The high school football season begins with a bang in the St. Louis metropolitan area with some prime-time games.
You have Missouri Class 6 contenders Hazelwood Central facing DeSmet tonight at DeSmet while CBC will pay a visit to Fort Zumwalt West in another big Class 6 matchup. Those are a couple of tasty opening-night matchups. Also, perennial metro East power East St. Louis is heading South to take on one of the top programs in the state of Georgia on Saturday night.
Tonight, I am heading over to Maplewood-Richmond Heights to see the Blue Devils open the season against MICDS in a battle of small-school powers.
In recent years, Maplewood has established itself as one of the top small-school programs in the area. The Blue Devils made their first appearance in the Show-Me Bowl last season as they played in the Class 2 state-championship game.
MICDS has been a small-school area power for many seasons with six state championships to its credit. They have a strong cast returning as they look to rebound from last year’s 5-5 season, which had the Rams on the outside looking in during the postseason.
MICDS will be lead by its senior duo of running back/linebacker Michael Scherer and quarterback Thomas Militello. Scherer is one of the top players in the state of Missouri. He has already given a verbal commitment to the Missouri Tigers. Militello is a talented quarterback who is looking to have a big year.
Maplewood graduated a ton of talent from last year’s great team, but it returns an excellent player in junior quarterback Khalid Hagens, who is a big-play performer. Juniors Antar Thompson and Aaron Spudich also return to anchor the Blue Devils’ line play on both sides of the ball.
All three juniors are Division I recruits that are expected to lead a very young, but talented Maplewood team in 2011.
