Parkway Central Ends Football Season in Loss to Hazelwood East

Parkway Central High School closed out its varsity football season Saturday with a 42-15 loss to Hazelwood East for the Class 5 quarterfinals, in Chesterfield.

Parkway Central had clinched the district title in October, with a win over Webster Grove.

Parkway's Colts scored during the first minutes of the playoff round Saturday. Hazelwood's Spartans answered with a touchdown, and the Colts hit back with another touchdown—making for a 15-12 Colts lead at the end of the first quarter.

Parkway Central would not score again Saturday night.

The two teams went into the playoff game with records of Central 10-1, Hazelwood East 7-4.

But in a cursory look over the field, Spartans seemed to outweigh the Colts, player for player.

There were laughs on both sides of the field early in the second quarter when an incomplete pass by the Colts landed directly in the arms of the Hazelwood East offensive line coach, on the sidelines.

But things began to heat up between the two teams with just 23 seconds left in the first half, when Hazelwood passed for 20 yards to the 6-yard line. Another pass, and Spartans took the lead at halftime 20-15.

After the music and dance halftime performance, those hoping Central would come out of the locker room on fire, were to be disappointed.

Spartans swiftly ran the pigskin over the line during the third quarter for a 28 - 15 lead over the Colts. There was no stopping them.

At one point, the Colts got the ball to the one-yard line, but couldn't score. The Spartans ran the ball down to their own 3-yard line and by the 4th down, the Spartans scored—but only after a tackle and outstretched arms got the ball over the line.

With 10 minutes left in the game and the 42-15 Spartan lead, the game was over for Parkway Central fans, and the packed stands began to empty.

With five minutes left, the Central's Colts were making their way toward the endzone with first downs, but never could tighten up the score.

The whole game took one-and-a-half hours.

Hazelwood East with 8 wins-4 losses, will go on to play undefeated Kirkwood in the next round of playoffs.