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BY JIM WIENERS
With apologies to Hazelwood West football—which did not qualify for post-season play despite a 7-3 record but was 1-2 in Class Six, District Four —Hazelwood Central and Hazelwood East advance with home games this weekend.

Central qualified for post-season under a new Missouri State High School Activities Association rules allowing district runner up, and Hazelwood East, which went through a 3-0 sweep of Class Five, District Four, are still alive and each are one win away from going to the Show Me Bowl, Nov. 28-29.

Hazelwood Central — which was tied for first in Class Six, District Four with McCluer North (2-1 each) — was able to win a rematch at McCluer North, 24-6 last Saturday, four weeks after McCluer North won at Hazelwood Central, 31-30. As a result Hazelwood Central (10-2) will be playing their 13th State Semifinal game, which includes Hazelwood High in 1972, Saturday 1:30 at home in Class Six against first-time participant Fox High (Arnold). The Hawks have never lost a state semifinal game and have won two outright state titles, shared a 1972 title, as Hazelwood High against Kansas City Southwest, and has a MSHSAA record nine State Second Place finishes.

Hazelwood East (9-3) did something the school has never done in school history ousting the previous year’s state football champion. Last Saturday Hazelwood East won a Class Five Quarterfinal game, 22-8, at Waynesville as the Spartans ended the reign of Waynesville as 2007 Class Five State Champions. This Saturday, 1:30 at Gorzynski Field, Hazelwood East will be hosting Jackson, a team that lost at Waynesville in the 2007 Semifinals and at home to East in the 2001 Class 5A Semifinals.

Hazelwood East will be playing in their seventh state semifinal, is 4-2 in previous semifinals, has won two state titles and has two second-place finishes. Jackson, in their eighth semifinal game, is 2-5 in previous semifinal games and is 0-2 when they reach the state title game (1994, 1995).

The Hazelwood Central-Fox winner plays 10-time State Champion Jefferson City or 2006 Champion Blue Springs South Nov. 29 in the Edward Jones Dome at 6:30. The Hazelwood East-Jackson winner plays three-time champion Raymore-Peculiar or Raytown South, who is 0-2 in previous semifinal games, Nov. 28 7:30 at the dome. It is the first semifinal game for Hazelwood Central head coach Richard Nixon, who says it feels good to be in the semifinals, and the first for Hazelwood East interim head coach Mike Jones.

Hazelwood Central’s win over McCluer North was a chance for redemption said Nixon and that after watching the game film from the Oct. 18 game “we felt that we gave the game away.” Kerry Gibson scored two Hawk touchdowns. Meanwhile Hazelwood East broke an 8-8 halftime tie at Waynesville as Eric Brown and Terrell Downing each scored a fourth-quarter touchdown.

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