Believe it or not, the high school football season is half over! Week #5 began a night early on a very rainy Thursday night at Faurot Field in Columbia. The Rock Bridge Bruins beat the Hickman Kewpies 26-0 in the annual Providence Bowl game. A big way-to-go for all those who endured the constant rain (including our fantastic sports photographer Jeremy Stein!), now Rock Bridge looks much improved this season, even in the rain.

Week #5 saw two of our local teams fall from the ranks of the unbeaten. Jefferson City and North Callaway lost their first games of 2009. The Jays, ranked #2 in Class 6 last week, lost to Rockhurst for the 11th straight time. Many thought this might be the year the Jays would end that streak. It still could happen as the two teams will meet again in Kansas City on Oct. 9. Jefferson City had some chances in week five, trailing by a point at halftime and battling back to tie things up at 13 all in the 3rd quarter. Rockhurst scored on a big 4th down pass play to win it 20-13. Jefferson City is now 4-1 on the season, heading into a homecoming matchup against Sumner.

North Callaway also dropped to 4-1 on the year, after a non-conference loss on the road at Bowling Green 25-7. The Thunderbirds will have another tough test this coming week as the unbeaten Tipton Cardinals come to Kingdom City. Our KRCG Kehoe Football Friday Night previews at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. will feature 'Live' reports from North Callaway this Friday night.

Five local high school teams are still perfect with 5-0 records: Tipton, Helias, Smith-Cotton, Centralia and Rolla. The Cardinals of Tipton rolled to a 34-0 win over North Shelby on Saturday afternoon. Helias traveled to Union with some revenge in mind.   Union hammered Helias last year, handing the Crusaders their only regular season loss. Helias returned the favor on Friday night with an easy 34-7 victory heading into our "Feature Game of the Week.” The Crusaders will host 3-2 Rock Bridge on Saturday afternoon at Adkins Stadium.

Congratulations to the Centralia Panthers who just keep on winning big. The latest victim is Macon. Centralia is now 5-0 after trouncing the Tigers 40-6.

Other games of interest included the Montgomery County homecoming win over

Van-Far. The Wildcats put up some big points in a 41-0 victory. Just down Highway 19, the annual Gasconade County Cup game featured Hermann and Owensville. The Bearcats from Hermann were celebrating homecoming, but it was the visiting Dutchmen that ended up celebrating with the 32-6 win. 

The Fulton Hornets finished strong to get back in the win column. Fulton beat North Central Missouri Conference Rival Moberly 26-14 on the Hornets home field.

Our Feature Game of the Week between Blair Oaks and California ended up scoreless in the first half. The Falcons came out with a huge third quarter against the rival Pintos.   Blair Oaks got back on the winning track with a 21-6 victory.

Hope you are enjoying our High School Football Central. Thanks to Tony Mullen, who does a great job of updating weekly results, and also a big thanks to Maneeza Iqbal, who does a wonderful job of so many different things on ConnectMidMissouri.com.  Have a great week, and we'll see you for week 6 of our Football Friday Nights!