VERSAILLES, Mo. - An infusion of youth to the offense has improved the Versailles Tiger offense this fall.
However, it's been a rough ride in the Tri-County Conference for one of the smallest schools in the league.
And another difficult league outing will end the Tigers' regular season, as Versailles travels to Southern Boone tonight in Ashland (7 p.m. kickoff). It will be Southern Boone's Senior Night.
Versailles is attempting to snap a four-game losing skid and comes in with a 2-6 overall record and 1-5 Tri-County mark. The Southern Boone Eagles, injury-plagued throughout the campaign, are 5-3 and 3-3.
Last week Versailles lost to Hallsville 47-8 while Southern Boone blasted Warsaw 47-12.
Tiger head coach Broc Silvers is encouraged a strong non-district victory tonight could help his team's standing in Class 2 District 4 next week.
Versailles is currently No. 7 in the district standings, .25 of a point behind No. 6 Stockton. The Tigers will probably end up playing No. 2 Fair Grove (6-2) or No. 3 El Dorado Springs (4-4) in the first round of the district tournament next week.
"I'm expecting El Dorado Springs if we can win and if Stockton wins (tonight)," Silvers said. "I think we can jump Stockton; it's pretty close."
Before that the Tigers have a tall order tonight in a Southern Boone team that has been state-ranked earlier this season.
The Eagles, averaging 29.4 points per game while allowing 24.5 points, plan on again starting junior Sam Stichnote at quarterback. Stichnote, normally a receiver as well as standout return man and defensive back, stepped in at QB last month when senior Sam Mueller suffered a broken hand.
Mueller is back on defense, but Silvers expects to again see the athletic Stichnote continue directing the Eagle spread offense that leans heavily on the run.
"Southern Boone went into the season expecting another kid playing quarterback," Silvers said. "Both of those kids are good athletes. But I think Stichnote was going to be the quarterback of the future, and the future has been moved up.
"I'm sure they were expecting a little more consistency this year. Southern Boone is good enough to be in the top echelon of our conference. Except for Blair Oaks, the two through five teams are pretty close and tough. And (the Eagles) are definitely a top-five team in the conference."
Senior running back Jackson Sartain, who has also had injury issues, is the hub of the Eagle offense attack with multiple 100-yard rushing games. Sophomore Tristan John and junior Colby Phillips are also threats out of the backfield and junior Ross Trittler is a receiving threat.
"They've got a couple of running backs who are good," Silvers said. "They have a typical fullback playing running back (Sartain). They will run a lot of counter treys at us. If we can't stop the counter in this game it won't be close. They are junior and senior heavy and they're bigger than us up front. And they move pretty well as linemen.
"(Defensively) Southern Boone runs a four-man front. We haven't gotten a lot of four-man fronts this year and we don't know what we'll see in district play. So, it will be good for us to play against it (tonight)."
The young Versailles offensive line suffered a loss, as sophomore starting center Quinn Randall has been lost for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. He is one of five sophomores who have started on the Tiger offensive line this season.
The Versailles offense, averaging 19.8 points per game, has already set a few school records this season and are hoping to see some more fall over the next couple of weeks.
Sophomore quarterback Coby Williams set the Tiger single-season passing record last week and now has completed 90-of-156 passes for 1,239 yards and eight touchdowns. Senior slotback Kooper Wilson has caught 46 passes for 636 yards and is closing in on the school single-season receiving mark.
Running back Taylor Dobbins has 490 yards on 63 carries and six touchdowns while Williams has rushed for 257 yards and five touchdowns and junior Michael Trotter 257 yards on 35 carries.
Trotter, a defensive end, leads Versailles in tackling with 98, including 69 solo, including 15.5 tackles for loss while Wilson, a safety, has 52 tackles and senor end Geier has 8.5 tackles for loss.