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BY JIM WIENERS

McCluer North—with new runners, receivers, kickers and quarterback -— has overcome a season-opening 21-14 loss at Pattonville Stadium, getting shutout 33-0 in Wentzville’s Soby Field by Holt in week seven while playing without eight suspended players and overcame a 13-0 first quarter deficit to win Nov. 3 at Hazelwood East’s Rick Gorzynski Field.

The victory helped the Stars gain a share of the Suburban North Conference title with East (6-1) and won the Class Five, District Two title (3-1) on a two-way head-to-head tiebreaker over East.

However McCluer North’s season and road to the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, ended last Friday at Jackson Stadium (a.k.a. “the pit”) in the southeast Missouri town just west-northwest of Cape Girardeau. Jackson’s defense shut down the Stars offense the last 46:34 as the Indians won 24-7 in front of an unofficial crowd of 10,000 (there were more in 2001 in the Class 5A Semifinal game won by Hazelwood East, 21-0).

McCluer North (who finished 8-3) took 86 seconds to score on the first drive of the game, a 50-yard run down the left sideline by quarterback Ralph Watson III. It was all Jackson after that as the Indians tied the game at 7-7 with 8:03 left in the first half on the off-tackle run from 14 yards by Adam Zweigart. Jackson’s “I” formation offense continued domination from there in the second half with a Marcus Harris to Antonio Garritano pass 40 yards up the middle of the

McCluer North defense 1:31 into the third quarter then 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, a 32-yard Matt Lang field goal in the first minute of the fourth quarter and a 20-yard Corey Randen run nearly four minutes later.
McCluer North coach Jim Schottmueller credited 11-0 Jackson saying after the game “they are a very good football team.” Offensively, Schottmueller said “we did not play very good (so) we had to play excellent defense and we did not. We needed breaks and did not get it.”

A week before McCluer North had to overcome two first-quarter touchdowns by Hazelwood East’s Demarco Paine to win 17-13. North took advantage of a missed extra point by East by scoring two touchdowns — Watson passing 14 yards to Dorian Buford and an eight-yard run by Darius Stewart — and two extra points by Alex Beckmann, who added a third-quarter field goal. North’s defense took it from there and “we played good defense that week,” said Schottmueller.

LUTHERAN NORTH secured their sixth consecutive district title Nov. 2 with a 35-0 shutout at Trinity Catholic in Class Three, District Five, as Charles Dunbar ran for two touchdowns while Stephon Watson ran for a touchdown and passed for another. On Nov. 7 Lutheran North had rented lights for the Class Three Sectional but, despite two Watson touchdown passes, Moberly won in a rout, 45-18.

Lutheran North finished 6-5, their 30th consecutive winning season and has been in the post season 21 times in 29 years.

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