Now that St. Vincent and St. Pius have each knocked off the giant, they have each other to deal with.

St. Vincent hosts St. Pius at 7:15 tonight. The Indians (5-0, ranked fifth in the state in Class 1A) edged Herculaneum 14-12 two weeks ago. The Lancers (4-1) beat Herky 24-20 last Friday.

The game will decide the Jefferson County Conference-Small Division race. Herculaneum has won the conference championship in the five years since St. Vincent joined.

"This decides it," St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer said. "It's the first time Herky's not going to win it, so it boils down to St. Pius and St. Vincent."

St. Vincent's defense has been rock-solid, allowing 18 points over the last four weeks, but St. Pius' balanced offense will provide a test.

Quarterback Bill Basler, a three-year starter, is a capable passer. Kyle Clark and Rick Bradley are his primary receivers.

Running backs Kevin Bersing and David Britt, and fullback Pat DeClue give the Lancers variety out of the backfield.

"We can run, and we can throw," St. Pius coach Tony Janc said. "But they have a strong defense, and they don't hurt themselves."

St. Vincent will try not to. Led by Bryan Meyer, who ran for 125 yards, returned kicks for 140 yards and scored four touchdowns in a 38-0 win over Crystal City last week, the Indians will attempt to control the ball, and play field position football.

St. Vincent completed only one of eight passes last week.

"Field position is the key for us," Sauer said. "They're going to have to move the football to win."

The onus will be on defensive backs Trent Sauer, Dusty Cattoor and Cory Strattman to put a blanket on the St. Pius passing game.

"They haven't been tested much, but each of them has at least one interception this year," Sauer said. "They tend to find themselves in the right place."

Tonight is Homecoming for St. Vincent, which may or may not have an effect.

"The bands get more fired up than the football players," Janc said. "The players have to be ready every week."

Charleston at Dexter

Most of Charleston will be at Dexter, but those missing will hurt the Blue Jays' bid for victory.

Quarterback Jason Ward (sprained ankle), fullback Kevin Brown (knee ligament) and center Jason Breunderman (broken leg) will be out of the lineup in tonight's game, which starts at 7:30.

Additionally, running back Jeff Ewing will miss the first half due to disciplinary reasons.

"Sometimes, when it rains, it pours," Charleston coach Dan Kesselring said. "Right now, it's pouring, and I hope it stops."

Boothe Duggan, a junior, takes over at quarterback for Charleston (2-3). Travis Kent will start at tailback in the first half.

Dexter is 2-3.

Perryville at Festus

Both Perryville and Festus run the option. So far this year, Perryville has done it better.

The Pirates (4-1) play at Festus at 7:30 tonight. Their first conference game will test their run containment and possibly provide an opportunity to diversify their own option offense.

"We need to stop Festus' option," Perryville coach Jerry Tucker said. "And we're going to try to start passing more. We want to go into district games with the ability to do a few more things offensively."

The Pirates clobbered Brentwood 48-22 last week, but allowed a pair of first-half touchdowns.

"It's really kind of tough for that Brentwood game to come between Scott City and Festus," Tucker said. "That whole week was kind of detrimental to us. But I think we've had the attitude adjustment we needed."

Fredericktown at Potosi

Fredericktown goes from the pain of last week's 28-27 loss to Ste. Genevieve Valle to the pressure of Potosi's blitzing defense.

The game starts at 7:30 tonight.

"You can take a loss like that and go a couple of ways," said Fredericktown coach Kent Gibbs, whose team is 1-4. "I guess we won't know until the game starts."

Offensively, Potosi (2-3) runs the option. Defensively, they bring the heat and play man-to-man in the secondary.

Gibbs hopes to provide Jeremy Penwell with his customary 20 carries while continuing to hone the Black Cats' passing attack. Last week, Luke McKinnis completed seven of nine passes for 197 yards.

"We're going to try to get Luke outside the pocket," Gibbs said. "They can catch us. We just want to stay out of long yardage situations."

East Prairie at Chaffee

Chaffee has taken a beating against the meat of its schedule over the past four weeks. This week is a chance to start over.

Chaffee (0-5) hosts East Prairie (1-4) at 7:30 tonight. The game is Chaffee's Homecoming.

"I told the team there's a sense of urgency, so to speak," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said. "We can't do anything about the 0-5 record, but this is a game that can get us jump started and playing well for districts."

Chaffee was held to negative-10 total yards last week against Scott City. The running game was especially inept.

"Maybe I'm trying to beat a dead horse, but we've got to keep trying to run the football," Horrell said. "We can throw sometimes, but when you get inside the 20-yard-line, you have to be able to run. So we have to establish that."

Scott City at Caruthersville

Sure, Scott City played a great defensive game in a 41-0 victory over Chaffee last week, but what about the offense?

"We felt we didn't play very well offensively," Scott City coach Terry Flannigan said. "We've worked a lot in practice on maintaining our blocks and finishing our plays."

Scott City (4-1, ranked seventh in the state in Class 2A) plays at Caruthersville (0-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday.

"Caruthersville has some good speed," Flannigan said. "They played Charleston tough (an 18-0 loss). They'll run a pro-I formation out of multiple sets and run a little option."

Outside linebackers Scott Johnston and Dale Burger will be keys to containing the option.