Festus — St. Vincent finished the regular season 7-2 after a 23-14 loss Friday night against Jefferson. With the loss, the Indians finished second in their divisions’ regular season standings, behind Jefferson, who finished 6-0.
Both Indians touchdowns in the game came on passes from sophomore quarterback Hunter Mattingly. Jack Emmendorfer caught the first, and Case Huber caught the second.
St. Vincent head coach Tim Schumer said the team played well late after a slow start, and just missed a chance to swing the momentum of the game in their favor late with a special team’s play that got called back by the officials.
“We struggled early on to find a rhythm offensively and couldn’t get things going and kind of put our defense in some tough situations a couple of times and ended up spotting 10 points in the first half,” Schumer said. “I felt like at times we gave ourselves chances and couldn’t capitalize on them. In the second half we were able to do more of the same, but did a little bit better and ended up making it a 17-14 game with about six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. We thought we had recovered an onside kick, but the officials thought the ball went out of bounds. So we had some momentum built up to kind of come back and put ourselves back in the driver’s seat, but ultimately we didn’t get that on-site kick, and then they were able to score one last time to ice the game.”
With the regular season coming to a close and the Indians in a favorable seed, they will get to have an off week before starting their playoff run at home on Nov. 6. Schumer said in the meantime, they will be watching film of their regular season games to get ready to play either Saxony Lutheran or New Madrid County Central, who will play this Friday night in Jackson. He said the team will focus on getting better on the basics to be ready to go no matter who they end up playing.
“We are going to review the game film and worry about ourselves and make sure we get back to the fundamentals of everything,” Schumer said. “Then Friday we’ll probably go watch that game so we know who we’re playing, then we’ll start focusing on what we need to do for that opponent. With everything being unknown we just need to take this week and review the film from last week on what we could have done better or what could have helped us capitalize more, and focus on ourselves, get back to fundamentals every day things that we work on every week. And then once we know who we’re playing, then we’ll dive in and get a good game plan ready for them the following week.”
The 7-2 finish to the regular season is on par with last year’s 7 win season, which included two forfeit victories. The Indians made it to the second round of the 2025 state tournament, beating Kelley 36-0 before losing to St. Pius X 41-33.
“I think we put ourselves in a good spot from districts,” Schumer said. “That’s the goal of the regular season, to make sure that you take care of the games on your schedule and get yourself a favorable seat in districts and that’s what we’ve accomplished. Now we’ve got to gear up and get ready for the second season so to speak where you’re not promised the next game, you’ve got to go out there and capitalize from the get go to do everything you can and try to keep playing.”
Having a bye week before playing their first opponent in the tournament, the Indians will need to find the right balance of being rested and ready to play whoever they end up hosting.
“We’ve been in this situation before the last couple of years where we’ve had some bye weeks,” Schumer said. “We just have to preach that this is the second part of the season where you are not promising another game. You’ve got to be focused up and ready to play that opponent because there’s no looking ahead. If you don’t take care of business, you’re going to be closing the door on this chapter. So we just make sure everybody knows what’s at stake and is ready to do their job and help keep the season going.”
St. Vincent will host either NMCC OR Saxony Lutheran at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6.
