The Montgomery County football team will not be celebrating another district championship this year.

The Wildcats came up two wins short of that accomplishment as they lost a heartbreaker to the Jefferson Blue Jays in a Class 2, District 2 semifinal game on Nov. 6 at Jefferson High School, located south of Festus. MCHS finished its season at 6-5 with a 14-12 loss.

After the final buzzer sounded, the Jefferson public address announcer recognized the seven seniors on the MCHS football team who played their last high school football game. They were Lafe McCurdy, Tyler Rodgers, Owen See, Troy Quesenberry, Dallas Hans, Isaac Hinkel and Jack Barker.

“That was a nice gesture by them,” MCHS coach Matt Smith said. “I’m sure the guys don’t feel like that right now, but it’s a good group of seniors and we’re going to miss them.”

A year ago, the Wildcats cruised to their first district championship in two decades, beating Bowling Green 42-6 in the Class 2, District 2 finals at their home field.

The loss to Jefferson marked the second year in a row the Wildcats had their season ended at Jefferson County. Last year, MCHS lost to St. Pius X in a state quarterfinal game at St. Pius X High School, just six miles north of Jefferson High School.

After the game, Smith gave the team his final pep talk of the season.

“I told them that I’m super proud of them,” the coach said. “I thought they fought super hard. They played their butt off.”

The Wildcats led 6-0 after the third quarter before Jefferson came back with two touchdowns by Logan Young in the fourth quarter to pull off the win and advance to the district finals against top-seeded Valle Catholic, scheduled for Friday.

McCurdy provided all of the Wildcats’ points in the contest. He scored a six-yard touchdown run with 8:21 left in the second quarter that gave his team a 6-0 lead. With 31 seconds left in the game, he caught a 15-yard touchdown pass by Hinkel to cut Jefferson’s lead to 14-12.
McCurdy had a chance to tie the game on a two-point conversion after his second touchdown, but he was stopped at the two-yard line.

“My thought was let’s give the ball to our best player,” Smith said. “We ran the ball to our strongest side. In those situations, you want to think of guys who you want to have the football and not necessarily play. I knew we wanted to give the football to Lafe. It just didn’t pan out.”

The Wildcats never faced the Blue Jays until the district semifinals. MCHS played a Jefferson team that bounced back from an 0-2 start to a 7-3 record.

Jefferson is the No. 2 seed in the six-team district tournament. MCHS was seeded third. The Blue Jays earned a quarterfinal-round bye, while the Wildcats got a forfeit win over Confluence Prep Charter Academy in the quarterfinals last week.

Despite not making it back to the district finals, the Wildcats finished with their second straight winning season. With several returning players such as juniors Jackson Benney, Marshall Bishop and Cohen Beattie and sophomores Ben Cobb and Wyatt Danter, the Wildcats will look to do something they haven’t done since 2021 – finish with their third straight winning season.

“We got a lot of guys who have some experience, but we have some big shoes to fill,” Smith said. “So, we really need to work hard this summer. They have to win this summer. That’s really what it’s going to come down to. If they’re not doing a different sport, they need to commit to getting in the weight room and get stronger and bigger. We’ll win these games in the summer. It’s not won (in the postseason). It’s won when nobody is looking. That’s the mentality that we’re going to have and we’ll just get after it.”