Saturday Rewind: State-ranked Monroe City relishes chance to finally play at home

MONROE CITY, Mo. — No one may have been happier about the Monroe City football team finally playing a home game than the 2-year-old son of Panthers coach David Kirby.

He got to see daddy before going to bed.

The Panthers opened the season with back-to-back road games against St. Pius X in Festus and Winfield, resulting in the bus not returning to title town until around 1 a.m. or later. It meant Kirby wasn’t walking in his front door until nearly 2 a.m.

His little man was long asleep by that point.

“We were talking after the game that I’m going to be at my house before 10 o’clock and I actually get to put my son to bed,” Kirby said after the Panthers opened Clarence Cannon Conference with Friday night’s 48-8 victory over South Shelby at Lankford Field. “I was very, very pleased that we were done and could get to the house and have family time before the little one went to bed.”

And to no surprise, a large crowd witnessed the Panthers, ranked No. 2 in Class 1, improve to 3-0.

“South Shelby travels really well, and our crowds are always good crowds,” Kirby said. “It was great. It was a really fun night.”

Another dominant defensive effort made it even better. The Panthers’ first-string defense has allowed only three touchdowns in three games and limited the Cardinals to less than 200 total yards.

“We try to give a lot of unique looks to the offense and make quarterbacks think,” Kirby said. “They are a high-pressure group. Our defensive line has played exceptionally well. Our kids play fast. They’re smart. They enjoy getting to the ball. One of the things I’ve liked is we’ve had multiple kids with multiple tackles.”

The Panthers employ multiple weapons on offense, too. Monroe City finished with nearly 500 yards of total offense, getting 181 in the passing game and 295 in the run game. Five different players scored touchdowns as the Panthers reached the end zone on three running and three passing plays.

“We had a lot of different people touch the ball and do multiple things,” Kirby said. “I tell people all the time we’re pretty multiple, but we’re pretty good at the run. That’s what everyone takes away. So we were like, ‘Let’s try some things tonight.’ We were able to capitalize on things in the passing game.”

It’s going to force the next two opponents — CCC heavyweights Centralia and Palmyra — to game plan for a variety of things, while giving Monroe City confidence.

“Hopefully it will give us some momentum going into next week, too,” Kirby said.