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Sports

Mehlville, Lindbergh All Set For District Football Elimination Game Tonight At Flyers Field

Panthers and Flyers both losers last week, need a win tonight to stay alive in state playoff hunt.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS – PREP FOOTBALL GAME PREVIEW

Mehlville Panthers (4-4)  vs.  Lindbergh Flyers (5-3)

Friday, October 21, 20117 p.m. – Flyers Field

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After suffering losses in their district playoff openers last week, perennial South County football powers Mehlville and Lindbergh both find themselves facing elimination from playoff contention, when they meet Friday night at Lindbergh’s Flyers Field.

The current Missouri playoff system means only two teams from each district can make the playoffs, and with one loss each already, the team that takes a second defeat will have no shot at all at advancing to the postseason this year.

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Mehlville played quite possibly its worst game of the year last week, in a 38-0 home loss against SLUH.

Traditionally a stout defensive club, the Panthers allowed the Jr. Billikens nearly 250 rushing yards, and more than 350 total yards, in what proved to be a bitter defeat.

Mehlville also was held to under 80 yards of total offense and could only muster four first downs against the Jr. Bills.

This week, the Panthers hope junior running backs Chase Brown and Dwayne Lewis can both find more running room against a Lindbergh defense that was gashed for nearly 300 rushing yards itself, in a last week’s 30-13 home loss to De Smet.

For the season, Brown and Lewis have combined for more than 600 total yards and 11 touchdowns.

Senior quarterback Jeff White has also had a fine season with 598 passing yards and seven touchdowns for Mehlville’s primarily run-heavy offense.

Lindbergh, on the other hand, runs a variation of the spread offense and likes to let senior quarterback Peter Simpson fling the ball all over the field.

This season, Simpson is the Suburban West Conference passing leader with 1,418 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Fellow senior Blake Beauchamp and sophomore Garrett Krueger are the Flyers’ top receivers this season.

Beauchamp leads the team with 22 catches for 355 yards and six touchdowns, while Krueger, whose caught 19 balls for 305 yards, leads the Flyers with a 16.1 yards/catch average.

Old brother Grant Krueger is Lindbergh’s top rusher and kick returner with more than 700 total yards and six touchdowns scored of his own.

On defense, senior linebacker Chris Kew is Lindbergh’s leader on the field, with 94 total tackles this season, which ranks second in the Suburban West to fellow Defensive Player of the Year-candidate Nick Messer of Lafayette, who has 95 tackles this year.

Mehlville senior Dan Kerckhoff leads the Panther defense with 49 tackles this season.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night, and fans can tune in to Patch.com late that night and early Saturday morning, for full coverage of the district playoff elimination game between South County football rivals Mehlville and Lindbergh.

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