Jacob Eberhart dazzles in Kirkwood's season-opening win at Fort Zumwalt West

By Greg Uptain | Special to the Post-Dispatch

O’FALLON, Mo. – Jacob Eberhart quickly lived up to the preseason hype.

The Kirkwood senior helped lead a sterling defensive effort and had a record-breaking night on offense in the Pioneers’ 10-3 win over Fort Zumwalt West in the teams’ non-conference season opener Thursday night at West’s Hoekel Stadium.

“Offense, we’ve got some stuff to clean up, but defense made a stand. The most important thing is we got the dub,” said Eberhart, a University of Illinois commit. “I’m grateful that I get to play both sides of the ball under a head coach like Jeremy Maclin. It just means so much. I came out here and gave this team my all, like I always do.”

Eberhart had 11 receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown — the game’s only TD. The 11 catches set a new Kirkwood record for receptions in a game, besting the previous mark of 10 set by three players.

“He’s a stud, man,” Maclin said. “At any given moment, he’s the best guy on the field. He does a lot of really, really good things for us both offensively and defensively.”

Pioneers defense stands out

The Kirkwood defense held West out of the end zone and permitted just one field goal early in the fourth quarter.

“The defense got smaller since we lost a few pieces, but we’ve got everybody firing,” Eberhart said. “The defense is going to play every time. Defense wins championships.”

Jaguars offense sputters

On the flip side, West couldn’t get much going on the offensive end.

The Jaguars —who got a 26-yard Cade Williams field goal in the fourth quarter to avoid a shutout — saw their best chance to score a TD with a drive inside the Pioneer 10-yard-line late in the first half, but an interception on a 50/50 ball in the end zone ended the threat.

“Points were tough to come by,” West coach Ben Pike said. “We had some opportunities, but we just didn’t come down with it. I thought we had one in the back of the end zone there for a touchdown, but the refs didn’t see it that way, so that is what it is.”

Stars come out to shine

The season-opening matchup featured two of the top-10 players on the Post-Dispatch Super 30 preseason list of senior prospects.

Eberhart, the No. 3 player on the list, did what he did to lead Kirkwood and No. 9 Garrick Dixon, a Kansas State commit, also had a couple of big plays for West.

Eberhart cherished the matchup with another high-level player.

“Iron sharpens iron,” he said. “I’m gonna hit him up after this and tell him best of luck. But at the end of the day, may the best man win.”

Big opening drive

West won the opening coin toss, but deferred and Kirkwood took advantage with an 18-play, 65-yard drive that gobbled the first 7 minutes, 58 seconds off the clock and culminated in Eberhart’s dazzling 21-yard TD catch.

The opening drive, though, was not without its hiccups for the Pioneers, who had a pair of TDs called back because of penalties.

“It starts with me,” Maclin said. “I call the plays, so clearly I didn’t have us as prepared as we should have been.”

Wild end to first half

The Pioneers drove to the red zone late in the first half, but looked as though it had run out of time on the clock.

But with the Jaguars headed to the locker room and the West marching band on the field, the officials put enough time back on the clock for the Pioneers to run two more plays and then get a 22-yard field goal from Joey Evans to take a 10-0 lead into the halftime locker room.

“It was tough, but you got to kind of roll with it whether I agree with it or not,” Pike said. “Thankfully, we got guys back out and got them calmed down to where we at least held them to a field goal.”

Up next

Kirkwood is back on the road in Week 2 with a Sept. 5 game at Pattonville (0-1), which lost its season opener to Fort Zumwalt North on Thursday.

“Nothing’s easy,” Maclin said. “Always very, very well-coached. They play hard. They’re gonna fight to the end, no matter what.”

Zumwalt West will try to get in the win column next week when it travels across the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to play at Belleville West (0-0), which features another Illinois commit in Nick Hankins Jr.

“They are a team that’s always got a lot of good athletes and the coach over there has done a good job of starting to get that program turned around,” Pike said. “We know it’ll be another tough test for us, but we’ll get our guys refocused and ready to go for next week.”