WARDSVILLE - California looked like a well-oiled machine. Then the Pintos got tested.
Playing in a Jamboree Friday night at the Falcon Athletic Complex, the 2012 Class 3 state semfinalists racked up a combined 30-6 win against Owensville and Moberly. California romped to a 24-0 victory over Owensville before tying Moberly 6-6.
"We had them a little out-manned there up front," California head football coach Marty Albertson said of Owensville. "Obviously Moberly was a better test for us."
After running 18 offensive plays against both opponents, Albertson was happy with what he saw.
"Overall, I'm pleased," he said. "I think we're improving. We just need to keep getting better."
California was just about unstoppable in the opening portion against Owensville, scoring three times on the first nine plays.
"Our offense is going to be good," Marty Albertson said. "We've got a lot of kids back from last year, and they know the offense now pretty well. Our offense will be explosive. I think we can score some points. We just have to work defensively to hold people down."
The Pintos didn't wait long to start the scoring, as Dylan Albertson galloped 40 yards for a touchdown on the opening play, breaking seven tackles along the way.
Six plays later, Jaden Barr connected with Andrew Norton for a 5-yard score.
Just two plays after that, Dylan Albertson broke off another big run, finding the end zone from 25 yards out.
"We were moving the ball," Marty Albertson said. "Our offensive line was getting a push off the ball. I like that. The good outweighed the bad, and that's important."
Allan Burger capped the scoring on the penultimate play against Owensville, rushing in from 14 yards out to make it 24-0.
Then came the real benchmark against a Class 4 district champion.
"Moberly has some good looking athletes," Marty Albertson said. "They have some size, they have some speed. They're dangerous and the quarterback (Justin Connaway) is pretty good. They're a good test. That was a good 18 plays. We just played their varsity nine (plays on offense) and nine (plays on defense).
"Going against each other every day in practice, sometimes the first team going against the No. 2s, that doesn't give them a real good look some times. But against a better team like Moberly, it's a lot better look for your kids."
California drew first blood, as Walker Borghardt found the end zone on a 5-yard run.
"I thought the offensive line was good up front. I thought all of our running backs - Walker Borghart and Dylan Albertson and Seth Fairchild - all ran the ball well," Marty Albertson said.
Moberly quickly responded with a 40-yard pass from Connaway to Dupree Alexander.
"They burned us on a fly pattern first play. We had a miscoverage. Our safety didn't get back there. We have to work on things in the secondary a little bit."
As California gets set to open its season at 7 p.m. next Friday at Boonville, Marty Albertson is happy with what his team accomplished at the Jamboree.
"We played a lot of second-teamers, even against the first team," Marty Albertson said. "We didn't ever have our starting defense in there tonight. We wanted to see some people in backup roles in there and see them on film against a good team and see what we need to work on. Hopefully by next Friday we'll be ready to go."