Mehlville Football Aims for the Postseason

The last four years have been full of highs and lows for Eric Meyer and the football program.

In 2007, the Panthers made it to the Missouri Class 6 state championship game before falling to Rockhurst in the final, 28-9. But during the offseason, Gary Heyde – who had been Mehlville’s head football coach for 27 years – stepped down from the position.

In Meyer’s first season at the helm, the Panthers went 7-4 and made it back to the state playoffs. After losing several terrific players to graduation, Mehlville had a nightmare 2009 season. The team went 0-10 and lost by an average margin of 21.2 points per game.

Last year was a solid step forward for the program, as the Panthers had a 3-5 mark within the Suburban West Conference and a 3-7 record overall. Even though Mehlville lost 20 seniors from the 2010 squad, Meyer, now entering his fourth year as head coach, is confident that he has the players to fill the voids.

“We’ve got a nice group that’s going to step in for them,” he said. “You can’t replace them, but other guys will just step up.

“I like our ability. I think we’re doing some good things. We have to start to polish it up a little bit. Once they get more comfortable with what they’re doing, we’ll start playing faster.”

Offensively, the Panthers will have to replace quarterback Zach Hayes, who threw 105 of the Panthers’ 109 passes last season. The person who threw the other four passes was Jeff White, who enters his senior season as the favorite to be this year’s starting QB.

“He’s got to take over that role as a leader for (Hayes),” Meyer said. “He’s the leading candidate and he’s doing a really good job.”

The Panthers were a run-first team last year, as more than 77 percent of the offense’s plays were rush attempts. This year, Meyer thinks his team might air it out more.

“We’re just going to try to have a balanced attack,” he said. “Depending on how well we throw, we’ll throw. If we struggle to throw, then obviously we’ll run a little bit more.”

White said he hopes to have the chance to show what he can do with his arm.

“We have great running backs and we’ve got three great receivers,” White said. “I’m kind of scared that coach is going to get so hyped up with running the ball because our running backs are so good. But I think we can air it out just as much we can run it. It’s going to definitely be different this year from last year.”

One of those returning running backs is junior Chayse Brown, who led the 2010 Panthers in touchdowns with eight. Brown carried the ball 91 times for 483 yards last season, an average of 5.3 yards per carry. Brown was also the team’s second-leading receiver with 114 yards and two touchdowns.

The top receiver was Michael Sulya. Sulya, a senior, caught 17 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns a year ago.

Like the offense, the defense returns four starters. Meyer said senior Bryan Furey – who will also start on the team’s offensive line – has looked very good so far this year and will be a force on the defensive line.

Meyer said other defensive players he expects to be impact players for the Panthers include Sulya, a defensive back; Patrick Partee, a junior safety; Dan Kerckhoff, a senior outside linebacker and Brandon Zufall, a senior inside linebacker.

Mehlville traditionally runs a 4-2-5 defensive scheme, but Meyer said, “Coverage schemes are really going to be dictated by what we see from the opponent.”

Once again, the Panthers have a very difficult schedule that features a home game against Eureka (9-2 last year) on Sept. 2, and road games versus Lafayette (5-5) on Sept. 9 and Marquette (8-3) on Oct. 1. Mehlville will play at archrival Oakville (2-8) on Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.

But according to White, the Panthers’ three toughest games will be their last. Mehlville plays SLUH (4-6), Lindbergh (9-3) and De Smet (8-5) to close the regular season. All three of those teams beat Mehlville by at least 28 points last year.

“The first seven games really need to prepare us for those last three district (games), those are our three hardest games for sure,” White said. “We need to use those first seven to get better every week and continue getting ready for those district games.”

Even though the schedule is challenging, Meyer and the Panthers have the same goal as most teams in the area: qualify for the state playoffs.

“Our No. 1 goal is try and find a way to get into the playoffs,” Meyer said. “Our district is pretty tough. There’s not a week off; they’re all good teams. It’s kind of a respect thing, too, when you haven’t won a game in your district for two years. We want to be over .500 and we want to make the playoffs.”

The Panthers will begin their run toward the playoffs on Aug. 26 when they travel to Northwest. Mehlville’s first home game is against Eureka.

Check back tomorrow for a look at Oakville's football team.