Northeast Missouri Football Showdown: Hannibal at Kirksville

Friday night the lights will be bright in Kirksville as the Hannibal Pirates drop anchor in a conference showdown.

The 5-0 Kirksville Tigers bring a balance of high scoring offense and stout defense.

They are scoring 30 points per game and only allowing just 4…(!!!) per game. They have a dynamic tailback that can run and catch the ball. Sr. Jace Kent is averaging 124 yds. rushing per game, 43 receiving yds. per game and has scored 13 touchdowns in 5 games. Job one for the Pirate defense will be to account for and shut down Kent. Limit Kent and you create problems for Kirksville. Sr. Quarterback Ryder Lyons does spread it around, but that is based on Kent setting the tone on offense.

Google maps

Meanwhile the Hannibal team has thrown back to back shutouts winning their last two games by a combined 100-0..(!!!). How does that square with the stingy Tiger defense?

Kirksville’s defense has a Freshman in Blake Nesbitt who leads the team in tackles and sacks. Sr. safety Corbin Denslow is substantial supporting the run defense and leads the team in interceptions. Will the Pirate O-line push the Tiger line around and dictate the tone? Coach Jeff Gschwender will expect the Pirate momentum to continue.

Get our free mobile app

The Tigers are also led by former Hannibal football coach Greg Nesbitt who has also coached at Columbia Hickman too. Where he coaches, he wins.

Friday’s victor will take command in the race for the North Central Mo. Conference, and cold very well be a forerunner to a district title game later in the fall.

Narratives collide Friday night, with the pre-game starting at 6:30p and the kickoff at 7p. Bill Shuler will call the action on 97.9 KICK-FM and online at 979kickfm.com

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood

LOOK: The 50 best small towns to raise a family in the U.S.

Looking for the best small towns to raise a family? Stacker compiled this list of the top 50 small towns in the United States using 2023 data from Niche.

Gallery Credit: Annalise Mantz

Categories: Articles, Family, featured, Hannibal, Sports