Going into Friday night's game in Columbia, the Helias Crusaders figured to beat the Father Tolton Trailblazers.
It wasn't going to be a matter of how.
The Crusaders are having a pretty good season, sitting at No. 9 in the latest Class 4 Missouri Media Rankings. On the other side, it's been tough going for the Class 2 Trailblazers, who were winless and dressed less than 30 players for the game.
Tolton was coming off a 72-14 loss to Cardinal Ritter, which is the No. 1 team in the country among small schools according to MaxPreps. And Helias knows more than little about the talent at Cardinal Ritter, after dropping a 48-14 decision to the Lions two weeks ago.
It was going to be a matter of how much.
As it turned out, Friday night's final margin was 38-0 as the Crusaders improved to 5-1 on the season. It went about as well as Helias and Tolton, frankly, could have hoped. The Crusaders scored touchdowns on all five of their possessions in the first half to take a 35-0 lead and bring the mercy clock into effect for the final two quarters.
The Crusaders left most of their starters on the bench for the third and especially the fourth quarter as the reserves got the chance for deserved playing time after toiling in practice through the summer, preseason and the first five weeks of the regular season.
But
I've been told a story about a coach, not from the Central Missouri area, who has won multiple state titles at his school. When asked about how to handle what figure to be mismatches, the response by the coach basically was this, "It's my job to coach my team, it's not my job to worry about the other team."
In other words, if you don't like what we're doing on offense, stop us. And if you don't like what we're doing on defense, score on us.
My opinion has changed through the years and now I have a hard time arguing with that on the high school level.
If, and again that's if because Chris Hentges and his staff were never going to do this, Helias wanted to get some more work in on its passing game with its starters Friday night, there's absolutely no reason it shouldn't have. The same for the run game.
And shutouts are a source of pride for defensive players and coaches. So if Helias wanted to keep its starters in the game to attempt to keep the zero on the scoreboard, I don't see why it shouldn't. Two weeks ago at Borgia, the Crusaders' reserves on defense stopped the Knights inside the 5 in the final minute. Afterward, the starters on the sideline celebrated the efforts of their teammates, knowing the work they put in.
In the end, Helias got its work in and got the win and there were no hard feelings as the teams met at midfield for a postgame prayer before Tolton went off to continue its Homecoming weekend.
So a no-win situation Friday for Helias turned into a win-win for everyone.