Corey Simms leads CBC past Francis Howell in Missouri Class 6 District 2 championship game
ST. CHARLES, MISSOURI – Corey Simms didn’t know if he was going to play on Friday night due to a quad injury, but the CBC standout junior wide receiver knew he had to do something.
“I had to show out for the team,” he said.
Simms certainly did that in the Cadets’ thrilling 28-27 victory at Francis Howell in the Class 6 District 2 championship game.
He caught two touchdown passes, converted a fourth-and-12 with a 17-yard reception to set up the game-winning score midway through the fourth quarter and then made a game-saving tackle with 2 seconds left after Howell intercepted a pass in the final seconds.
“It’s Francis Howell,” Simms said. “We had to do something. I had to step up, play the game I knew I could play. My teammates, they all did their part. We made some mistakes, but we got through it.”
CBC was without injured senior wide receiver and Ohio State commit Jeremiah McClellan for the second straight game. Simms, a 6-foot-3, 190-pounder who picked up offers from Michigan and Wisconsin this week, made a difference in the long-awaited meeting between the two-time reigning Class 6 champs and last year’s Class 5 champion.
"Corey is a special ballplayer," CBC coach Scott Pingel said. "He can play both sides of the ball. I think he's going to be a great college ballplayer. For what he was going through to get ready to play this game, I was pretty proud to see him kind of do everything he needed to to get ready. The sky is the limit for that kid. I think he's the next guy I've got and he's really special."
CBC (9-2), ranked sixth in the SBLive Missouri Power 25 football rankings, advances and will now go on the road to face Jackson (10-1) – a 55-21 winner over Seckman (10-1) in the District 1 championship game – in the quarterfinals on Friday night.
Jackson has won 10 straight games since losing at Edwardsville (Ill.) in its season opener. The Indians’ streak started with a 42-35 victory against visiting Francis Howell (9-3) in Week 2.
The Vikings did everything they could Friday to have a chance at a rematch.
Simms’ second touchdown catch gave CBC a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter and it looked like the Cadets might roll from that point.
Howell was able to cut the deficit with a short touchdown run from Maddox Duncan – his second of the game – with 1:18 left in the first half. After Missouri commit Jude James recovered a fumble deep in Vikings’ territory, Howell tied the game at 21-21 with 11:57 remaining on a 3-yard TD run by Richard Rankin Jr.
CBC answered with a scoring drive – kept alive by a 17-yard pass from Jason Wiley to Simms on fourth-and-12 – and capped off with a 1-yard run by A.J. Johnson with 6:34 left.
Howell responded with a 66-yard touchdown run by quarterback Adam Shipley with 4:50 remaining. The Vikings lined up for the point-after kick, but after CBC was flagged for too many men on the field, opted instead to go for 2.
Shipley took the snap and ran left. CBC’s Cortlaan Collins evaded a block, grabbed Shipley and then hung on to the quarterback’s legs before teammates Zakiese Smith and Anthony Moore stopped Shipley short of the goal line.
“It’s funny because Cortlaan is playing JV early in the year,” Pingel said. “We’re just decimated by injuries right now, we’re kind of band-aiding some things together, and he stepped up when it was his time and it was good to see him make a big play.”
That’s what Collins was focused on. Just make a play. Help his teammates out.
"We just worked for this," the sophomore outside linebacker said. "We work all day in practice. We work all day, watch a lot of film, study, do all we can to get this moment right here and we fight through it."
Francis Howell coach Brent Chojnacki wasn’t going to second guess his decision afterward. He liked his team’s odds with Shipley, his championship-winning quarterback, making that play in that situation.
“Any time you’ve got a kid like Adam Shipley on your team, I like taking that (chance),” Chojnacki said. “I have no regrets about that call. It didn’t work out our way. With the way we were running the ball and kind of controlling the line of scrimmage up front and things were going our way, being at home with 4 minutes left. These kinds are fighters. It didn’t work out for us, but these kids are special.”
The Vikings’ defense gave Francis Howell another chance in the final seconds.
James, the standout two-way player headed to Mizzou, pressured CBC’s quarterback into an errant pass in the final seconds that was intercepted by teammate Cameron Cason at the goal line.
Cason made a leaping snag and then zig-zagged and eluded CBC’s would-be tacklers. He had open room down the left sideline with several blockers ahead of him, but Simms, the pass’s intended target, chased him down 40 yards downfield after he fell down in the end zone.
"I couldn't even run," Simms said. "I fell. I got back up and I saw him. I put everything into me chasing him down."
The interception was a wild twist in a game full of them.
"Cameron Cason had the pick, he's one of our faster kids on our team and I thought, holy cow, we might return this thing," Chojnacki said. "Gosh, we were close. We were one missed tackle away from housing that thing there."
Howell had one final play with 2 seconds left at its own 40-yard line with 2, but Shipley’s final pass fell to the turf and CBC celebrated a hard-fought win.
"I'm proud of these guys," Chojnacki said. "There's nothing to really hang your head down (about) in no fashion. These guys are fighters. This senior class, they're not going to be around next year, but they are going to go off and do great things."
Pingel described the back-and-forth battle as “a true playoff game.”
“It’s funny how our district seeding was, that we were playing each other in the final, but it is what it is. But I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach (Chojnacki) and what they do and what their program is about, what Shipley is about, what (Jude) James is about, what (No.) 7 (Maddox Duncan) is about.”
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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
