With my first year of covering high school football in both Iowa and Missouri officially in the books. I thought to myself, what better time than now to look back at the best games I had the opportunity to cover during the 2019 season.
This season I covered some good old fashioned rivalry games, including my favorite game to cover every season, East Buchanan versus Plattsburg. I also covered some wild shootouts and a fair share of blowouts.
When it came to postseason play I covered a quarterfinal domination and a semifinal showdown between two top tier programs.
Safe to say, 2019 was another great year of high school football coverage for this guy.
Before we look at my top five games this season, I have a trio of honorable mentions worth noting.
Dragons Fly Into Semifinals
Mid-Buchanan defeating South Harrison 35-8 in the Missouri Class 1 quarterfinals was the first game I had the chance to cover as a full-on freelance football reporter and photographer.
Shout out to the Mid-Buchanan head coach Aaron Fritz and Athletic Director Chris Kendrick for the invite down to cover the Dragons big game.
The Mid-Buchanan program under coach Fritz has really gained a ton of momentum the past few years and this game had a great playoff atmosphere. From beginning to end the hometown Dragons rolled into the semifinals for the second year in a row.
{The Dragons celebrate a touchdown during their quarterfinal victory over South Harrison}
Cobras Command Excellence
{The Cobras storming the field to take on the Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Rockets}
The Sigourney-Keota Cobras earned the honor of having the coolest mascot of a team I have ever covered. But, this team was far more than just a cool mascot, easily one of the best teams I saw all year, it's a miscarriage of justice that the Iowa high school football playoff format still only allows for 16 teams to reach the postseason in each class.
They won every game, including the 53-14 victory over Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont I covered, by more than 20 points, only to lose their final game of the regular season and miss the playoffs while some more undeserving teams in easier districts were allowed in. If Iowa had a playoff system similar to Missouri, I have no doubt the Cobras would have done some major damage.
(Coolest mascot of the year, the Cobras}
The Streak Ends
A game month's in the making, the Lathrop Mules went into Marville and defeated the Spoofhounds, 29-28. Not only did it end Maryville's 67 home game winning streak, but it crowned the Mules Missouri Class 2 District 8 Champions.
This epic confrontation would easily land in my top spot on the list if I had been there in person like originally planned, but sometimes life throws you a curveball, and instead, I was stuck watching online.
I can only imagine the atmosphere of this contest and my good friend and colleague with the Clinton County Leader, Brett Adkison, confirmed my thoughts of just how good this game was when he told me that this was the best game he had covered.
{Lathrop head coach Chris Holt before the Missouri Class 2 semifinals. Two weeks earlier Holt led his Mules into Maryville, his former stomping ground as head coach, and ended the Spoofhounds 67 game home winning streak, a streak he started.}
Tomorrow my look back at the top five games I covered in 2019 begins with the most recent game, the Missouri Class 2 semifinals between the Lathrop Mules and the Lutheran North Crusaders.
Comments