Hillsboro beat visiting De Soto 36-15 in the first round of the Class 4 District 1 tournament on Oct. 20.
The Hawks (7-3) will host fourth-seeded Farmington (6-4) at 7 p.m. tonight (Oct. 27) in the district semifinals. The Knights beat Perryville 44-8 in their first-round district matchup. Farmington waxed Hillsboro 40-14 two years ago in the district semifinals. The Hawks lost to Cape Girardeau Central in last year’s district championship.
“They’re going to be well coached,” Hillsboro head coach Lee Freeman said of Friday’s opponent. “They’re a disciplined football team. They do some things similar to us. They’re going to play hard and be ready. The last time we saw them in districts they thumped us pretty good.”
The Hawks used plenty of running backs not named Micheal Keller against the Dragons. Keller returned a punt to the Dragon 20-yard line after De Soto quarterback Briar Fischer was tackled in the end zone for a safety on the second play of the game. Keller was uninjured and watched most of the first half from the sideline as running backs Adam Brody, Joe Garner, Joe Gregory, Luke Skaggs and Jeremy Hummel took turns on Freeman’s merry-go-round.
“We can’t always rely on Micheal and we were able to move the ball without him tonight,” Freeman said.
Gregory gave the Hawks an 8-0 lead after scoring a 6-yard touchdown with 9:05 left in the first quarter. Gregory scored again late in the first quarter to make the score 14-0.
“Joe Gregory is a No. 1 running back in this offense when we need him to be,” Freeman said. “He’d be the No. 1 running back on most teams. He’s a patient guy who waits his turn. He makes the most of his opportunities and that’s exactly what we have to have.”
After starting at midfield on its next possession, De Soto quickly answered. Senior running back JaDan Brown rushed for 48 yards to the Hillsboro 1, before finishing off the drive with a TD four seconds into the second quarter. Senior Mayson DeRousse kicked the extra point to cut the Hillsboro lead in half.
“When JaDan was in the lineup this year he gave all that his 145 pounds could give,” De Soto head coach Chris Johnson said.
The Dragons and Hawks traded turnovers on the next two series. First, Hillsboro quarterback Tyler Isaacson fumbled at the De Soto 27, but five plays later Fischer’s pass was tipped into the air by Hillsboro defensive lineman Ryan Larkin, who caught it when it came back down. Freeman said it’s been about 10 years since a Hillsboro defensive lineman intercepted a pass.
“I tipped it and I was trying to be athletic for once in my life and it just fell in my hands,” Larkin said. “We made some adjustments at halftime. We knew we had to be more physical.”
Fischer threw four interceptions. Johnson said Fischer’s picks were largely the result of not checking down to his secondary reads.
“When he watches the film, he’s going to be disappointed,” Johnson said. “We ask Briar to do a lot of things. We’re not asking him to hand the ball off and get out of the way. He’s got to read defenses and run. We throw a lot at him regardless of the fact he’s 15 years old.”
Two plays after Larkin’s interception, Isaacson fired a perfect 25-yard strike to senior Chase Green for a TD that put the Hawks up 22-7 with 6:42 left in the half.
A muffed punt return after the Hawks’ defense forced a three-and-out set De Soto up at the Hillsboro 11, and Brown did the rest, carrying the ball three times and ending up in the end zone with his second TD. Senior Logan Smith caught the two-point conversion from Fischer to make it 22-15 with 4:37 in the half.
The third quarter was scoreless, but the Dragons missed a golden opportunity to tie the game when they stopped the Hawks at their own 5 after a 16-play drive that chewed up the first eight minutes of the second half. Hillsboro helped De Soto move out of the shadow of its goal post to near midfield after being given a 15-yard personal foul penalty.
“I felt like if after that stop if we could have marched down and tied it up, we would have been in a great position to win this game,” Johnson said.
But Brody stepped in front of Fischer’s pass for another turnover. Keller made an appearance in the backfield, but it was the passing game that helped the Hawks pull away. Biting on Isaacson’s play-action fake, the Dragons left senior Josef Marschuetz wide open on a 25-yard TD pass 10 seconds into the fourth quarter. The Hawks led 28-15 and had some breathing room finally.
Skaggs capped the scoring with a 17-yard gallop. He led the Hawks with 109 yards on the ground. Keller (8 carries, 47 yards), Gregory (15-85) and Garner (17-69) helped pile up 332 team yards.
