Many pundits, honestly not this one, thought last week against Ruskin would be the first chance Staley High would have a chance to get into the win column. The Falcons have already reached three wins on the young season, but face a tall task when they head to Kearney this Friday.

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in Class 4 by the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, while the Falcons are still playing without seniors. It will not be an easy task for the Falcons, and while the score may become lopsided, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Falcons surprise some people with their play.

I think the thing some people may have overlooked is the combination of the Falcons’ athletic ability, their confidence in that ability and coach Fred Bouchard’s ability to get his team going in the right direction early on.

Those three things make up for a lot of things the Falcons don’t have: varsity experience, a senior class and size up front. Perhaps the most dangerous thing for the Falcons’ opponents is the fact they were able to get into the win column so quickly into the season. That made them believers in themselves. If it had taken five or six weeks to get that first win, the Falcons could have bought into all the excuses people made for them not to be successful this season. They could have bought into the hype about how this young team wasn’t supposed to be competitive week in and week out — I don’t think Bouchard or his coaches would have let that happen — but winning in Week 2 and then Week 3 and Week 4 squashed that notion.

Even for begin so young the Falcons already look like a team in its second or third year, not its first. They still make mistakes that young kids make, but they also make up for them. They play with speed, and if they make a mistake they had a tendency to at least do it at full speed against Ruskin.

We are only four weeks into a program in its first year, but I like where Bouchard and his coaches have the Falcons going

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I don’t think I have seen a team play as hard as Oak Park yet this year. The Northmen just play hard play in and play out. I really think they have taken the split that created the new high school hard, and are playing like they have a point to prove each week.

Quarterback Kevin McConnell is flourishing in coach Keith Ross’s system and is getting great protection from his offensive line. The Northmen’s running game also makes things easy on McConnell, because teams have to be cautious of senior running backs Nick Werst and Bubba Dotson.

It will be interesting to see how Park Hill rebounds from its second defeat of the season. The Trojans ran into a Liberty team that a lot of people undersold to start the year. New coach Joel Wells has done a fine job of taking a talented group and turning them into a team. The Trojans shouldn’t forget that.

Park Hill still does two things really, really well: run the ball and stop the run. If coach Greg Reynolds can get the Trojans’ passing game clicking, they will be dangerous for many teams to defend. I have a feeling with how experienced Reynolds’ Trojans are they will be back on the winning track.

I will take whatever is in the water that St. Pius X gives its football players.

Every year coach Rick Byers gets the most out of his team. This year is no different.

Pius ended Lawson’s winning streak in dramatic fashion, crushing the Cardinals last week. With the way the rest of their schedule is laid out, I would not be surprised to see the Warriors roll into the Class 3 District 15 finale without another loss against arch-rival O’Hara. I don’t think it would be hard for the Warriors to get up for that game.

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