year’s district playoffs, en route to the state semifinals.
Jefferson led St. Vincent 13-0 at halftime after Sean Usery scored on a 14-yard run in the first quarter and Chase Pollitte caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Drew Breeze with 42 seconds left before the break.
Colton Richardson scored on a 3-yard run to make it 20-0 in the third quarter before the Indians scored the final two TDs to make it close.
Breeze was 8 of 11 passing for 85 yards and Richardson had six catches for 43 yards. Usery led the Blue Jays with 104 yards rushing and Sam Stokes carried the ball 15 times for 92 yards.
Jefferson’s defense collected four sacks, Pollitte had an interception and Stokes recovered a fumble. Usery led with 10 tackles.
“Tonight was a wonderful night for high school football,” said Jefferson head coach Alex Rouggly, who worked late Saturday night as the school’s activities director with the volleyball team hosting a district tournament. “We were extremely proud of all of the kids’ efforts against a good St. Vincent team. Our defense played tough and our offense was able to establish the ground game, while completing some big passes in key moments.
“Anytime you can come down to St. Vincent and come away with a victory is a big deal,” Rouggly added. “This is a tough place to play. Our kids had adverse conditions come at them and they battled through those. I couldn’t be more proud of our overall resiliency in tough spots. This is a game that will make us better for our playoff run.”
Lancers face longtime rival
In the only district playoff game featuring two county teams, No. 6 Crystal City (3-4) visits third-seeded St. Pius X (7-2) Friday in Class 1 District 1.
The Lancers won the I-55 Conference this year and play the Hornets for the first time since they left the league two years ago. St. Pius had its seven-game winning streak snapped Friday as the Lancers were humbled 63-0 by Valle Catholic at Ste. Genevieve. Crystal also is coming off a loss, 52-22 at Portageville, ending the Hornets’ three-game win streak. The top two seeds in the district are Monroe City and Mark Twain, both 8-1.