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BY JIM WEINERS

Two Florissant Valley High School Football teams opened the 2007 season with victories while the other schools found themselves on the losing end of games.

Hazelwood Central welcomed a new head coach in Richard Nixon who succeeded John Pukala, now the Hazelwood Central Athletic Director.

Central also had to replace Marvin McNutt at quarterback as well as running back DeVion Moore.

Nixon’s Hawks opened 2007on a winning note last Saturday with a 29-7 victory over O’Fallon, Ill. In two home games the past three seasons the Hawks have outscored the Panthers 71-14. It took only 19 seconds for the Hawks to get on the scoreboard as Willis Fleming scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 98-yard return of the opening kickoff.

Two days earlier, Aug. 30, Hazelwood West began the post-Lamark Brown era with a 7-0 win at home over McCluer. Brown graduated after last season while the rest of the Wildcat team was rebuilding. So far the only score in the Suburban North Conference opener for the Wildcats and Comets was a fourth-quarter touchdown, a seven-yard run by Dillon Holliam with 8:24 left. McCluer hosts Hazelwood Central Friday at 4 p.m.

One of the teams that must go through a rebuilding process is McCluer North, who was 11-1 last year as well as a Class Five State Semifinalist, but many key players have graduated. That includes quarterback Ben Hendrix, place-kicker Tom Latimore and a number of running backs and wide receivers.

The rebuilding process began last Friday with a 21-14 loss at Pattonville. The first half was dominated by Pattonville including a pair of touchdown runs by Colin Hanna. McCluer North rebounded in the second half to tie it at 14-14 courtesy of two Sean Grady touchdown runs only to have Hanna hit Evon Smith with the eventual game-winning touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

The Stars nearly took advantage of field position when they held Pattonville on downs at the Pirate 48 only to have the Pirates intercept a pass one play later and held it until the clock ran out.
“All we wanted was and opportunity,” said McCluer North head coach Jim Schottmueller last Friday at Pattonville. “We have to build on the second half (Saturday, 1 p.m. at home, against Hazelwood West) and forget the first.”

Hazelwood East was given high accolades in the pre-season as they were ranked first in state and metro polls according to published reports especially with a number of key players back from last year. However and undisclosed number of players were not playing last Saturday at home against CBC, their names are reasons were not disclosed also. Without those undisclosed key players the Spartans suffered a 24-21 loss to the Cadets and CBC became the first private school to win at East’s Gorzynski Field.

Head coach Corey Johnson said he does not count the number of players unavailable, “I only count those were playing.” CBC had one player that was on the field nearly the entire game was Jack Swoboda, who threw for one touchdown, ran for another as a quarterback and played defense.

Riverview Gardens, who is trying to replace all-purpose quarterback A. J. Steward, lost Aug 30 at home to Ritenour. It was the first win for Ritenour since a 2005 overtime win at Riverview, 6-0, and that was after 17 straight losses. Derrick Valley, who scored the 2005 overtime touchdown, scored twice for Ritenour while Elliot Wilson scored twice for Riverview Gardens.

Riverview hosts St. John Vianney Friday, 6 p.m., while Ritenour hosts Hazelwood East Friday at 7 p.m.

Trinity Catholic lost last Friday at home to St. Dominic, 34-6 and visits Bishop DuBourg this Friday at 7 p.m. Lutheran North lost Aug. 30 at Clayton, 35-14 and visits Westminster Christian Academy Saturday at 2 p.m. McCluer South-Berkeley will open the season at home Saturday
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