Mentally, he never felt better. Physically, Wyatt Keim was sore everywhere Sunday.
The Grandview junior running back reflected on scoring five touchdowns, rushing for 234 yards and making 20 total tackles in a 46-23 win at Principia the day before. Meanwhile, the physical toll from all of that contact was coming due.
“It was a real good day,” Keim said. “Everything came together. The line hit their blocks and the receivers hit their blocks.”
Usually when someone scores five TDs, one in particular stands out. Not to Keim. More important to him was the Eagles improving to 3-1 while Principia fell to 0-4.
“I don’t think I had a favorite (touchdown),” he said. “I think about helping out the team. They all felt good to me and (to) the team as a whole. I love seeing our fans and thanking them after the game. That’s my favorite thing.”
It was Keim’s third straight game with over 100 yards rushing, and with 524 overall he’s halfway to 1,000 yards with at least six games to play. He leads the team with nine touchdowns.
“Wyatt’s a very talented and hard-working kid,” Grandview head coach Jason Kimminau said. “We put him in position to succeed on offense. When teams see games like the one he had, they automatically start keying on (him).”
Keim wasn’t the whole show, either. Sophomore Brock Poole rushed for a season-high 72 yards and scored his first rushing touchdown of the season. In a 27-19 Quad County Conference loss at Cuba Sept. 14, Poole caught a 64-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Brendan Martin.
The Eagles rolled up 391 yards on the ground against Principia despite playing with a makeshift line because of injuries to two starters.
“Most of (Keim’s) success came between the guards and tackles,” Kimminau said. “A lot of his inside runs, he was making moves after the fact.”
Grandview visits Perryville (3-1, 1-1) Friday in a Quad County game. Perryville’s loss was by four points to unbeaten St. Vincent (4-0, 2-0), the conference co-leader with Jefferson (3-1, 2-0). The game against the Pirates will be the first of four straight conference battles for the Eagles.
“Perryville is physical and talented,” Kimminau said. “We have to take care of business if we want to compete.
“We’ve taken care of business where we could. Looking back at Cuba, not to take anything away from them, but we think we could have won had we executed better.”
Keim said the coaches and players take care of each other. That, more than individual stats, has led to a winning mark.
“In practice all of us are working together for the same thing,” he said.
Seckman stays undefeated
Everything continues to go Seckman’s way as the Jaguars improved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Suburban Conference Orange pool after mauling host Mehlville 43-8 Sept. 20. The Panthers dipped to 0-4 and 0-2.
Six different Jaguars scored touchdowns, including Chance Ruble on a one-yard run, Dominic Lograsso’s 34-yard interception return and quarterback Brody Kube’s 35-yard pass to Devin Gosser – all in the first quarter on the way to a 35-0 halftime lead.
“We got out to a much faster start after putting two points up at Northwest (a 41-7 win Sept. 13) in the first quarter,” Seckman head coach Nick Baer said. “We had one of our trademark drives that finished with a run to the end zone. Lograsso’s interception was in the flat and he took it to the house.
“You have that confidence going and things just start rolling. Anytime we get a defensive guy in the end zone, the sideline goes wild and brings an extra burst of energy to the game and fires up the defense.”
Ben Lewis and Quinn Mattingly each had short scoring runs in the second quarter, and Kyler Huckfeldt capped the night with a 29-yard TD run late in the fourth. Lewis has five touchdowns this season. Seckman ran for 238 yards, led by Ruble’s 52. Leading rusher Brady Ambrose (401 yards, six TDs) did not play against the Panthers.
Oakville (2-2, 2-0) comes to Imperial Friday for Seckman’s homecoming, with the two schools tied for the Orange pool lead. The Jaguars scored 28 unanswered points in a 28-7 win over the Tigers last year.
“(Oakville) pulled out all the stops and played their best game against us (last year); that’s one of the games our defense had to get us through,” Baer said. “There’s going to be a lot of excitement. We’re looking for a more balanced approach to win the game.”
Owls win another close one
After beating Herculaneum 22-21 on the last play of the game to start the season, Windsor needed some last-second heroics again to hold off visiting Clayton 34-32 Sept. 20.
Demeterius Thompson caught three touchdown passes from Greyhound quarterback Nick Schoemehl, the third one covering 66 yards with two minutes left in the game. But the Owls stopped the two-point conversion, recovered an onside-kick attempt and took a knee to end the game. Windsor improved to 3-1 for its best four-game start to the season since 2006.
“We’re in a situation where we have to learn how to win,” Windsor head coach Lee Freeman said. “We’re doing that at the expense of my gray hair. The kids are finding ways to make plays and those are all positive things.”
Windsor got big nights from sophomore running back Willie Coleman III (249 yards rushing on 20 carries, two touchdowns) and junior Logan Wilson, who ran 17 times for 174 yards and had three trips to the end zone.
Center Jack Heath, guard Tommy Broderick and tackle Jayden Grinde anchored the offensive line for the Owls, who were missing their starting left tackle and their tight end. Chase Walker and Brian Schenck filled those roles well on short notice.
“We were able to run the offense we needed to,” Freeman said.
The Owls are 0-1 in the Mississippi Area Football Conference and visit
De Soto (1-3, 0-2) for a conference game Friday. Freeman and Dragon head coach Russ Schmidt have faced each other before when both were coaching different teams, Freeman at Hillsboro and Schmidt at Festus.
“They’re finding their way and their kids are playing hard,” Freeman said. “Their record isn’t reflective of the team they are and they’re a very dangerous team, to be honest.”