In a season that has been anything but normal, Capital City is looking forward to finishing what it started: it's first varsity regular season.
The Cavaliers will do just that tonight against non-conference foe Kirksville. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Adkins Stadium.
Capital City (0-6, 0-5 Central Missouri Activities Conference) resumed normal operations Monday after a two-week hiatus due to COVID-19 concerns. The program canceled its Week 7 road game against Sedalia Smith-Cotton (0-7, 0-5 CMAC) and its Week 8 road game against non-conference foe Winnetonka (6-2).
"It's awesome to be back," Capital City coach Shannon Jolley said. "It's really tough to be away from your players and team in any situation, especially the heart of the season."
Unable to conduct in-person practices during the shutdown, the Cavaliers used Zoom video conferencing to conduct virtual practices last week. Defensive coordinator Cameron McDaniel led the meetings.
Capital City hit the ground running this week. The JV team hosted Macon for a full game and the freshmen squad played two quarters Tuesday night. Wednesday night, the freshmen team played a full game at Southern Boone.
All of the lower-level action has been leading up to the Cavaliers' varsity tilt with the visiting Tigers.
Kirksville enters the game 5-3 overall and fourth (2-3) in the six-team North Central Missouri Conference. The Tigers are coming off their first shutout of the year - 33-0 home win against winless conference opponent Fulton.
Kirksville started its season with three non-conference victories - defeating Macon 35-25, Chillicothe 27-21 and O'Fallon Christian 43-26. Its opponents have a combined record of 26-34 this year.
The Tigers are led offensively by junior dual-threat quarterback Jaden Ballinger. He has completed 114-of-194 passes, rushed 110 times, and has 1,978 total yards (1,251 passing and 727 rushing) and 18 total touchdowns (11 passing, seven rushing).
Senior Noah Copeland (45 catches, 568 yards, four TDs) and junior Randon Baumgartner (31 catches for 362 yards, five TDs) are Ballinger's favorite targets. Junior running back Landen Yardley has given the Tigers balance with 618 yards and two scores on 113 carries this season.
"Their kids play hard and they're well-coached," Jolley said. "They've got a couple players with dynamic skillsets that can create some issues, especially in the perimeter run game."
Opposing offenses have averaged 52.5 points and almost 11 yards per carry (136 rushes for 1,494 yards) against the Cavaliers' defense this season.
Offensively, Capital City is looking to get back on track after scoring 0 and 6 points in Weeks 5 and 6, respectively. The Cavaliers have averaged 5.33 yards per carry (255 rushes for 1,360 yards) this season while spreading the wealth among juniors Ethan Wood (79 carries, 425 yards, three touchdowns) and Ian Nelson (79 carries, 402 yards, two TDs), and sophomore Hurley Jacobs (80 carries 316 yards, six TDs).
Wood especially is looking to get back on track. He was held to just 7 yards on 13 carries against Jefferson City, then missed the Helias contest with an illness.
"It feels great be back," Wood said. "The time off gave me a lot of time to recover. We were at the point in the season where your body starts to feel a little rough. I wanted to be back, but I needed the time to get my body right. Now, I feel refreshed."
Wood said the key to victory against Kirksville will be winning the turnover battle. Capital City is minus-6 in turnover ratio due in large part to fumbles, but won the turnover battle for the first time this season against Helias and is facing a quarterback in Ballinger with 15 interceptions on the year.
"We have to focus on ball security," Wood said. "Losing the turnover battle has showed in the results of the games."
Regardless of tonight's result, the Cavaliers will likely open postseason play against either Washington (7-1) or conference foe Battle (5-1) in the Class 5 District 4 quarterfinals.
"We're just looking for consistency across the board," Jolley said. "Each day we come down to practice, we're looking for consistent behaviors and patterns, and our kids have handled it really well. It's easy to say we have short-term goals, but to be honest, we're looking for an evaluation of our consistency."