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Kennett hopes to contain prospect-loaded Cardinal Ritter in Class 3 football quarterfinal
Kennett’s Jake Stewart makes a tackle in a Class 3, District 1 football semifinal against Ste. Genevieve earlier this season.
Two weeks ago when Kennett Indians football coach Joel Wyatt began preparing for a state playoff game against St. Mary’s the defensive strategy was to try contain a couple of offensive standouts.
“With St. Mary’s we were really focussed on containing Coleman and Hendrix,” Wyatt said.
The game plan has changed for Kennett’s upcoming Class 3 state quarterfinal against the Cardinal Ritter Lions Saturday.
“They’ve got more guys they can spread the wealth to,” Wyatt said. “They have colleges after several of their kids and many of the colleges looking at them are Power 5 schools. They can strike early and often. It’s one of those things where you hold your breath and hope our defense can rally to the football. We’ve got to be good tacklers and try our best to keep everything in front of us and not give up big plays.”
Arguably the most highly-touted football player on the Cardinal Ritter roster is junior Luther Burden. The wide receiver, who is listed at 6-foot-1, 195 pounds, is ESPN’s No. 47-ranked overall prospect in the Class of 2022. Burden has committed to play for the Oklahoma Sooners.
“He’s the real deal,” Wyatt said. “But they’ve also got others around him, including linemen.”
247sports.com has four seniors on the Cardinal Ritter roster ranked in the Top 55 Missouri football recruits for the Class of 2021 and one junior ranked in the Top 35 Missouri football recruits for the Class of 2022.
Senior defensive end Joe Moore is ranked No. 7 in Missouri and has committed to Arizona State, senior corner back Latrez Shelton is ranked No. 32 and committed to South Dakota State, defensive tackle Anthony Baker is ranked No. 37 and committed to Eastern Illinois, and corner back Jaden Williams (uncommitted) is ranked No. 55. Junior running back Bill Jackson is ranked No. 17 in the Class of 2021 and committed to Tulsa.
“I’ve heard three of their four defensive linemen have committed to colleges,” Wyatt said. “We are obviously more of a running team than a throwing team. We run our quarterback Bodey a lot so it’s always in the back of your mind he may take a shot. But we definitely are going to have to play our most physical game of the year just because of who is lining up across from us.”
Burden has scored a team-high 54 points for Cardinal Ritter this season. He has 24 catches for 654 yards, including eight touchdown receptions.
Quarterback TJ Atkins has distributed the ball to Burden most frequently, completing 65 of 112 passes for 1,494 yards. Atkins has thrown 17 touchdown passes and two interceptions and maintains a quarterback rating of 143. Atkins has also ran the ball 33 times for 187 yards.
Jackson and Artrell Miller are the top rushing threats for Cardinals Ritter. Jackson has 45 carries for 504 yards and four rushing touchdowns and Miller has 42 carries for 194 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
“They don’t just spread it out and throw it all over the place,” Wyatt said. “They can be balanced. They have two runnings backs. The Jackson kid is the main one who has committed to Tulsa. They bring in another runner to give him a rest and the quarterback can run the football also. They can run it and throw it.”
Kennett (11-0), which is ranked No. 5 in the latest Class 3 state poll, has won eight of its 11 games by more than 20 points. Kennett beat Malden 64-8 in Week 1, beat Doniphan 53-7 in Week 2, beat Ste. Genevieve 49-13 in Week 3, beat St. Pius X (Festus) 46-0 in Week 4, beat East Prairie 51-6 in Week 5, beat New Madrid County Central 43-25 in Week 6, beat Dexter 50-13 in Week 7, beat Poplar Bluff 41-19 in Week 8, beat Sikeston 53-14 in Week 9, received a bye in the district quarterfinals, beat Ste. Genevieve 47-29 in its district semifinal, and won by forfeit against St. Mary’s (St. Louis) to secure its third straight district title.
Kennett has moved the ball more on the ground than they have thrown it in most of their contests including its latest game when it rallied from a 15-0 deficit to beat Ste. Genevieve 47-29.
Kennett junior running back Jordan Jarrett had 16 carries for more than 200 yards and senior quarterback Bodey Ellis had 14 carries for over 150 yards against Ste. Genevieve. Jarrett had three rushing touchdowns and a 51-yard touchdown reception. Ellis ran for two touchdowns and threw two touchdown passes against Ste. Genevieve.
Ellis completed six of nine passes for 125 yards against Ste. Genevieve. The six passes were thrown to five different receivers, including a 33-yard touchdown pass to freshman Brooks Nigut.
Cardinal Ritter (3-3), which did not face an opponent until Oct. 9 due to COVID-19 restrictions, has won its last three games after dropping its first three. Cardinal Ritter fell to Francis Howell 38-14 on Oct. 9, undefeated Jackson beat Cardinal Ritter 56-32 on Oct. 16, undefeated Helias Catholic beat Cardinal Ritter 27-18 on Oct. 23, Cardinal Ritter beat Owensville 57-8 in a district quarterfinal on Oct. 30, Cardinal Ritter beat Park Hills Central 45-14 in a district semifinal on Nov. 6, and Cardinal Ritter beat St. Clair 53-13 in the Class 3, District 2 championship Nov 13.
St. Clair managed to limit Cardinal Ritter to 24 points in the first half last week before they put up 25 points in the third quarter to build a commanding 47-7 lead by the start of the fourth quarter.
Wyatt said he would prefer to avoid a high-scoring affair on Saturday.
“I would say you wouldn’t want to get in a shootout with this team just because they can score so quickly,” he said. “When you watch the Jackson film of the game they lost 56-32 they look very impressive in it.”
It is the second time in three years Kennett has squared off against Cardinal Ritter in the Class 3 playoffs. Kennett lost at Cardinal Ritter 42-9 in a state quarterfinal in 2018.
Kickoff is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Cardinal Ritter College Prep School. The address of the host site is 701 North Spring Avenue in St. Louis. Wyatt said Kennett plans to depart for Cardinal Ritter early Saturday morning.
“We are going to elect to practice on Friday instead of travel,” he said. “We are not going to leave until early Saturday morning so we can avoid all of the things that go along with staying the night. We want to eliminate the hotel situation at this point and just go up Saturday morning.”