With the regular season in Missouri now nearly a quarter over, it’s time for some way too early thoughts.
As a former Northlander, the first one brings me great joy.
The 92 highway corridor that contains Platte County, Kearney, Smithville and Excelsior Springs might be the best stretch of highway for football in the city, maybe even the state.
Through two weeks, the four schools are a combined 7-1. With the way the schedules stack up, it’s not out of the realm of possibility the four schools could start a combined 15-1. Seeing good starts from Platte County and Kearney doesn’t really surprise me. Smithville and Excelsior Springs are proving they are two teams to be respected this season. The northern part of the Northland is better when these communities’ football programs are winning.
Even though the only regular season matchup between the four is Kearney and Platte County, Smithville and Excelsior Springs will get their shots in the playoffs. All four teams are in Class 4 District 8.
My second assumption is more of a prediction. That is, that the biggest football game in Missouri Class 6 the rest of the regular season is on September 8 at Park Hill.
Blue Springs looked good despite still not being at 100 percent from a health perspective. They’ll take on the Trojans who have done nothing but score points and more points in their first two games.
The final prediction is that you’ll start to see coaches adopting a new approach -- the race to 13.
Friday in their game against Lee’s Summit West, Blue Springs tacked on a late field goal in the final minute, despite being up 10 to win 19-6. The thing is, it wasn’t a mean spirited thing. Coach Kelly Donohoe wasn’t trying to rub the Titans’ nose in it. Rather, Donohoe was playing the simple numbers game. The district seeding system says if you win by 13 points that is the most you can earn. District seeds determine home games.
Don’t be surprised if you see some more late game scores as teams try to earn every last point they can in the district standings.
