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West Falls From Ranks of Undefeated; Football Districts Open This Weekend
BY JIM WIENERS
High School Football begins their road to the Missouri State High School Activities Association championships this weekend with the first of three weekends of round-robin district games. This includes Class Five, which has 10 out of 11 districts with four teams each after four years of having four out of eight districts with five teams each.
Class Six, District Four has the most Florissant Valley area high schools and will begin round-robin this Saturday. Hazelwood West (3-1 Suburban North Conference, 6-1) has a 12 noon game at Riverview Gardens (1-3, 4-3) while McCluer North (1-3, 3-4) has a 1 p.m. game at Hazelwood Central (3-1, 6-1).
Class Five, District Four opens Friday at 7 p.m. as McCluer (3-2, 5-2) visits Fort Zumwalt North (4-3) while Saturday at 1 p.m. Hazelwood East (2-3, 4-3) hosts Pattonville (1-4, 3-4). Class Three, District Five will have a pair of 1 p.m. games this Saturday as Trinity Catholic (2-5) visits Lutheran North (2-5) while McCluer South-Berkeley (4-3) hosts John Burroughs (3-3). McCluer North (Class Five Quarterfinalist), Pattonville (Class Six Semifinalist) and Lutheran North (Class Three sectional qualifier) won districts last year but beginning this year the top two teams from each district advance (see related story).
McCluer North, who swapped classes with Pattonville, “underachieved” so far this season said 25-year head coach Jim Schottmueller but this weekend is “a new season and a new opportunity.” Last Saturday McCluer North scored 61 first half points in a 61-6 home win over Beaumont and “everyone got to play, (which was) kind of nice,” said Schottmueller. Last Saturday Demonte’ Bell scored four touchdowns and Daruis Stewart added three.
Meanwhile last Friday Hazelwood West saw their winning streak end at six with a 29-3 loss to DeSmet in a game played at St. Louis University High. “They kicked our butts on (both sides of) the line,” said Hazelwood West head coach Keith Herring. However, “We’ll be able to regroup for districts.” DeSmet had two Stephen Kaiser touchdown passes and a 75-yard scoring run by Terrance Lockett.
Hazelwood Central, last Saturday at home, had a touchdown pass and a touchdown run by Kerry Gibson in a 22-20 win over Pattonville. Riverview Gardens, last Friday at home 44-26 over Columbia Rock Bridge as Joe Williams had four touchdown passes while running for two more. Also last Friday McCluer won at Farmington, 28-14, while Ritenour (4-3) with two A.J. Shipp touchdowns, wrapped up Suburban North Conference play (4-3) with a 28-0 home shutout of Hazelwood East.
Trinity Catholic lost a non conference game at home last Friday to St. Francis Borgia, 28-14. Last Saturday Lutheran North (1-3 ABC League) lost an ABC League game at home to Mary Institute-Country Day School, 30-15, while McCluer South-Berkeley wrapped up Suburban East Conference play (2-3) with a 13-0 homecoming loss to Normandy (3-0 Suburban East, 7-0).
