CALIFORNIA - While their game against Mexico did not end the way California would have liked with the Bulldogs winning 22-15 last week, the Pintos did make a lot of improvements that helped keep the game close.
The Pintos will look to keep building off of those improvements as they have their third straight home game this year with the School of the Osage Indians coming to California in the Tri-County Conference opener for both teams.
Head coach Mikel Gragg said the team has to keep taking the same steps that they took last week.
"Osage is very similar to Mexico in the things that they do," Gragg said. "For us it is to fine tune those, make some smaller mistakes that some of our younger players made and to fix those and we should be good.
Once again stopping the run is going to be a key for the Pintos coming into this game.
"Osage does a great job with their split-back offense running the ball downhill. It is something from Warrensburg to Mexico we did a much better job of stopping the run and we need to take another step this week and stop it again," Gragg said. "Their two running backs run hard so we have to be ready to tackle."The tackling by the California defense which was an issue in the Warrensburg game, was not as much of a problem in the game against Mexico.
On offense, the Pintos want to focus on limiting their turnovers.
"We had a couple of long runs where we fumble ball on or turned the ball back over to them on an interception. For us it is stop shooting ourselves in the foot cause we know now that our offense can run when we want to run and we just can't get backed up," Gragg said.
The Indians will bring a record of 1-1 into the 7 p.m. contest, with both games coming against North Central Missouri Conference schools. Osage opened the season with a 42-27 win at home against the Fulton Hornets before falling 34-0 on the road last Friday at Moberly.
The run of home games for Calif0rnia will end next week as the Pintos will travel to Boonville to take on the Pirates in their first-ever Tri-County Conference meeting.
Related media: California Pintos Football Podcast [School of the Osage preview, Sept. 7, 2018]