After relying on balanced offensive production in recent years, the School of the Osage Indians went the ground-and-pound route to get things done in their season opener last week, with positive results.
And this week Osage will be tested with an offensive philosophy similar to its own against a squad that was a Class 4 playoff contender a year ago.
Osage travels today to Moberly for a non-conference game (7 p.m. kickoff).
The Indians are coming off a 42-27 home non-conference victory against Fulton last week to get things started this season.
The Moberly Spartans played against Class 5 competition last week and had a potential game-tying drive ended late by an interception in a 21-14 road loss at Sedalia Smith-Cotton.
Last week, Osage was sparked by the play of senior quarterback/linebacker Dalton Depee.
Depee, who was questionable to play due to a preseason camp injury, answered the bell in a big way, having a hand in three Osage touchdowns.
Depee broke off a 44-yard TD run, hit junior running back Matt Hans with a 40-yard TD pass and on defense picked off a pass and returned it 54 yards for another score.
Depee completed just 4-of-7 passes for 60 yards. Osage had success on the ground, rushing 50 times for 317 yards, with Depee finishing with 119 yards on 11 carries and junior running back Jack Dulle 73 yards on 15 attempts.
Junior linebacker Drew Edwards paced the Indian defense with 11 tackles and senior tackle Jacob Smith had a sack.
"We played very efficiently on both sides of the ball," Osage head coach Devin Johnson said. "Offensively we ran 43 plays and only had three negative plays - all on penalties. That's huge, getting positive yardage on first down. I thought our offensive line played very well together. We used three running backs and all hit the line hard. We spread the ball around quite a bit - our leading ball carrier had just 15 touches.
"Defensively we're getting better. We've still got to do a better job tackling in space. It's still a pretty new system for us and our varsity defense only gave up seven points."
Osage has one more non-conference challenge in Moberly before opening Tri-County Conference play next week at California.
Moberly was a longtime Class 4 team, including last year when the Spartans won 10 consecutive games to finish unbeaten in North Central Missouri Conference play. The Spartans made it to the Class 4 quarterfinals and finished 10-3 overall - the team's first winning season since going 10-1 in 2013.
This season, Moberly has been re-assigned to Class 3 and is hoping to make another deep run in the new classification.
Last week Moberly played two quarterbacks. The starter, sophomore Dominic Stoneking, was sidelined with muscle cramps for the fourth quarter and replaced by junior Hayden Hopper.
Hopper directed a drive that resulted in a six-yard run by senior running back Chance Richards early in the fourth period to tie the game at 14.
And Hopper again had the Spartans marching deep in Sedalia territory inside the final two minutes of the game before throwing an interception, sealing the Smith-Cotton victory.
Moberly's other touchdown came on a 13-yard run by senior running back Landen Graves late in the first period.
"They're very similar," Johnson said of Moberly. "They're kind of similar to us; they try to run the ball and control the clock. And they played a Class 5 team close, which is concerning.
"Their quarterback (Stoneking) is really a good athlete. The running backs are physical and run downhill. Some of their backs are bigger than our defensive linemen.
"What quarterback they use doesn't seem to change what they do a whole lot. Our key is to control the line of scrimmage. They're going to be bigger than us - which will be the case most of the season."
A couple of Indians are still nursing injuries.
Senior running back/cornerback Hunter Neiman is questionable with a knee bruise while senior receiver/safety Matt Kinnison is out with a broken foot.