MARYLAND HEIGHTS –After two unproductive drives to begin the game, including a dormant three-and-out, Pattonville junior quarterback Trevor Beckermann felt the need to jumpstart the offense.
“They were both my fault. I missed some reads, I had my eyes in the wrong places, but coming out for that third drive, I knew I had to step it up for my defense because they were stepping up for us,” he said.
Beckermann led touchdown drives on five of the next six possessions and helped Pattonville pull away with a 35-0 victory over Seckman Friday in a Suburban Red Conference showdown at Pattonville High.
Pattonville (4-0) won its first four games to begin a season for the first time since 2014.
“We’re having a blast,” Beckermann said. “We have to keep this momentum, and I feel like we have a really good shot at going undefeated. The team we’ve built, we’re all working hard and we’re all bought in.”
Seckman (3-1), playing without its starting and backup quarterbacks due to injury, lost its first road game since the 2022 playoffs and had its 27-game conference winning streak snapped.
“It’s certainly quite the run. When we won the first one back in 2020, we weren’t anticipating running off that many conference wins in a row,” Seckman coach Nick Baer said. “A lot of firsts tonight, but all that leads to is new beginnings.”
Seckman employed an offense that led to many of the wins during that streak, a direct snap to the quarterback who followed a lead blocker through the hole. Midway through the first half, the Jaguars embarked on a 12-play, 70-yard drive that ate up more than seven minutes of game time but ended with a turnover on downs deep in Pattonville territory.
The game remained scoreless when Beckermann and the offense emerged from the sideline after a long hiatus.
“The defense kept a zero up, and we needed to give them rest,” Beckermann said. “Simple reads, five yards, five yards, settle a drive and keep our defense off the field.”
A pair of short completions to Kingston Robinson and a 15-yard laser to Elijah Hopgood advanced the ball across midfield. On the 13th play of the drive, Aeran Collins powered into the end zone on a toss sweep from 10 yards away to break the scoreless deadlock with 3:33 remaining in the half.
The rested Pattonville defense forced a 3-and-out, and Beckermann adjusted his mindset from simple reads to chunk plays during a 2-minute drill that needed far less than that. On the first play, he launched a perfect spiral down the right sideline that dropped into the arms of Gilbert Lakine III, who beat man-to-man coverage for a 34-yard completion.
“I knew I had (Lakine) pressed, and I trust him to beat that press every single day,” Beckermann said.
On the next play, he scrambled away from pressure and found Hopgood over the middle or 23 yards. Then, Beckermann eluded blitzers, broke tackles and spun into the endzone for a 13-yard score that completed a 3-play, 70-yard drive that took less than a minute.
Beckermann, a junior, finished 16-of-22 for 293 yards and two touchdowns, while running for another. So far this season, he is completing 71 percent of his passes with nine touchdowns and just one interception.
“Last year was my first year starting, so that experience definitely helped me. I’m making more reads, going through my progressions and not just looking at one guy and then running,” Beckermann said.
Beckermann made one of his few mistakes early in the third quarter, throwing late to the sideline and narrowly avoiding a pick-6 when the ball bounced off the hands of Seckman defensive back Elliot Burris.
“I’m proud of how we played,” Baer said. “We played really hard, and quite honestly, we’re six inches from a pick-6 and the game being 14-to-7. I thought our defense played well against a talented group, we just couldn’t get it going on the offensive side of the ball. We could only hold serve for so long.”
Seckman lost starting quarterback Brody Kube to injury in Week 1 and backup Cohner Baer in Week 3. Both will be out “for extended periods of time” according to Jaguars coach Nick Baer.
“We’re searching for a little bit of offensive identity with both quarterbacks going down. We have to get to the drawing board and see what’s going to work,” he said.
The Pattonville defense, led by sophomore linebacker Ryan Monroe and senior linebacker Andre Jefferson Jr., thwarted the Seckman plan for a rugged, ball control, rushing attack. Besides the 12-yard, 70-yard drive in the first half, no Jaguars’ drive exceeded 18 yards in length. In all, the Pirates’ yielded just 127 total yards and seven first downs.
“The (defensive) line was doing their jobs, slanting really well, and the outside (linebackers) were attacking down and making them cut back in,” said Monroe.
Monroe, a sophomore captain, seemed to be everywhere for a Pattonville defense that allowed openings nowhere.
“He has a bright future ahead of him,” Pattonville coach Steve Smith said of Monroe. “It’s good to see a linebacker with his size and natural instincts performing at such a high level.”
And while the Pattonville defense forced punts, Beckermann and the offense stayed in rhythm.
Two plays after the near pick-6, Beckermann escaped to his right, then spun back to his left and found Hopgood along the sideline for a 20-yard gain on a crucial third down. Four plays later, Beckermann pumped right, then threw across the field to a wide open Lakine for a 37-yard touchdown.
“A lot of them were freshmen and sophomores playing on varsity last year. They got beat up and went through some growing pains, but they’ve grown a lot,” Smith said. “They’re being aggressive, taking to coaching, paying attention to detail, and you’re seeing the results.”
In the fourth quarter, a second touchdown reception by Lakine and a second touchdown run by Collins put the finishing touches on a 35-0 Pattonville victory.
The Pirates rallied to win a district championship last year after finishing the regular season with a 4-5 record. They have harnessed their late season magic into the start of this year.
“Last year, we were really a lot of JV guys playing varsity, but they found a way, clicked at the right time and started getting some success in the playoffs. Now, it’s carrying over and it’s exciting to see,” Smith said.
Monroe added, “This 4-and-0 start gives us momentum, but we’re still going to prepare the same way, and we want to raise the tone even more.”
For a photo gallery from this game, visit the link below:
https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Football/Football-2026/Seckman-at-Pattonville-9-18-26