It was a tough semifinal round for Southeast Missouri

The fate of a Southeast Missouri football championship rides with just two teams after a weekend of mostly lopsided results cut four local teams out of the mix.

Caruthersville, Farmington, New Madrid County Central and Valle all lost Saturday in quarterfinal games, leaving just Jackson (Class 5) and Thayer (Class 1) with hopes of bringing a title back to the 23-county Southeast Missouri region.

Both teams will play Saturday: Jackson goes to Hazelwood East, and Thayer goes to Tipton. Saturday's winners land at the Edward Jones Dome the following week for a state title shot.

And with the state championship chase down to its final two weeks (or less), time's running out to determine Southeast Missouri's football MVP. The poll on the SemoSportsWeb.com home page has produced almost 10,000 unique votes (after a few votes from duplicate addresses were deleted) with a neck-and-neck race between Brandon Bourbon of Potosi and Michael Greminger of Valle.