The beginning of the season did not go as planned for the School of the Osage.
After a strong first season as the team's head coach, Devin Johnson has to run through a tough series of games to open this season. Fulton found success on the ground and in the air against the Indians' defense, and they will face a similar challenge tonight against Moberly.
Osage is a team that is based on speed and athleticism; they are not gifted with size. That size disadvantage was evident against Fulton and they will be faced with the same disadvantage against Moberly.
"You can't gameplan to gain 40 pounds," Johnson said.
Osage actually had a good amount of success moving the football on offense against Fulton despite the size disadvantage, but in crunch time they didn't make the plays necessary to keep drives moving and get the ball in the endzone.
"Whenever you put yourself in that position (to get first downs) you need to capitalize on it," Johnson said. "And we moved the ball fairly well all night, we had 320 yards of offense, we just didn't convert those third and fourth downs. Those are the key moments where we needed to create more scoring opportunities for us."
The experience against Fulton should prove to be helpful when the Indians face off against Moberly, as they are a young team that needs to get used to playing as a unit in order to make those big plays.
"We're still pretty young, we haven't played that much together," Johnson said. "We're starting a sophomore at quarterback and being young in the backfield and at different key positions, we're still learning how to play and learning how to win and we competed well. We just didn't do what we needed to do."
Moberly lost its season opener to Blair Oaks despite controlling the clock well and having more total yards. The problem for Moberly against Blair Oaks was letting up the big play. Osage will have to take advantage of the opportunities the Spartans give them and look to take advantage of those big play opportunities. On defense it will be about controlling the running game for Moberly. Moberly controlled the clock against Blair Oaks by rushing for nearly 200 yards.
This should be a tight matchup and it will come down to the battle in the trenches. If Osage is overpowered up front, they will continue to struggle in key situations on offense and be hard-pressed to stop the running game.
School of the Osage hosts Moberly - Updates on Twitter: @SOTOsports. Listen live online: cool1027.com. Watch live online: Lake TV
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