WARDSVILLE, Mo. - There's one thing better than posting a zero as a defense.
Posting two of them.
The Helias Crusaders kept the Centralia Panthers and the Blair Oaks Falcons out of the end zone during Friday night's Jamboree at the Falcon Athletic Complex.
"Our defense was strong all night," Helias coach Tim Rulo said. "There are things you can always get better at, we need to do a better job of aligning ourselves, but overall, they really played well."
Helias opened against Centralia and limited the Panthers to just 18 total yards and one first down in 18 plays.
Against Blair Oaks, Helias allowed 33 yards and four first downs.
"We ran to the ball well, even if we did give up a big play here or there, we didn't break and give up a score," Rulo said.
The Crusaders saw a pair of drastically different offenses Friday night. Centralia was more run oriented, while Blair Oaks ran the spread.
"We're going to see a run team in the first week with Hannibal, but after that, we're going to see a lot of spread offenses the remainder of the season," Rulo said. "They both gave us the opportunity to run some different things."
The Crusaders scored two touchdowns against the Panthers, both on runs by junior quarterback Daniel Rhea. Rhea ran the second series against the Panthers, scoring on runs of 32 and 35 yards as the Crusaders totaled 110 yards in the nine-play series.
Connor McKenna, a senior, quarterbacked the Crusaders in the first series against the Panthers and the second against the Falcons. He led Helias to 31 yards and a first down against Blair Oaks.
Rhea also led the Crusaders to a a first down against the Falcons.
"The quarterbacks did some good things, both of them," Rulo said. "We looked good at times on offense and there were times that we didn't look so good."
Rulo said the Jamboree was a good learning experience for the Crusaders, many of whom will be seeing their first extended varsity time this season.
"We had some guys learn they're going to have to play a lot of snaps and what that feels like," he said. "Some guys learned what it was like to play 70 snaps like they did tonight.
"We learned what it's going to be like to play in a game. Nobody got hurt, we got some experience under the lights, we got some of the jitters out."
Rulo wasn't too concerned about the final scores Friday night.
"In Jamborees, you can't get too excited about what happened," he said. "It's just a chance to run some plays against another team to try to get ready for the season opener.
"Yes, I wish we didn't make any mistakes and we scored a touchdown on every play and the other team never gained a yard. But that's not realistic. This was a chance to get better and learn more about ourselves and I think we did that."
Helias will open the season Friday at home against the Hannibal Pirates in the first-ever game at Ray Hentges Field. Game time is 7 p.m.