Last week, the Capital City Cavaliers earned their first in-town win in program history. This week, they’ll go for their first city championship.
“That game meant a lot to the boys,” Capital City coach Joe Collier said of beating Jefferson City 28-7 last week. “It meant a lot that for a year, after three years, they can say, ‘We won that battle.’ It’s important to them to have those bragging rights.”
The Cavaliers (4-1, 3-1 Central Missouri Activities Conference) are coming off a strong second half, scoring on four of five drives on offense -- with the fifth being two kneel downs in victory formation -- and not allowing a first down defensively as they prepare to face the Helias Crusaders (3-2, 2-1) in the fifth of the Cavaliers’ six CMAC matchups.
Capital City ran for 353 yards, upping their per-game average to 337.2 with their past four games all going above 300 as a team.
Senior Hurley Jacobs has led the way with an average of 165.4 yards per game on the ground with eight touchdowns, but freshman Jaylan Thomas has been the leading rusher in the past two games with performances of 164 yards last week and 180 in Week 4 to lead to an average of 130.4 yards per game and seven touchdowns, two of which have been at least 65 yards.
Senior quarterback Hayden Carroll had by far his best rushing performance against Jefferson City with eight rushes for 63 yards and two touchdowns, including a 45-yard run to score Capital City’s first points.
“As Hayden goes, we go,” Collier said. “He’s a major component of what we can do and how we can open up this offense. When he gets comfortable, like you saw last week, when he gets comfortable and is seeing the reads good, their are unlimited things we can do with this offense.”
The efficient Capital City offense will face a Helias defense that has allowed 21.6 points per game, with an average of 191.2 rushing yards allowed.
“Everybody is playing us differently,” Collier said. “We know we may get an even front, but (Phil) Pitts is a very good defensive coordinator and he can get in odd fronts, too. You never know what you’re gonna get, but with him, you know it’s going to be sound and can slow us down. We have to play chess.”
Helias has struggled the last two weeks in losses to Class 3 No. 1-ranked Cardinal Ritter (40-14) and Rock Bridge (31-20) for the Crusaders’ first CMAC loss in the third season of the conference.
“When a wolf cries wolf, you can still see the wolf teeth,” Collier said. “It’s still a wolf. They’re gonna play football, they’ve got some guys behind some guys and they’ve got good coaching over there. I’m pretty sure whoever they put on the field, they’re gonna be sound football players.”
Even after the two losses, Helias’ offense is averaging 32.8 points per game after scoring 31, 41 and 58 in its first three matchups.
The Crusaders have a more balanced offense than Capital City has faced this season, with an average of 169.9 yards per game on the ground and 219.2 through the air.
“If we get lined up and read our keys, they’re pretty straight forward in what they’re doing. They’re not trying to trick you much,” Collier said. “They’re a sound football team and you have to play sound football against them.”
Senior quarterback Drew Miller has led the Helias offense, but junior Sam Wyrick has taken snaps in each of the Crusaders’ past three games.
Helias’ offense spreads the ball to its receivers, with four different players leading the team in receptions in each of the past four games. Trey Rice led the way in Week 2, Trey Bexten was the leader in Week 3, Korbin Fisher led the team in Week 4 and Lucas Bloomer had five catches for 63 yards to take the top spot on the team last week.
Fisher has led the team in rushing yards all five games with an average of 104.8 yards on the ground per matchup. Fisher will miss tonight’s game with an injury.
Capital City is hoping to be fully healthy this week with starting center Hayden Miller expected to return after missing the past two full games and most of Week 3 with an ankle injury.
“He’s practicing,” Collier said. “That adds depth back to our team, I think he’ll be good this week and he’s itching to get back out there.”
Capital City will begin its attempt at its first city championship when the matchup kicks off at 7 p.m. at Adkins Stadium.
“It’s on our minds, I gotta be honest, we want it,” Collier said of the city championship. “We know that’s the spoils of victory. But we’re really focused on alignment, assignment, technique and being sound. Then we’ll see what happens. If we’re so fortunate as to win, that’ll be the spoils of victory.”