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WEEK 6 TOP 10: Charleston's blowout upset leads SEMO South's wild weekend
You want a wacky week in Southeast Missouri high school football? Send in hurricane winds, mass rescheduling and a constant downpour, and you’ve got it.
Exiting Week 5 football in the Semoball area, we saw plenty of exciting games, along with some that got out of hand quickly.
Cape Central blew out St. Dominic in what was projected to be a neck-and-neck game, Hayti could break through a vicious St. Vincent defense, and Charleston destroyed Portageville in a SEMO South shocker.
There’s plenty of small-school stories to go around, with the Semoball Area Football Power Rankings chock full of Class 1 and 2 risers.
No. 1: Cape Central (5-0, LW No. 1)
If anything befits Central’s playing style, it’s playing in windy, stormy conditions. The ground-and-pound Tiger offense thrived against St. Dominic, going up 41 points at the half and finishing strong for a 47-0 victory. Never this season have the Tigers looked more deserving of this ranking, and after crushing the Crusaders on Homecoming night, there’s a lot of confidence moving into a Week 6 SEMO North game sure to give the title rights to the winner. So too does the state respect of Central continue to rise, as the Tigers look more and more dangerous in Class 5.
No. 2: St. Vincent (5-0, LW No. 2)
This team likes to pass, and that hasn’t been the easiest thing to do early this season. Against Perryville, a scoreless first half. Against Hayti, the same. But both of those games ended the same way: The Indians shut out the second half and put together a major effort late, last week ending in a 35-point second half to rout the Hayti Indians on the road. It’s been an adverse first five weeks for St. Vincent, but the Indians continue to grow tougher through it, looking quite deserving of such a high ranking among this block.
No. 3: Jackson (3-2, LW No. 3)
Jackson’s bread and butter is out-sizing opposing teams, and in a storming Friday rivalry matchup with Poplar Bluff, the Indians rolled right over their foes and into a 57-9 victory after three scores in the first two minutes of the second half. Heading into Week 6, with so much on the line going into Cape Central, looking to keep a nearly decade-long streak alive, Jackson might just be the underdog for the first time in a long time, but that won’t stop the Indians from putting the Tigers on upset watch. By all competitive standards, this should be the biggest game of the season for Jackson, looking to keep the rivalry west of I-55.
No. 4: Dexter (5-0, LW No. 4)
After a slow start to the season schedule, Dexter finally got its first taste of the limelight against Southern Boone on Saturday, postponed for weather, but made the most of that opportunity. Breaking out of an early deficit, the Bearcats took advantage of the home field and grabbed a 24-21 victory over the visiting Eagles to keep the undefeated season alive, adding their first ranked win of the season against a Class 3 rival squad. After entering the state media top 3 last week, the Bearcats are hot in pursuit of respect as state contenders, and Week 5’s win over Southern Boone is a great way to move the needle.
No. 5: Perryville (4-1, LW No. 6)
Against a 3-1 Grandview squad, Perryville never looked to be daunted in a shutout 32-0 victory over the Eagles, pushing further up the ladder within the Quad County Conference. The Pirates are on a roll, still crushing competition outside of a narrow Week 3 loss to St. Vincent in which it just narrowly let the lead slip away in the game’s final minutes. Going into the final four games of the season, the Pirates rank higher than they ever have before, with a road Jefferson matchup coming upon the horizon for Week 6. The Blue Jays are among the conference’s top contenders, and outside of St. Vincent, should pose Perryville’s biggest challenge on the season schedule this year.
No. 6: Scott City (4-1, LW No. 8)
Moving forward with a couple of big losses in front of them, the Scott City Rams continue to climb after smoking Malden on the road. It wasn’t the most glorious win of the season, but the Rams are with just one loss over halfway through the season, and are now placed among the areas greatest small schools with Caruthersville and Portageville both taking hefty losses last weekend. That being said, Friday’s matchup between No. 6 Scott City and No. 7 Caruthersville should tell us just about everything we need to know about these squads, with the high-flying S.C. defense looking to avoid a Tigers squad amped to right the ship.
No. 7: Caruthersville (4-1, LW No. 5)
Caruthersville slips down to No. 7 entering Week 6, taking a heavy loss at Valle Catholic over the weekend in which the Tigers scored just once in a 37-7 rout. Shades of last year’s district semifinal loss against the same opponent, it’s a measuring stick to last season that doesn’t reflect too beautifully on this team, but there’s no time to get caught up in hypotheticals as one of the top remaining matchups on the schedule is looming with a Friday duel versus Scott City. These two have shown potential to campaign for the SEMO South, and Caruthersville likely poses the top remaining bid lest Scott City can knock the Tigers off in Scott City. One of the top area football games of the season, this one should spell out some big conference implications.
No. 8: Charleston (3-2, LW NR)
Charleston has been a quite flexible team this season, jumping back and forth between ranked and unranked, but Week 5’s blowout 34-12 win against Portageville was jarring enough to rocket the Blue Jays right back into the fold, higher than ever before. Caruthersville humbled the Jays a week prior, but Charleston’s response was so drastic and powerful that it wildly changed the dynamic of the SEMO South Conference for the near future. Portageville comes falling down, while the Jays are rocketing back up the power rankings ahead of Week 6.
No. 9: Hayti (2-3, LW No. 9)
It’s hard to lose by 35 and maintain your position, but the Indians impressed in Week 5. Despite the score, Hayti held St. Vincent scoreless in the first half, which is incredibly hard to do whether hurricane winds are present or not. Though the floodgates opened in the second half, Hayti’s got some potential, and that’s been evident just about every time it’s matched up with local teams this season. A Friday matchup with Charleston, a team in a similar situation, will be quite telling of how these two up-and-comers can fair in the local scene.
No. 10: East Prairie (3-2, LW NR)
It took little time for Ian Penrod to turn the ship around at East Prairie. It’s quite hard to blow out Kennett, as many smaller schools know, but Penrod’s Eagles were able to accomplish that feat just five weeks into the new era, and now they’re over the .500 mark over halfway through the season with many of their toughest games already out of the way. Outscoring the Kennett Indians 52-0 on Saturday, East Prairie handed Kennett its worst loss since Oct. 7, 2011 at Sikeston – nearly 13 years ago. Not too shabby for a team that hasn’t won four games in a season since 2020.