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By Jim Wieners

Hopes for an undefeated football season and a third straight Class Six State Championship for Hazelwood Central came to an end Nov. 27 at the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, in the final game of Show-Me Bowl 2010.

Kansas City-Rockhurst, an all-boys Catholic-Jesuit high school that sits near the Missouri-Kansas State Border, won 10-7 for their ninth state title in 40 years and their fifth undefeated championship season. Five of those titles were won at the expense of Hazelwood Central, which is half of their 10 runner-up finishes, most by any Missouri State High School Activities Association member school. Four of Rockhurst’s wins over Central have been by a touchdown or less and a 21-yard field goal by sophomore Griffin Bins with 1:48 left in the third quarter was the play that became the winning score in breaking a 7-7 tie.

It was the fifth time in six championship game appearances Central came in unbeaten but left defeated. It was the second time Rockhurst ended the Hawks’ reign as state champions, the other came in 1986 in which the Hawks were on a school-high 27-game winning streak and was coming off their only undefeated state championship season (Class 5A in 1985).

The Rockhurst win snapped a 19-game winning streak, going back to last season, and it was the first non-Suburban North Conference team to beat Central since Jefferson City did in October, 2007.

“We take it (the loss) as a learning experience,” said senior A.J. Chappelle.

Hazelwood Central head coach Rich Nixon (43-9 in four years) has been saying all along his tenure that if the Hawks play mistake-free football and still lose Nixon would tip his cap (he wears a sun visor) to the opposition and Rockhurst is one of them. Rockhurst is well disciplined, according to Nixon, and well coached, by Tony Severino-a veteran of at least 28 years and has coached the Hawklets to seven state titles including four over Hazelwood Central.

“Be gracious in defeat,” Nixon said and believes Rockhurst was not hit as hard by any of their other opponents as was by his team. Several Hawklets were injured during the game but they have a 93-player roster compared to 73 for Hazelwood Central. Yet Rockhurst controlled the line of scrimmage and succeeded to “keep it ugly,” Severino said, “keep it under 17 points (and if the Hawklets did) we have a chance to win.”

Hazelwood Central had six of their 11 offensive drives were each held to three plays and a punt and was one of 11 on third-down conversions,. They scored on a five-yard touchdown pass from senior Jamaal Flowers to senior David Cameron, with 10:01 left in the first half three plays after Flowers hooked up with Cameron on a 39-yard pass play. That was one of only two drives of over 40 yards; the other was a 51-yard, nine-play drive that took up 5:10, from the end of the third quarter to the start of the fourth, which went scoreless.

The key drives of the game for Rockhurst included a 13-play 4:08 drive from midfield to the Hazelwood Central 4 as time expired at the end of the first half.  The other was  a 4:50 drive from the start of the second half that went 73 yards on 12 plays resulting in an eight-yard touchdown pass from senior Francis Arbanas to senior Nicholas Tyson to tie the game at 7-7. Despite not scoring in the first half and trailing 7-0 at halftime Severino said “I felt that we were winning the game except on the scoreboard.”

Bins field goal was set up four plays after a 45-yard pass from Arbanas to senior John Hannifan. Hazelwood Central had two scoring chances in the fourth quarter but each time ending up turning the ball over to Rockhurst on downs. The last hope ended with 51 seconds left on an incomplete pass that appeared from the press box as if senior Kevin Short caught it but Severino, who was near the play said the ball hit the ground.

“We did not score enough,” Nixon said, but “it was billed as a heavyweight slugfest,” and the two punters had more yardage than any of the offensive players. Hazelwood Central junior punter Jonathan Harris had six punts totaling 212 yard while Rockhurst senior punter Eric Orscheln punted four times totaling 140. Senior Mark Boushka, Rockhurst receiver and returner, had 122 all-purpose yards including 110 combined punt and kickoff returns.

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