No, your calendar isn't wrong. It's late August, not late October.
For the past few years, the Helias Crusaders have played the Hannibal Pirates to close the regular season. And for the past few years, the two teams have met less than two weeks later in the district championship game.
So in an attempt to keep a potential second meeting far down the road, the game will now be played in the heat of August instead of the chill of October.
"It's odd playing Hannibal so early in the year," Helias coach Phil Pitts said as the Crusaders (1-0, ranked No. 2 in Class 4) prepare to take on the Pirates (1-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Adkins Stadium. "But it's something we did intentionally. We were tired of playing each other twice in 10 days and I think it's going to work out better for both us."
And for both, it's a rivalry game.
"You're talking about an old North Central Missouri Conference team, you're talking about a game that always seems to be tight between two evenly matched teams, it's a game that always has postseason implications," Pitts said.
"Hannibal is our rival, it's the game on our schedule we have to circle."
Both the Crusaders and the Pirates are in Class 4 District 7 and Saturday's winner will have a definite leg up in a bid for the district title.
"You'd think it's too early, and there is a lot of football left, but this game very well could decide who gets to have the homefield advantage throughout the districts," Pitts said.
No matter when you play the Pirates you have a pretty good idea of what you're going to get. A team that wants to run the football on offense and will come after you on defense.
Hannibal opened with a 28-14 win last Saturday at MICDS. The Pirates scored twice in the final four minutes to break the tie at 14.
The Pirates ran for 278 yards in the win. Shamar Griffth picked up 131 of those yards on 14 carries, while Wyatt King ran 15 times for 102 yards.
"They're going to do what they do on offense and we have to be ready for the challenge of trying to stop them," Pitts said. "It's going to be a battle of strengths between their offensive line and our defensive line."
Defensively, the Pirates have changed to a 3-3 front.
"It might fit their personnel a little better than their normal 4-2," Pitts said. "But there are still six men in the box and you have to account for them."
Helias is coming off a great defensive effort of its own in the opener. The Crusader defense did not allow a point in a 27-2 victory against the Nixa Eagles last Saturday night. Nixa started its first three possessions inside Helias territory, but came away with no points.
"The defense led us through the first quarter," Pitts said. "We were fighting, we didn't give in."
The Helias defense limited Nixa to less than 40 total yards and finished with a single-game school record seven sacks.
Alex Faddoul led the Helias offense, rushing for 132 yards and throwing for 152 more after a bit of struggle in the opening quarter of the game.
"We forget sometimes because Alex is so talented, but that was his first varsity start and that's a different beast than what he was used to," Pitts said. "He needed to get his feet wet. Once we started to move the ball, you could see a different Alex after that, it really relaxed him and the tide turned."
This is the first time in three years Helias has started the season 1-0.
"It's a heck of a lot more fun to work on things being 1-0 than being 0-1," Pitts said. "The last couple of years, it was easy to get the focus of the players because we were 0-1, but they've done a good job working this week to get better."
III
Helias running back Clayton Winter, who missed the Nixa game with an injury, will be in uniform Saturday night. The junior who was one of three backs battling for playing time in the preseason. Pitts said no one was injured during the Nixa game. ... Helias will travel next Saturday to play Bishop Althoff in Belleville, Ill. The game, slated for a 7:30 p.m. kick, will be played at Lindenwood University-Belleville, an NAIA school with a red artificial turf field. ... The date has been changed for Helias' game against Rockhurst. Due to a scheduling conflict at Adkins Stadium, the Crusaders and Hawklets will now play Thursday, Oct. 9. The start time of the game has yet to be finalized, but likely will be later than 7 p.m.
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