THE LATEST LINE: AREA FOOTBALL FEATURES FOUR PERFECT TEAMS

Three weeks into the Missouri high school football season, most of the area squads have already tasted defeat, but four are cruising along with perfect records.

Jackson, St. Vincent, New Madrid County Central and Kennett are all 3-0 and looking very good.

Jackson has only been tested once so far, that being in a 31-30 win over a strong Sumner squad. The Indians have outscored the opposition 96 to 43.

St. Vincent, second in the state in Class 1A last season, faced strong challenges in its first two games but has outscored its foes 80 to 20.

NMCC has perhaps been the area's dominant squad so far. The Eagles have rolled over their first three opponents by a combined 130 to 41 and have been extremely impressive in lopsided wins over Mt. Vernon (Ill.), Cape Central and Malden.

Kennett, which will do battle with NMCC in districts, has claimed two blowout wins and holds a 122 to 56 scoring edge.

Time will tell just how long those four teams can avoid suffering their first loss, but based on the way they've been playing, those undefeated records might last for a while.

On the other end of the spectrum, five Southeast Missouri squads are still searching for their initial victory: Cape Central, Perryville, Portageville, East Prairie and Caruthersville.

* This is not to belittle anybody personally -- I can say first-hand through my coverage of the team that SEMO's players and coaches are for the most part class individuals, and I believe the same goes for Cape Central -- but can anybody remember when collectively there were two worse football teams in Cape Girardeau?

* I know it's only the first game -- and it was against one of the weaker teams in the NFL -- but you had to be impressed by the Rams' season-opening win over Baltimore last weekend.

Particularly impressive was quarterback Kurt Warner, who showed plenty of poise and precision in his first NFL start.

* For those of you who didn't notice -- and I'm sure most of you did -- I had my all-time worst performance of picking local football games last week.

I was so embarrassed by my 4-6 record, I hated to even be seen in public for a few days. Fortunately, not many people said anything about it.

Anyway, I'm going to have to do some serious rallying to finish in my normal position at or near the top of the Weekly Media Grid Picks.

* Chad Kish, a former assistant basketball coach at Scott City High School and also a former student assistant coach at SEMO, was recently named the head women's basketball coach at Iowa Central Community College.

Kish takes over a Lady Triton team that went 23-9 last season.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian