After splitting their first two games of Districts, the Lancers find themselves facing a critical game against their rivals from Marquette on Oct. 27.

A hard-fought 16-7 loss to CBC has dropped them to 1-1 in the four-team pool that includes CBC, Lafayette, Marquette and Parkway South.

Here are the updated standings for Class 6, District 3, with the numbers on the right representing each team’s point differential.

CBC: 2-0, +22

Lafayette: 1-1, +4

Parkway South: 1-1, -13

Marquette: 0-2, -26

A win against the Mustangs would secure a playoff berth for the Lancers. If they were to lose, they would also need Parkway South to lose and maintain a better point differential than both Marquette and Parkway South, with all three teams being tied at 1-2.

Against the Lancers, CBC went up 4-0 on a pair of safeties in the second quarter, but couldn’t get its high-powered offense going for the first time all season. The Lancers forced quarterback Dalton Demos into three interceptions, two of which went to senior Markuice Savage.

They took the lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by junior John Voit, but gave up the winning score on the next possession. On fourth down and four, Demos found Aarion Penton on a 14-yard touchdown strike.

The Cadets entered the matchup as the top-ranked team in St. Louis and averaging 48.5 points per game, but slowed themselves down with 10 penalties for 105 yards. Their running game proved to be the difference as senior Antonio Brown totaled 181 out of the team’s 222 total rushing yards.

“Defensively, we played really well,” said senior Nick Messer, who ranks eighth in St. Louis with 106 total tackles, “All of our athletes run to the ball and we don’t give up on any play.”

On offense, the Lancers were only able to manage 59 total yards and allowed five sacks, which accounted for both CBC safeties.

 “We need to work on picking up blitzes. I felt like we played well, but (CBC) is a great team. If a couple of plays went the other way, it would have been a different game,” junior quarterback Matt Goro said, “We’re going to focus on running the ball…the running game sparks our offense.”

“It doesn’t matter that Marquette is a rivalry game,” Messer said, “It’s the biggest game of the year because we need to win to go to the playoffs.”