Southeast Missourian Gridiron Guide: Week 3

Each week of the high school football season, Southeast Missourian sports editor Tony Capobianco will provide a quick matchup rundown for each of the seven area teams. With two weeks into the season, we are now getting closer to rivalry week territory.

__Jackson at Farmington__

Nothing says “Jackson is back” like beating the Class 5 state champions in Ryan Nesbitt’s first home game as Indians head coach last week. In a 42-35 victory over Francis Howell, Jackson amassed 600 yards balanced between the passing (307) and rushing (311) game. Senior quarterback Adrian Fox split time under center last year, but with 467 total yards and a 63.3 completion percentage (19/30) has solidified his status not just as the leader of the Jackson offense and has all the weapons necessary to pile on the points.

“The ceiling is through the roof,” Fox said. “I feel like we have a ton of talent here and I feel like we have a really high ceiling. I'm super excited.”

Jackson travels to Farmington, who has a score to settle. The Knights started the season 2-0 with wins over North County and Potosi. After winning their recent game 52-7, the Knights feel this may finally be the year they snap their 12-game losing streak against the Indians.

With the Indians scoring 31.5 points per game and the Knights averaging 40 points, an offensive shootout can be expected on Friday.

__Perryville at St. Vincent__

Only in Perryville where a Class 4 public school and a Class 1 private school can have a football rivalry, and one where the Class 1 team has the advantage. In a crosstown series dating back to 2016, St. Vincent has won six of seven games, including five straight. The Indians outscored the Pirates 95-14 in the last three matchups.

This time around, the Pirates enter the rivalry with the better record. As bizarre as it looks, the Pirates went from a 55-0 loss in Week 1 against Oakville to a 12-0 win in Week 2. Since Rilaynd Graham took over as starting quarterback dating back to last season, the Pirates are 4-4. Both Perryville scores last week came on passing touchdowns from Graham, a 35-yarder to Gavin Hemmann, and a 10-yard toss to Barrett Wheeler.

St. Vincent is looking for its first win of the season after falling on the road to Thayer 21-18 and 16-14 against Scott City. The Indians offense is led by senior quarterback Christian Schaaf, who threw both of his touchdown passes to tight end Jacob Schremp against Thayer, and another TD to Simon Barber at Scott City.

“Jacob started out really well before he ended up getting sick and kind of missed out on some action,” St. Vincent head coach Tim Schumer said. “So they’ve kind of just picked up back where we left off. His position gets some favorable looks in our offense, and he’s a big target. He can go up and catch the ball. So that always bodes well for a quarterback.”

__Scott City at Hayti__

Despite the immense talent Scott City possesses, the past two games have proved that whether or not the Rams win depends on the availability of Mark Panagos. The Rams lost to Dexter to start the season because the senior quarterback missed the second half with an injury. He returned the next week and scored the only two touchdowns to lead the Rams against the St. Vincent Indians 16-14 last week.

"It was just mental," Panagos said. "I just had to get through it and push through for my team because I know they'd do the same thing for me."

Late in the fourth quarter, Panagos ran 39 yards, breaking tackles and forcing his way to the end zone for the game-winning score.

"I couldn't stop," Panagos said. "I had to score. I couldn't let Coach [Jim] May and my team down. It's just how much this game means to me, especially for Dom. And it being senior night, I had to get in. It was big time."

The defense has improved from week to week, and there are weapons on offense to open the passing game, but the Rams' offense is still based around the dual senior rushers. Tyson Underwood didn’t score last week but got over 100 rushing yards the hard way to move the offense along. They showed balance in the first half of the first game and are looking to incorporate the passing game as the season goes along.

“Obviously [opposing] teams, their motto is ‘load the box’ and they’re gonna play guys in there,” Underwood said. “The more we can spread the ball out, the easier will be for us to actually end up running the ball later.”

Hayti used to be the standard among small schools in the Southeast Missouri area. From 2016-21, the Indians won 66 games (averaging 10 wins per season) and won the Class 1 state championship and a district title in 2021. They also had a 15-game winning streak over Scott City, including three matchups in the playoffs. Those days are over, as Hayti lost to Scott City 55-0 and finished last season 2-6. The Indians look like they’re trending towards the same result this season with a 49-20 loss to Kennett and a 62-6 loss to Portageville.

__Poplar Bluff at Cape Central__

The SEMO Conference rivalry continues with Poplar Bluff traveling to Cape Central to take on the Tigers. Before last year, the Tigers lost to the Mules in back-to-back seasons, but on their way through the 2022 postseason, they beat Poplar Bluff both in the regular season and in the district playoffs.

Poplar Bluff enters Week 3 looking for its first win of the season. The Mules dropped a 26-14 contest at Valley View in Arkansas. Senior Kolyn McBride scored on a 15-yard rushing touchdown while junior quarterback Jay Edmundson threw a 12-yard touchdown to Darius Graham.

“We got better as a team tonight,” Mules coach Dave Sievers said. “We talked a lot about being a team, and we focused on getting better from the mistakes we made last week. I could not have been more disappointed, not in the fact that we lost, but because of how we lost. This week, I couldn’t be more proud of how we competed as a team. I told them not to be satisfied with being 0-2 but to be happy with how you performed as a unit.”

Cape Central is also looking to rebound from a tough loss. With a backup quarterback being thrust into the starting role, the Tigers gave the third-ranked team in Class 4 all they could handle in last week’s 35-28 loss. Sophomore Jathan Spain took over for injured quarterback Deklin Pittman in Week 1 and started last Friday. He connected with running back Zai’Aire Thomas for a 43-yard touchdown pass to go with a pair of touchdowns by running back KeyShawn Boyd and a pick-six by Matayo Rivers.

“This week was a little more fair to him, to be quite honest,” Tigers head coach Kent Gibbs said. “Jathan threw the ball well. We dropped some passes that we could have had big plays on. I’m really proud of his effort and how he owned up when he made mistakes. He was coachable, and I’m looking for good things from him.”

__Kelly at Chaffee__

It took two weeks for the Chaffee Red Devils to get their first win of the season, when last year it took four. The Red Devils defeated Charleston 14-12 last week after falling to the Blue Jays 36-6 last season.

It was an emotional win for the Red Devils, who witnessed freshman Grant Johnson injured during a second-quarter kickoff and had to be helicoptered off the field. He has since shown signs of being okay, according to teammates and social media posts.

“We were juiced up coming out of that,” Chaffee coach Jack Atermatt said. “We wanted to win for him. He’s a gritty player. He showed out in a junior varsity game on Monday, so we rewarded him by putting him on special teams, and it was just one of those plays where he caught the wrong guy. This is my 23rd year of coaching and I’ve never seen a situation like that before. It was brutal.”

Chaffee had already established a 14-6 advantage before that moment, meaning the emotion was shared on maintaining their lead on defense against a team that was 8-3 last season.

Senior quarterback Carson Spies has proven to be the heart and soul of this team. For a squad that runs the ball with multiple options, all three touchdowns this season have come on the ground by Spies. The senior was also an all-state selection as a defensive back last season.

“[Spies] runs downhill and is a physical guy,” Altermatt said. “He’s a really solid player.”

Kelly enters this matchup 2-0 after defeating Malden 50-14 last week. Reece Eftink produced his second straight 100-yard plus rushing game with a touchdown to boot. Ryder Krauss scored on the ground and Ethan Graham caught two touchdown receptions from Skyler Still, who also scored on a quarterback keeper.

The Hawks have benefited from a relatively soft schedule so far this season. This matchup against Chaffee, while Kelly’s first road game of 2023, was originally considered part of the trend. Now this is looking to be a compelling game.