It’s been a long, exciting regular season that brought three No. 1 teams with it, but it’s finally time for postseason high school football in Southeast Missouri.
No surprise here: Jackson retains its status as the top team in the Semoball area going into Week 10, a credit to its tremendous victory over Festus in the home finale.
St. Vincent, Cape Central, Dexter and Caruthersville hold their spots in the top five, but the bottom half of the rankings see some big shakeups.
Without further ado, here is the final edition of the regular season Semoball Area Football Top 10 Rankings for 2024.
No. 1: Jackson (7-2, LW No. 1)
There’s never been a more sure No. 1 this year than the Jackson Indians going into this week. After a 43-7 demolition of the Festus Tigers at home last week (in the red chrome helmets, have I mentioned that 20 quintillion times yet?), Jackson is a surefire pick for the top spot going into a first-round bye much like No. 2 St. Vincent, and for the right reasons. Coming from behind to take the 2nd seed in Class 6 District 1, Jackson gets a well-deserved bye week before opening up the postseason at “The Pit” in Week 11. Though there’s plenty to be seen on how they fare in Class 6 play this November, one thing is for certain: The Indians are the top dogs in Southeast Missouri for the time being.
No. 2: St. Vincent (9-0, LW No. 2)
It’s an undefeated regular season for the St. Vincent Indians, their first since the 2000 season when they ventured all the way to the state championship game, eventually losing but getting the last laugh with a 2004 state title to make good on that season. St. Vincent’s shown it can do quite literally anything it wants with competition its size this year. What folks may not realize is St. Vincent has only played one Class 1 team all season long, that being a fairly competitive Hayti squad in the Bootheel in the pouring rain. Regular-season grades aren’t typically my thing, but I’ll bite: St. Vincent gets an A-plus for 2024. Now, the postseason looms, sitting pretty with a Week 10 bye before taking on the winner of the 8-9 game in Week 11.
No. 3: Cape Central (8-1, LW No. 3)
Cape Central did everything expected of it in Week 9, bludgeoning Kennett in a 56-0 victory to conclude the regular season with eight wins. Fun fact: That was the first time all season I’ve gotten my Gridiron Guide prediction with 100% accuracy, down to the last point. Cape Central is the first team on this list that won’t have a bye for Week 10, instead kicking off the postseason with a Friday night battle against 7th-seeded 2-6 Webster Groves at Tigers Stadium. There’s a great vibe about the next two games for Cape Central, highly anticipating a district final matchup with Cardinal Ritter if it can win out. The Lions recently dropped their first game in three years against a phenomenal Lutheran North squad.
Fun Tidbit:
Did you know Webster Groves doesn’t play nine games in the regular season unless both the Statesmen and nearby Kirkwood are free come Thanksgiving? The rivalry first began in 1898 and has been almost unabatedly played Thanksgiving Day since 1927.
No. 4: Dexter (9-0, LW No. 4)
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Still at No. 4, again, are the Dexter Bearcats, fresh off one of their most dominant wins of the season against a scrappy Scott City squad that doesn’t get blown out very often. Winning 62-7, Dexter continues to solidify its phenomenal standing in Class 3, and will only continue to turn heads in district play before a projected quarterfinal matchup with No. 4 St. Francis Borgia. Until then, the Bearcats are favored to continue their dominant run. While the path to a Class 3 title is one of the toughest in Missouri, Dexter has a lot of reasons to believe it’s got a shot.
No. 5: Caruthersville (8-1, LW No. 5)
Defeating Ste. Genevieve soundly is no small victory for a program such as Caruthersville, especially when you consider the Dragons are right around the same level as programs such as Park Hills Central this season. Moving into the postseason, Caruthersville enters a district that it isn’t favored in but is nevertheless expected to compete for. Last season, it was a semifinal loss to Valle Catholic, but thanks to its seeding it’ll at least move to face the Warriors in the final if it can make it that far. The Tigers have looked outstanding this season, and are a clear favorite for the No. 5 position after the season they’ve put together thus far.
No. 6: East Prairie (7-2, LW No. 7)
East Prairie just keeps winning. That’s five wins in a row for the Eagles, most recently an undeniable 39-0 victory over a competitive Fredericktown team. There were a lot of question marks about East Prairie at the start of the season, largely kudos to the implementation of alum coach Ian Penrod, but the Eagles have outdone the hype and established themselves as one of the top teams in Southeast Missouri in the process. Now entering the postseason with just two losses, East Prairie enters a packed Class 2 District 1 scene with the third seed, which is so incredibly hard to do considering the worst team in the district by seed had four wins all year. It’s a tough road ahead, but East Prairie has been grinding it out all season long and won’t stop now.
No. 7: Perryville (8-1, LW No. 6)
The third 8-1 team on this list so far, Perryville takes the short end of the stick as part of a region with so many competitive teams this season, but the seventh position is still a very honorable one. Concluding a one-loss Quad County Conference season as runner-up to its only loss, the Pirates went a hair’s length from undefeated and maintain a reputation as one of the top teams in Class 3 District 1, receiving the 2nd seed because of it. Though top-seeded Festus will be a difficult foe to knock off in a potential district final, the Pirates have proved time and time again that matchups are simply irrelevant, always matching up to the task.
No. 8: Charleston (6-3, LW No. 8)
Charleston isn’t moving this week, but that’s not to say it didn’t have a strong week in its own right. Defeating rival Sikeston by three scores is a tough task, especially considering the massive enrollment disparity between the two. Charleston continues to grind out wins and now sits at an impressive 6-3 entering the postseason. As the 3rd seed, there’s not much in the way of Charleston making it all the way to a potential Week 13 district final and/or quarterfinal matchup with St. Vincent, so the Blue Jays should make great use of a Week 10 bye to prepare for a long road ahead.
No. 9: Poplar Bluff (4-5, LW No. 10)
In all honesty, Poplar Bluff should probably be a lot higher than No. 9 after last week’s victory over Hillsboro, but this will have to do. The Mules enter the postseason as the No. 6 seed in Class 5 District 1, taking on the all-too-familiar Farmington Knights in the district quarters of Week 10 with a potential road rematch with Cape Central if they were to win. The finish to the regular season was quite admirable for a Poplar Bluff squad that’s gotten a bad rap this year after a poor start, but it feels like something’s starting to come together. Week 10 will be quite telling of how much the Mules have improved since their conclusion of SEMO North play.
No. 10: Kelly (4-5, LW NR)
It’s been nothing short of a long season for the Kelly Hawks, but there’ve been a handful of lessons learned along the way that’s made it almost seem like they’ve put themselves in a great spot going into the postseason. After taking massive victories against Soldan and Chaffee in back-to-back offensive explosions, the Hawks’ offense is humming going into a rematch with New Madrid County Central. Both sides of the ball struggled against NMCC earlier this season, but there’s hope yet for a Hawks’ squad still looking to finally get its big win.
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