With several teams sitting out with byes, district football begins this week

The Missouri State High School Activities Association will open the high school football postseason over the next two nights, with a sprinkling of games on Thursday night followed by a typically busy Friday.  However, numerous area teams, including seven of the nine schools in Class 1, District 4, will have the week off with opening-round byes. 

With only four districts making up Class 1, most of the schools in northern Missouri are in District 4, where #1 seed Penney (Hamilton), #2 seed Milan, and #3 seed Putnam County are among teams with first-round byes.  The only first-round game will be #9 seed Maysville at #8 seed Gallatin, with a THURSDAY night kick at 7 o’clock.  Rod Tompkins will provide that call on KTTN FM 92.3, with pregame at 6:45.  The winner travels to Hamilton to play the Penney Hornets in a November 8th quarterfinal. 

Class 1, District 3 first-round games on Friday night will be Linn at Crest Ridge and Cole Camp at Russellville.  Marceline is among District 3 schools with a first-round bye. 

Class 2 first-round matches will be the Trenton Bulldogs at East Buchanan on Friday night at 7 o’clock, with coverage on KGOZ FM 101.7, as Tom Johnson has the call from Gower.  Other games will be Lathrop at Mid-Buchanan (Thursday – 7:00 PM) and Lawson at South Harrison.  Grand River Conference champion Brookfield has the only first-round bye in the district, and will play either Lawson or South Harrison on November 8th. 

Class 2, District 7 games this week will find Clark County at Palmyra, Highland at Monroe City, and Macon at Mark Twain.  South Shelby has a bye. 

Class 2, District 6 will find Butler at Sherwood, Hogan Prep at KIPP Legacy, and Lone Jack at Holden, with Pembroke Hill having a bye. 

In Class 2, District 3, first-round matches will see Carrollton at Centralia, Lexington at Tolton Catholic, and South Callaway at North Callaway.  Lafayette County (Higginsville) has the opening round bye. 

Class 3, District 8 will see three games on Friday night at Midland Empire Conference sites, with Chillicothe hosting Kansas City Northeast, the Maryville Spoofhounds battling St. Joseph Lafayette at the “Hound Pound”, while the Cameron Dragons battle the St. Joseph Benton Cardinals in at 7 o’clock on Friday night.  Richmond has the first-round bye, and will play the Benton/Cameron on November 8th.

In Class 4, District 8, the Kearney Bulldogs have the first-round bye.  Three games will be played this Friday night, with Kansas City Southeast at Savannah, Kansas City Center at Smithville, and Excelsior Springs at Van Horn, with the winner from the game at Van Horn drawing Kearney next week. 

In eight-man competition, the Princeton Tigers have the #5 seed in District 8, sending PHS to Edina, Missouri this week to play the Knox County Eagles in a 7 o’clock kick on Friday night.  The winner plays at #1 seed North Shelby next week. 

Other eight-man games scheduled for this Friday night, November 1st are: 

District 7: 

Stanberry at Worth County (Thursday – 7:30 PM) 

Pattonsburg at King City 

District 6:

East Atchison at Mound City 

South Holt at North Andrew 

District 5:

DeKalb at Northland Christian 

Stewartsville/Osborn at Plattsburg 

District 4:

Southwest Livingston at Wellington-Napoleon 

Santa Fe at Orrick 

District 3: 

Keytesville at Slater

Sweet Springs at St. Paul Lutheran