Semoball

SPORTS DESK CONFIDENTIAL: What I think of each district semifinal matchup

East Prairie's Jase Aycock is tackled by a Fredericktown defender Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, at East Prairie High School. (David Jenkins/Standard Democrat)

Three S-D area teams are left standing in the district playoffs, and after Friday night, that number will dwindle to two.

All three teams are in Class 2, District 1. On one side of the bracket, you have the top-seed East Prairie Eagles and the No. 4 seed New Madrid County Central Eagles, while on the bottom half of the bracket, you have the No. 2 seed Kelly Hawks.

Here's what I think of each game.

NEW MADRID COUNTY CENTRAL AT EAST PRAIRIE

These two met early in the season, and right away, East Prairie sent a message that they would be a tough draw.

The key term being “draw,” considering that this team loves to run the football, and there is no indication of that slowing that down this week.

Junior Hayden Ellis is back for East Prairie in the backfield after dealing with an injury for the last couple of weeks, and adding a playmaker like that will be a bonus.

I fully expect Ellis to have another big day, and he will surely be eager to get back out on the field, as will the rest of the team.

On the other hand, you have NMCC, who has won the last three games and has scored a ton of points in each contest. They scored 64 points against Sikeston, 60 against Charleston, and 42 against Scott City, so East Prairie will have to score at least 40 points to win, which they can do.

I'm not going to flat out say one team will blow out the other team because I think this will be a lot closer contest than the first meeting this season.

In the end, I think the team with more playmakers wins the game, so you can argue who has the edge in that regard.

JEFFERSON (FESTUS) AT KELLY

It feels like nothing is going to stop these Hawks.

Whatever faces them each week, they seem to overcome. This week, Kelly hosts another district playoff game at Lambert Field with the hopes of making more noise.

The Hawks opponent this week? A 6-3 Jefferson (Festus) team, which is nearly identical to the Hawks.

Just like Kelly, Jefferson loves to run the ball, so don't blink because you might miss something. Friday should be a game that goes by fast.

For Kelly, keeping Evan Urhahn healthy is the top priority. Last week, he got banged up a little bit, but by all indications, he's ready to go for the biggest game of the program's history.

The Hawks defense has also been very consistent this season, but the task now is stopping a three-headed monster of running backs that, by the statistics, leads you to believe that they can control any game because of a deep running back room.

Behind center, Jefferson has a young man by the name of — wait for it — Drew Breeze. Yes, you heard that right.

But, we're not talking about the same player that plays on Sunday Night Football this week. Instead, it's a player that doesn't need to do a whole lot, but when they call his number, he can make a play.

To me, Kelly needs to control the time of possession. If they do that, then I think the odds are in their favor.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: