In a game they had to have if they were going to stand any chance whatsoever to win their district, the Affton football Cougars came out and dominated DuBourg Friday night, coming away with a 54-8 victory.

Kornell Simmons led Affton with 256 yards rushing on just 22 carries, as Affton racked up 430 yards on the ground.

Simmons also scored four touchdowns on runs of 49, 45, 55 and 31 yards. Cougars Coach Dan Oliver was pleased with his running back’s performance.

“Kornell really gave a great effort, but we weren’t trying to stick it to DuBourg,” he said. “Coming in, we thought Kornell might have a shot at 4,000 career yards, and we might have kept him in longer than normal because of that.”

As it turned out, Simmons still is more than 300 yards short of that mark, and some mid-game cramps didn’t help.

“He cramped up a bit when the weather cooled, but he scored a lot of points. He had two two-point runs on top of the touch-downs,” Oliver said.

In all, Simmons scored 26 points for Affton, which improved its record to 5-4, 1-1 in district play.

Unfortunately, St. Mary’s fell short in its effort to upset Clayton and fell 12-6 in overtime. With the win, Clayton clinched the district title.

Oliver witnessed the game between Clayton and St. Mary’s.

“St. Mary’s stayed with them all day,” he said. “They took away the field position from Clayton and both teams had chances, but they just couldn’t get it done.”

Because Clayton defeated both Affton and St. Mary’s head to head, it has clinched the district championship.

St. Mary’s and Affton — both 1-1 in the district — will play at 7 p.m. Friday to determine who takes second place in a format that only allows one team to advance.

The game will be played at St. Mary’s High School, 4701 S. Grand.