When the Montgomery County football season began in August, assistant coach Sam Poggas came up with a way to communicate defensive play calls.

He created a bunch of signs that have pictures and say words such as slam, lightning, hammer, get some, tornado warning and end game.

“I went on the internet, found pictures, took them to Snappy Graphics and they did them for us,” Poggas said. “A shout out to them.”

The strategy has been used since the first week of the season against the Hermann. So far, it’s been working for the Wildcats’ defensive unit as it gave up an average of just 17 points per game.

“It’s a visual thing because you have different kinds of learners,” Poggas said. “Some kids can see it and some kids can listen to it, but the signs make it simple for communication. They just look at the signs and they know what all we want. Getting the call in faster is what it’s about.”

Strong defense has been one of the keys of the Wildcats’ successful season. MCHS finished its regular season at 7-2 overall and 5-1 in Eastern Missouri Conference play and will host a Class 2, District 2 semifinal game at 7 p.m. on Nov. 7 at Jim Blacklock Field. The Wildcats are the top seed in the district tournament.

MCHS is hosting its first district game since 2021. The Wildcats are two wins away from their first district championship in 20 years.

“I’m very proud of all of them,” said Poggas, who has been assistant coach since 2022. “They worked very hard. They deserve it. They worked hard every day in practice, so they deserve the right to get the first seed in districts. Now, they just have to go out and play hard.”

The Wildcats will take a six-game winning streak into their district semifinal game. They gave up just 67 points in those six games. They picked up their first shutout in five years in the 38-0 win over Mark Twain on Oct. 3 and held South Callaway and Bowling Green to single digits.

Seniors Chase Queathem, Colby Ellis, Ashton Johnson and Rylan Redditt, sophomores Elake Vance, Marshall Bishop, Jackson Benney, juniors Isaac Hinkel, Owen See and Tyler Rodgers have been among the defensive players for the Wildcats. Last year, Queathem, Ellis and See earned all-EMO honors on defense.

“They’re aggressive,” Poggas said. “We have a great leader at middle linebacker (Colby Ellis). He makes all of the calls. He’s like a coach on the field. The safety calls some of the coverage and tells me what’s going on out there so we can switch up. We basically have a base, but we change around each week depending on what we see the other team doing. We move some guys around each week and we try to find out where they’re trying to attack us and we try to defend it.”

In each defensive play, three MCHS players – freshmen Liam Combs, Ben Cobb and Dean Fry – hold up the signs.

“I assigned it to them,” Poggas said. “It also helps the younger guys learn that if they go through them, they’ll know the call so they can see what’s happening on the field. It’s a learning tool and it helps us get the calls in faster. We’re trying to be efficient and get things done.”

Poggas said defense was something his team needed to improve on when practices began in August. Last year, the Wildcats gave up 36 points per game.

“There are a lot of big runs and no one to run them down,” Poggas said. “So it’s something we wanted to clean up to stop what we call the slash plays. Anything over 20 yards, we want to try to negate as many of them as we can.”

First-year MCHS coach Matt Smith said he likes Poggas’ new defensive strategy.

“A lot of times, you see it in college that the offenses are signing it like that, but that’s what he wanted to do and it’s been pretty successful,” Smith said.