By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
Joplin High School has scored at least 35 points in seven of eight games this season.
The lone exception was the Eagles’ 23-20 loss at Camdenton, and that was the only game the teams did not combine for at least 60 points.
As the Eagles play their final home game of the season tonight against Lee’s Summit, is another high-scoring affair on the horizon?
“It could be one of those games going in you think there will be a lot of points scored,” Joplin head coach Doug Buckmaster said. “But a lot of times when you expect something like that, the opposite happens.”
Kickoff is at 7 at Junge Field on Senior Night. The Eagles’ 21 seniors will be recognized during pregame activities.
The Eagles (6-2) and Lee’s Summit (2-6) lost their Class 6 District 7 openers last week. Joplin fell 63-35 at Lee’s Summit North while the Tigers lost to Rockhurst 35-0..
“Offensively they are similar to what we do as far as being a spread offense,” Buckmaster said. “They’ll be in some one-back spread, some two-back shotgun, and now and then they’ll get in the I formation.
“From the tapes we’ve watched, they seem to like to throw the football. Their sophomore quarterback (Corbin Berkstresser) is about 6-foot-3, 210 (pounds). He throws the ball very well, and the more I watched him, the more I liked him. He’s not near as explosive as the Lee’s Summit North quarterback, but they will throw the football, and they have a pretty talented running back. They have a pair of wide receivers who are pretty good, a tight end who’s 6-6.
“They have some size offensively and defensively. They will be a lot bigger football team than what we’ll put on the field.”
The Eagles piled up 613 yards on offense last week, but the defense yielded 457 yards rushing and eight touchdowns on just 37 snaps.
“We had 24, 26 missed tackles in the game,” Buckmaster said. “A lot of our problems last week were similar to what happened earlier in the year when kids didn’t play within the scheme somewhat. And then poor tackling just escalated our problem.
“There were stops to be made. We just didn’t make the tackle. There were numerous times when we had them hit for a one-yard gain or maybe even a loss and had numerous players make contact with the ball carrier. But they were still able to bust out of the pile and turn it into a big gain. When you’re not sure tacklers against good athletes, you’re going to have problems. It was nothing they did out of the ordinary offensively.”
A question Buckmaster heard many times this week: “Are you going to work more on tackling this week?”
“We’ve worked on tackling every week since Day One,” Buckmaster said. “We spend a tremendous amount of time on tackling, and we’re still working on tackling. Our kids were disappointed in how they played on the defensive side of the ball. This week I noticed the kids were a lot more physical in practice. I think they’ve taken it to heart a little bit. Our hope is we’ll come out and get a couple of stops early, and hopefully our confidence will build there.”
Joplin junior quarterback Devin St. Clair threw for a career-best 460 yards and four touchdowns last week, and Dane Kolkmeyer caught 14 balls for 196 yards and two scores. For the season St. Clair has passed for 2,303 yards and 23 TDs, and Kolkmeyer has 81 receptions for 1,311 yards and 14 TDs.
Running back Ron King ran for 128 yards last week, leaving him 65 yards shy of 1,000 for the season.
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