The offensive statistics are posted through four weeks of the high school football season.

The athlete who impressed me last week, and who is putting up some incredible offensive numbers, is Kennett receiver Jarvis Finley. He has 28 catches for 555 yards and 7 touchdowns in just four games, averaging 7 catches and more than 138 yards receiving per game.

Kennett's offense this year is the pass-first variety of the spread, and Blake Parr (1,188 yards passing) has a number of options on any given play -- in addition to the option of running -- but when he finds Finley with some open space, it can lead to a big play, like (http://semoball.com/gallery/092008-ep-kennett10/ the 50-yard TD pass play} in the fourth quarter against East Prairie last week.

Finley, from his cornerback position, also made some nice one-on-one tackles of speedy East Prairie back M.C. Williams.

Why isn't Kennett state-ranked?

A post on the www.mosports.com message boards asked that question.

Actually, it was more like:

Wow, I didn't expect Kennett to land inside the top ten but I thought they might receive a vote after starting a quick 4-0. The big surprise was the 3-1 St. Genevieve Dragons received one vote and they have a lost to a class one school Valley that is ranked behind Hayti, the class one school, which Kennett beat. Something else that left me scratching my head, as it should everyone else in southeast Missouri, is the fact no school from SEMO receive a single vote beside Fredericktown and Hayti. Honestly I don't know if you would even consider Fredericktown apart of Southeast Missouri, if so they are on the every tip of the boundary. I guess the SEMO area sportswriters and broadcasters forgot to vote for: Jackson, NMCC, and Poplar Bluff along with Kennett. I mean I have always said the state polls are worth the paper you use to wipe yourself. The only thing the state polls are good for are for newspapers to have something to print about high school football throughout the week and to give people like me something to complain about on a message board. Really I can't believe I'm writing a post about the state poll, but I guess someone has to put the news out there about semo teams because our semo sportswriters/broadcaster evidently have absolutely no pull in the state polls.

First, the process: The state poll includes 12 people from different media outlets around the state, including one in this corner. They send out teams for consideration before casting votes, so a team might get some discussion without actually getting any votes.

In Kennett's case, however, the schedule for the team's 4-0 start hasn't been particularly good. The Class 3 Indians have played only Class 1 and Class 2 schools so far, and those schools are a combined 6-10, including state-ranked Hayti's 3-1 record. It continues that way for the next two week's -- Kennett's next two foes are a combined 1-7 -- before a Week 7 home game with Class 4 Sikeston and then Class 3 district play.

It's hard to tell from the schedule so far if Kennett is the best team in that grouping, as New Madrid County started the year in the state poll but lost to Class 4 Poplar Bluff and to Class 3 Potosi. The other teams in the district are 1-3 Perryville and 0-4 Dexter.

The teams in Class 3 District 1 are a combined 0-4 against Class 3 District 2, as Perryville and Dexter have lost to Ste. Genevieve and Perryville also lost to Park Hills Central.

Unbeaten Fredericktown (4-0) is state-ranked at No. 9, while Ste. Genevieve (3-1) is honorable mention. Potosi (3-1) and Park Hills Central (3-1) are not ranked.

(On the point about Kennett beating Hayti 27-26 and Ste. Gen losing to Valle 28-24, I actually think Valle is better than Hayti this season. From what I saw of Valle against St. Vincent, the Warriors would be competitive with Hayti's state quarterfinal team of last year. Valle's balanced offense is going to be a handful for Class 1 teams in the playoffs. I have not yet seen Hayti, which lost a lot to graduation, but the margins of decisions suggest it is not the dominating juggernaut of last season -- yet.)

As for other teams in Southeast Missouri mentioned: Jackson, New Madrid and Poplar Bluff all are 2-2 with losses to teams in their classes or below, which makes it hard to make a case for ranking them. (O'Hara in Class 3 is the only 2-2 team to have even received votes.)

Jackson has lost to two 2-2 teams, including Class 4 Gateway Tech; New Madrid has the loss to unranked Potosi; and Poplar Bluff lost to Class 4 honorable mention Hannibal as well as state-ranked Union.

Let's just say things aren't off to a good start for Southeast Missouri football.

With last week's results -- Scott City lost at Fredericktown, St. Vincent lost at Maplewood, Perryville lost to Park Hills, Central lost at Farmington; Chaffee beat St. Pius -- teams in the Semoball.com coverage area are 5-23 against teams outside of the region, which extends from Perry County south.

Scott City hosts Chaffee

* Scott City's homecoming foe Friday is rival Chaffee. Last year, the Red Devils ended a string of 21 consecutive losses against the Rams with a thrilling 21-19 win. Andrew Hendrix's interception return to end this Scott City drive and extend Chaffee's lead to 21-13 may have been the play of the year last year in Southeast Missouri high school football (with all due respect to any one of Matt Lang's plays in Jackson's 21-20 win against Eureka). Chaffee had to make a stop on a two-point conversion to preserve the win.

Scott City coach Ronnie Jones, who will be without one of his leading tacklers in Matt Bradley after the senior was ejected late in last week's loss at Fredericktown, said the monkey is on his back for letting Chaffee end Scott City's dominance last year, but it's more accurate to say Red Devils coach Charlie Vickery has taken his team from the dismal dormat it was earlier this decade to a program that has a chance to win against any small school programs in this corner of the state.

Chaffee quarterback Aaron Horrell, a first-year starter as a senior, is having a very productive campaign with a completion rate of 62.7 percent (37-for-59) for 457 yards and five touchdowns against just one interception. Receiver Trenton Horman has 19 catches for 240 yards.

This week's games

* Sikeston has the highest-scoring offense (35.0 points per game) and will be facing the defense that has allowed the most points, Cape Central, at 45.75 points per game. The Tigers can score, almost keeping pace with New Madrid County, so it should be a high-scoring contest in Sikeston.

* St. Vincent hosts St. Pius in a 7:30 p.m. start. The Indians won their opener but have lost to Class 3 Park Hills Central 13-12, were crushed by a Class 1 state-ranked Valle and crushed (and shut out) by the top-ranked Class 2 team, Maplewood. The Indians have scored just 29 points in four games, and receiver/kicker Aaron Dzik has more than half of them (16) with a touchdown, three field goals and a PAT.

* Perryville will be the opponent for Potosi's homecoming. On paper, Potosi has accomplished more so far, but the Trojans lost in Week 2 to Pacific, which Perryville beat in the opening week. Potosi the last two weeks has received 372 rushing yards and seven touchdowns from Brandon Bourbon in wins against New Madrid County Central and Herculaneum.