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Hazelwood Central, Hazelwood East to Open Football District Playoffs At Home
By Jim Wieners
Hazelwood Central and Hazelwood East High Schools will have the luxury of opening the Football District playoff at home on their own fields while McCluer North and Lutheran North will have their home games played on neutral sites, in St. Peters, at night because their home fields have no lights.
Hazelwood Central, seeded first in Class Six, District Two, will host eighth-seeded Francis Howell North in the only Saturday playoff game (Nov. 2) at 1 p.m. Hazelwood East, seeded second in Class Five, District Two opens on a school-day afternoon game Friday (Nov. 1) at 2 p.m. against seventh-seeded and Suburban North Conference rival McCluer.
In a battle of four versus five seeds in Class Five, District Two fourth-seeded McCluer North plays fifth-seeded Chaminade Friday, 7 p.m. at Fort Zumwalt South with the winner playing at top-seeded and defending Class Five State Champion Kirkwood, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. Elsewhere Lutheran North, seeded third in Class Two, District Two, plays sixth-seeded Herculaneum Thursday (Oct. 31) 7 p.m. at Lutheran High-St. Charles County.
In other Friday 7 p.m. games seventh-seeded Hazelwood West visits second-seeded CBC, fourth-seeded DeSmet hosts fifth-seeded Pattonville and sixth-seeded St. Louis University High visits third-seeded Ritenour in Class Six, District Two while Riverview Gardens visits Webster Groves. On Thursday at 7 p.m. sixth-seeded Trinity Catholic visits third-seeded and Archdiocesan Athletic Association-Small Division rival O’Fallon Christian while in the “Battle of the Bulldogs” second-seeded McCluer South-Berkeley (at home with rented lights or at a neutral site) plays seventh-seeded Sumner in Class Three, District Five.
Class Six district winners play Nov. 8 but Hazelwood Central with a win plays Nov. 9. District winners in Classes 1-5 play Nov.6.
CLASS SIX, DISTRICT TWO — “We had a great week of practice,” said Hazelwood Central head coach Van Vanatta and it resulted in the Hawks going 9-0 with a 49-0 shutout Oct. 26 at McCluer thanks to three first-half touchdowns by Dorian Williams. “The kids responded, they came out to play and made plays,” Vanatta said, “now we take it one week at a time.”
CBC secured the second seed with a 30-12 win Oct. 25 at Francis Howell as Blake Charlton passed for three touchdowns. DeSmet secured the fourth seed with a 75-0 home romp Oct. 24 over Vashon as Marcus Jester scored eight first-half touchdowns, five in the second quarter.
CLASS FIVE, DISTRICT TWO — It all began Oct. 25 as Parkway North had an overtime upset at Webster Groves, 19-13, as a Quran Williams 35-yard return of an intercepted pass with 1:43 left in the fourth quarter tied the game at 13-13 and forced the overtime. Collin Weber’s 22 yard overtime touchdown pass to Roosevelt Abram and the Parkway North defense won it for the Vikings. Meanwhile McCluer North lost the same night at Pattonville, 44-20 as Tyrone Eastern ran for three Pirate touchdowns and Lamar Wilkes passed for two more.
That opened the door for Hazelwood East to secure the second seed Oct. 26 and deny McCluer North an appeal based on a 31-30 win over East on Oct. 5. The 6-3 Spartans won at Gorzynski Field 36-13 over Hazelwood West as Jimmy Jones scored five Spartan touchdowns including two receptions from Jay Kirk. East defeated McCluer 41-0 on Aug. 31 as Jones scored four touchdowns including two pass receptions from Brandon Brice.
CLASS THREE, DISTRICT FIVE — Trinity Catholic will be playing O’Fallon Christian for the third time in two seasons and the past two results for the 3-6 Titans have been lopsided losses to the two-time AAA-Small Division Champions, 48-20 at Fort Zumwalt South last year and 41-6. McCluer South-Berkeley (7-1) also has routed Trinity twice, 86-6 last year in in the district playoffs and 62-0 on Oct. 25.
CLASS TWO, DISTRICT TWO — Lutheran North (5-4) goes into districts on a five-game winning streak after losing their first four and got the third seed thanks to having the bonus of playing six Class Four teams and two Class Three teams including Trinity, whom the Crusaders won 55-52 on Oct. 18.
