Eagles stress running in district opener

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October 17, 2008

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Fri Oct 17, 2008, 12:02 AM CDT

By Ryan Atkinson

ratkinson@joplinglobe.com

The Ozark Conference portion of the Joplin Eagles’ schedule was nice while it lasted.

The Eagles finished their first seven games with a 6-1 record, a share of the conference crown, a reliable offense and an improving defense.

Now it’s time for the real games to begin.

Joplin travels to suburban Kansas City tonight to face the Lee’s Summit North Broncos to open Class 6 District 7 play.

Lee’s Summit faces Rockhurst in the district’s other game.

“Obviously, it’s a big ball game,” Joplin head coach Doug Buckmaster said. “It’s the first district game ... two teams go to the playoffs now. It’s very, very big. It’s huge.”

The Eagles — averaging 451 yards per game — will likely need another strong showing from their offense. In its lone loss of the season, Joplin was held to just 20 points, a far cry from its average of 44 per game.

While Joplin quarterback Devin St. Clair has thrown for 1,858 yards, both Buckmaster and Lee’s Summit North coach Harold Wambsgans agree that the key for the Eagles is in the running game.

“We need to run the football to be successful,” Buckmaster said. “We try to be balanced every week. A team like Lebanon, maybe they’re more one-dimensional. They throw first but they can’t run the ball. If someone takes something away from us, we have to have somewhere to go ... and most teams are going to try to take away the run first. That’s what Lee’s Summit North has done the last three years.”

Most of the ground game will go through junior Ron King. King was held to just 47 yards on 23 carries in last week’s win against Lebanon. But King picked up a handful of crucial first downs to help thwart a Yellowjacket comeback.

The Eagle offense has been led virtually all season by receiver Dane Kolkmeyer, who has 67 catches for 1,118 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Other contributors, however, have shown impressive flashes in recent weeks. Cory Macy, Gates Sanders, Sam Nguyen and others will be key for the Eagles in district play.

“Guys like that are huge,” Buckmaster said. “We want to utilize everyone in our offense. A lot of weeks Dane was more of a focal point and that’s usually because of what defenses have done to us. But we have to spread the ball around.”

The Eagle offense will face a solid Bronco defense that has given up an average of 24 points per game to some good offenses.

“They run a 3-4 defense and they are very aggressive,” Buckmaster said. “They’ll get after you a little bit. They’re scrappy.”

The Lee’s Summit North offense, meanwhile, gets a lot of its triple-option punch from Quincy Williams. The running back has gained 1,020 yards on 95 carries, an average of 10.7 yards per run.

“Their tailback is one of the best in the Kansas City area,” Buckmaster said.

The Broncos started the season 2-1 before losing their last five, including a 29-27 loss at Blue Springs South, a 42-28 setback against 6-1 Liberty and a 28-15 loss to 6-1 Raymore-Peculiar.

“They have an extremely tough schedule,” Buckmaster said. “I would say outside of Rockhurst they may have the toughest schedule in the state through the first seven games.”

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