Raiders steamroll punchless Tigers
Festus couldn’t measure up on either side of the football and fell 47-6 to North County in the first round of the Class 4 District 1 playoffs Friday at Bonne Terre.
The Tigers, seeded seventh in the district, were no match for the No. 2 Raiders, who scored six touchdowns in the first half – three in each quarter – to trigger a running clock for the second half. Junior quarterback Kolton Poorman did most of the damage, running for three touchdowns and passing for another as North County amassed 486 yards of total offense while holding Festus to 97 yards.
Senior Braden Nolfo scored the lone Tiger touchdown on a 6-yard run with 3:13 left in the game. A pass attempt for a 2-point conversion fell incomplete.
Nolfo finished with 27 yards rushing on six carries, while Logan Uding and Jordan Fiedler, both seniors, each ran seven times for 18 yards. Festus did not record a first down until the fourth quarter, with the Raiders playing their reserves at that point.
Fiedler was busy all night on defense, registering 11 solo tackles and one assist. Sophomore linebacker Jack Robinson had five solo tackles and seven assists while Nolfo contributed six solo stops and one assist.
“I thought we had a better frame of mind than we did in Week 3 (a 42-14 loss to the Raiders), and we had a good week of practice,” Festus head coach Russ Schmidt said. “North County, the way they beat us twice in a row, there’s something to be said about your opponent being that good. They’re a pretty good football team.”
Inconsistency up front kept the Tiger running game stuck in neutral, he added.
“We put a package of running plays in,” Schmidt said. “We just didn’t have any success sustaining any blocks at the first level. It was just hit and miss.
“The kids played hard and they didn’t give up, (although) I was disappointed in our first-half effort.”
For the third straight year, Festus bowed out in the first round of the playoffs; the Tigers’ last postseason victory was in 2014, ironically over North County.
The Raiders (8-2) advance to the district semifinals Friday, hosting Cape Girardeau Central (6-4), which has won the district title four consecutive years.
Festus finished 4-6, only the second losing season in Schmidt’s 11-year tenure as head coach. His overall record at Festus is 70-48.
“I expect us to be a whole lot better next year,” Schmidt said, noting that the Tiger junior varsity this fall had only two losses while the freshman squad was undefeated. “We played a lot of underclassmen (this year), some of that out of necessity. Next year, we’ll be a younger team but we could have more athleticism.”
Blue Jays allow long TDs on punt return, fumble recovery
A special teams gaffe and an offensive turnover helped East Prairie beat Jefferson for the second time this season, this time 36-21 in the first round of the Class 2 District 1 playoffs on Friday.
“That was a huge part of the ball game,” said Jefferson head coach Alex Rouggly about the two East Prairie plays that resulted in touchdowns.
The Blue Jays went into the game without junior running back Andrew Graves, who rushed for 183 yards in the first meeting between the two teams on Aug. 25, which East Prairie won 46-45. Graves surpassed 4,000 career rushing yards and set the school record with his 11th career interception this season. Graves had surgery Tuesday to repair a torn meniscus and partial tear in his ACL. Rouggly said Graves should be cleared to work out by March.
Senior Tomaz Collins and junior Tanner Davis combined to take Graves’ place in Jefferson’s backfield against the Eagles. Collins scored two touchdowns and rushed for 47 yards, while Davis finished with 135 yards on 19 carries.
Sophomore quarterback Brandon Perry was lost for the season on Sept. 1 against Herculaneum with a knee injury. Junior Tommy Moon replaced Perry; Moon completed one pass and had an interception last week. Rouggly said a promising freshman will be thrown into the QB derby next summer.
“Our depth at quarterback is exciting for next year,” Rouggly said. “They’re close and will push each other in the offseason.”
Senior offensive lineman-linebacker Dakota Jakoubek is as rugged a football player as there is in Jefferson County. While his teammates were felled by injury, Jakoubek was sturdy in the middle of the Blue Jay defense, which he led with 121 tackles this season. Against East Prairie, Jakoubek had 14 tackles – two for a loss – and an interception.
Jakoubek’s 121 tackles set a single-season record and he leaves as the team’s career leader.
“He plans on playing college football and we’re going to do everything in our power to help him do that,” Rouggly said of the 6-2, 235-pound Jakoubek.