The high school football semifinals for Classes 5 and 6 get underway tonight in the state of Missouri. In Class 6, the number one and number two teams in the state will square off, as Kansas City Rockhurst hosts Columbia Hickman for the second time this season. In week two of the season, Rockhurst traveled to Hickman and came away with a 14-7 win. That was the Kewpies only loss of the season. Both teams enter the game with just one loss on the season. Rockhurst is looking for its eighth state championship, while Hickman will try to win its first title since 1974. The winner will face the winner of Kirkwood vs. Hazelwood East. Kirkwood head coach Larry Frost is in his first year there after a successful run at Clayton High School. This is Kirkwood is making its fifth trip to the semifinals and will try to advance to their first championship game. Hazelwood east will play in the semifinals for the third time in the last four seasons…..In Class 5, top ranked and undefeated Raymore-Peculiar will take on Park Hill South. Ray-Pec returns to the playoffs after missing the post-season in 2003. In 2002, they advanced to the Class 5 title game, but lost to Webster Groves 23-22. Park Hill South, which has only been in existence since 1998, has just one trip to the playoffs and that was a run to the semifinals in 1999, when they were a Class 4 team. On the east side of the state Parkway Central will try to advance by beating McCluer North. Central is making its third straight trip to the playoffs and they’re coached by Mark Goldenberg, who is a Parkway Central graduate. They snuck into the 2003 Class 5 playoffs with a 3-7 record, but lost their quarterfinal game to Webster Groves 56-32. This year they’re 8-3. McCluer North is making its fourth trip to the playoffs in five years and like Parkway Central, their playoff run last year ended with Webster Groves. They lost 39-38 in double overtime. With a win, they’ll try to snap an 0-3 record in state championship games. In fact, they were shut out in all three losses.

The Missouri Tigers will face the Kansas Jayhawks for the 112th time on Saturday, as the two teams renew the second oldest rivalry in college football—Minnesota and Wisconsin have played 114 times. . Both teams enter the match up with four game losing streaks. However, the Tigers have more on the line as they enter Saturday’s game: with a win this week and a win at Iowa State next week, the Tigers will be bowl eligible for the second straight season. For the Jayhawks, it’s chance to ruin it for Mizzou. KU blew a ten point lead in the fourth quarter to lose to Texas 27-23 last week. Mizzou comes into it wit ha record of 4-5 and a Big 12 mark of 2-4. KU is 3-7/1-6. The Tigers have bad memories from last year’s game in Lawrence. Mizzou entered the contest ranked 23rd in the nation, but Kansas upended MU 35-14 and held Brad Smith to just 95 yards of total offense, which was a career low. Coming into the game, Mizzou head coach Gary Pinkel has a 2-1 record against Kansas and KU head coach Mark Mangino is 1-1 in the series.

The SMS Lady Bears may be without their best player when they open the season at Richmond on Saturday. Starting point guard and returning Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Keri Koch has an unspecified knee injury after hurting herself during Wednesday’s practice. No word on how long she’s out or how serious the injury is—the athletic department has refused any further comment on the issue. Koch averaged 17.8 points per game as a sophomore and helped lead the team to a 28-4 record last season.