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And for good reason.

The Kirkwood High senior quarterback is going to Maryville University on a baseball scholarship down the road.

But first, the 6-foot-6 gunslinger continued his winning ways on the football field Friday night by throwing for 446 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Pioneers to a 42-14 win over Francis Howell in a Class 6 District 2 semifinal football game in western Kirkwood.

Kirkwood (7-2) has won four in a row and will travel to CBC (9-1) for the district championship game next Friday night.

Nesslage, who will be a pitcher in college, connected on 27 of 35 passes including scoring tosses of 95 and 8 yards to junior wide out Jacob Eberhart, who displayed a sore pinkie after the contest, the result of Nesslage's hard balls.

"It's a little messed up," Eberhart said looking at his hand. "But, I love him. He's great."

Nesslage sure was great on Friday night. He continually picked apart the Howell defense with one pinpoint bullet after another.

"It was a great team win," Nesslage said. "The credit goes to my O-line and our receivers for making plays for me, making the big blocks when we needed them."

Facing Howell for the first time since 2019, Kirkwood broke the game with 28 points in the second half.

Nesslage and Eberhart turned in the biggest play of night late in the third quarter.

Howell had climbed to within 14-7 on a 20-yard scoring run by quarterback Eli Skidmore with 2 minutes and 35 seconds left in the period.

The Pioneers needed just 58 seconds to regain control.

Nesslage hit Eberhart with a screen pass in the right flat. The speedster outran a trio of defenders and then cut down the sideline for the long distance score that pushed the lead back to two possessions at 21-7.

The Vikings were never the same after that.

Kirkwood scored three times over the final 10:41 of the fourth period to win going away.

Eberhart, who caught three passes for 108 yards and two scores, is considered an NCAA Division I prospect by Kirkwood coach Jeremy Maclin. 

"It's great when we can get the ball in his hand and let him do his thing," Nesslage said.

Nesslage began the night with scoring tosses to Eberhart and senior Larry Robinson in the opening half. The 23-yard TD strike to Robinson just 40 seconds into the second stanza pushed the lead to 14-0.

Howell got close, thanks in part to Skidmore, who will play baseball at ������Ƶ University next year.

But the Vikings couldn't hold off the host's 21-point explosion in the final quarter. Senior linebacker Carson Lindquist highlighted the uprising by scampering 43 yards with a fumble recovery for a TD in the final minute.

"At this stage, it's about surviving," Maclin said. "And we were able to do that tonight. I'm proud of those guys. It wasn't perfect. We'll go back, look at the film, and get better."

Kirkwood committed key penalties in the second half including four infractions for lining up in the neutral zone on defense.

But as Nesslage pointed out, it all about moving on. He realizes that his football days are numbered and he would love to go out in style.

"Every time I step on the field with these guys is something I'll never forget," Nesslage said.

Howell (4-6) recorded its first losing season since going 3-8 in 2008.

The Vikings overcame a host of injuries and an 0-3 start to the season to win three of four going into Friday's game.

"We just couldn't get our execution going on the offensive side of the ball," Howell coach Brent Chojnacki said. "But our guys never quit, it's just not in their blood. They're not used to going 0-3 and it would be easy to give up when that kind of disappointment hits them.

"They didn't quit on us coaches and they didn't quit on each other."