Blog

BY JIM WIENERS

This Saturday Hazelwood Central will hold a Septemberfest and Homecoming but look for the Varsity Football Hawks to primarily prepare for the day’s 1 p.m. Suburban North Conference contest as neighboring rival McCluer North comes to visit.

Last Saturday Hazelwood Central fell from the ranks of the unbeaten at home as Columbia Hickman pulled out a 16-13 win over the Hawks. Michael Moore, with two Hawk defenders covering him, caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Doug Luetjen with 1:21 left in the game for the victory.

Over one week earlier, Sept. 7, Central had to go overtime to beat McCluer, 27-21, thanks to four Willis Fleming touchdown runs including the overtime game winner.

After last Saturday’s game first year head coach Richard Nixon had a long post-game meeting on the field with the team. Afterward Nixon said the Hawks focus, which was the goal before the season started, is on week eight when they begin district play with Pattonville. He had praise for Hickman who lost by 10 to highly ranked East St. Louis and defeated the number two team in Arkansas, Bentonville, by 14.

However Nixon said; “We gave a good team too much. If we don’t play four good mistake-free quarters we will not win.”

Meanwhile McCluer North, who will match Central with win loss records (2-1), is also in a slow rebuilding process. The Stars rebounded from their season-opening loss with a Sept. 8 home win over Hazelwood West, 21-7 as Deshawn Green ran for a second quarter touchdown and two-point conversion. Last Saturday, also at home, McCluer North had to go overtime to defeat Ritenour, 30-24, as Demonte Bell’s second touchdown was the overtime game-winner.

HAZELWOOD EAST is slowly getting to full strength after an undisclosed number of players started late because of various undisclosed reasons. Last Saturday at Gorzynski Field East could not get past Suburban North rival Pattonville as the 3-0 Pirates won 28-21. Mark Harris caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Colin Hanna with 50.1 seconds left in the game and East wanted offensive pass interference on Harris but no penalty was called.

East is off to a 1-2 start but “we’ve had poor starts before, it‘s just part of the game,” said East coach Corey Johnson referring to the 2004 Spartan team that started 3-3 but won six in a row before losing in the Class Six State title game to Hickman. “They (the late starting players) are inching their way back.

East’s next opponent, RIVERVIEW GARDENS, 1 p.m. Saturday at Gorzynski Field, is off to a slower start. Riverview is 0-3, has lost five in a row dating back to last season and the Rams have not won since beating Hazelwood West, 32-14 on Oct. 20, 2006. Riverview has lost to Ritenour, Vianney (31-14) and McCluer (18-7)

TRINITY CATHOLIC also started slow with a 34-6 home loss to St. Dominic and a 12-7 win last weekend at Bishop DuBourg. Last Friday at home 2-1 Trinity exploded with a 51-16 pounding of visiting Grandview-Hillsboro. This Friday Trinity travels to St. Peters for a 7 p.m. game against 3-0 Lutheran-St. Charles County, who has wins over Cardinal Ritter, Festus-St. Pius X and John F. Kennedy.

Sophomore Marquise Hill, who has three touchdowns, two last Friday against Grandview, said this week’s practice before playing Lutheran-St. Charles County is going to be the “hardest to prepare.” Trinity coach Mark Harris said “the kids ask me to work them harder. We’re going to really turn it up.”

HAZELWOOD WEST is coming off two straight losses, at McCluer North and 32-20 at Oakville, both winless prior to playing the 1-2 Wildcats. This Saturday at 1 p.m. West hosts another winless team in Columbia-Rock Bridge, who lost to DeSmet, Springdale (Ark.) Har-Ber and Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman. Last Friday at Oakville Ryan Ward ran for a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

McCLUER is 1-2 coming off a win over Riverview Gardens last Saturday, eight days after an overtime loss to Hazelwood Central. The Comets visit Ritenour this Saturday at 1 p.m. Lynex Owens ran for two touchdowns and passed for another against Hazelwood Central while Anthony Moore ran for two touchdowns against Riverview.

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