By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
Lockwood is a prime example of the topsy-turvy football world in the Spring River Valley Conference.
“Diamond, a team that was in the the lower part of our conference, led us for a huge chunk of the game,” Lockwood head coach Clay Lasater said. “And we beat Greenfield, who was one of the best teams.
“It’s gotten so much better the last couple of years. I thought it was tough last year even though the records were not as good as they are this year. So many schools returned so many players, it was fun week to week. There were a number of games you felt you knew what was going to happen, but you knew any week somebody was going to surprise you.”
Six SRVC teams — five in Class 1 and one in Class 2 — will be in action tonight when postseason play kicks off in Missouri.
“We saw early our conference was a lot stronger from top to bottom than we have been,” said head coach Jamie LaSalle of Greenfield, whose team tied Miller for the conference championship.
“Everybody I’ve talked to said this is a lot tougher conference than it was a year ago,”Miller first-year head coach Dustin Baldwin said. “It shows the conference is improving, but it also worked out that only one district had three teams in it.”
Miller at Jasper
Miller beat the visiting Eagles 33-20 in the regular-season matchup on Sept. 18.
“They broke some big run plays on us,”Jasper head coach Josh Dirks said. “The counter play hurt us that night.”
“We were up 20-0, and their receiver made a big play before half to get them back in the game,” Baldwin said. “They were able to do some stuff on offense in the second half they could not do in the first half.”
Jasper (8-2) is in the playoffs for the first time since 1993. The Eagles’ eight victories are one less than their combined total from the previous five seasons.
“I expected a good year. I don’t know if I expected this good of a year,” Dirks said. “I think we’re playing pretty well. We’re running different offensive personnel than we ran against them the first time. I think we run it a little more effective. ... We need to control the ball and sustain some long drives.”
Miller (8-2) bounced back from its district-opening loss to Thayer to win its last two games over Cabool and Marionville.
“Thayer took it to us pretty good. We didn’t play overly great, but a lot of it is credit to them, of course,” Baldwin said. “These last two games I felt like we turned the corner a little bit, defensively especially. We’ve gotten after people the last two games, played more aggressive, more downhill, tackling better. We did a lot of things right the last two games.”
With the exception of center Garrett Jester, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Thayer, the health of Miller’s team has improved. Quarterback Justin Jack has been limited to approximately eight quarters this season, but he started and finished last week’s game against Marionville.
“The last three or four weeks, we’ve had a lot of kids come back,” Baldwin said. “It’s been nice, having more bodies in practice, more people to get reps. Last week was the first time Justin finished a game. We kid him a little about that.”
Looking ahead to tonight’s game, “We have to run the football and spread it around a little bit o our receivers,”Baldwin said. “I felt we threw it pretty well a few times with Justin.
“Defense is the key for us. You have to limit their big plays in the passing game (quarterback Matt Newman to wide receiver Jeff Piepenbrink), and the running back (Austin Spencer) is a good player as well, you can’t let him pound it on you all night.”
Liberal at Adrian
There’s a good chance this Class 1 playoff game will be the first one completed.
“We are very similar teams,”Liberal head coach Lewis Dunkeson. “We run the ball a lot. They are a double-wing team like we are. The only difference is he spreads out one receiver and I don’t. It might be one of the fastest football games ever played if we both just try to run the football. Hopefully we’ll make him have to pass the ball, and that’s probably his plan for us, too.”
Liberal (6-4) has won four of its last five games. The Bulldogs lost their district opener 32-6 to Greenfield but have blanked Rich Hill 54-0 and Osceola 50-0 the last two games.
“We’ve had some big numbers the last two weeks,”Dunkeson said. “I’m not sure how realistic those scores are. We’ll find out Wednesday night when we play. To show up in the mud bowl and still put up points like we did and execute like we did, not fumble the ball ... we’re playing well.”
Liberal’s 1-2 rushing attack has gained more than 2,400 yards. Jordan Meadows has 1,449 yards and 17 touchdowns on 204 carries, and Zach Lovell has 147 rushes for 966 yards and nine scores.
Wade Sprenkle leads the Bulldog defense with 50 solo tackles and 64 assists.
Adrian (8-2) has won seven straight since consecutive losses to Galena (Kan.) 27-7 and Sherwood 14-12. The Blackhawks have allowed only two scores during their winning streak, and the closest game was last Thursday’s 24-0 decision at Appleton City.
The Blackhawks are led by long-time coach George Bruto, a Missouri Southern graduate who has a 213-58 career record.
Archie at Greenfield
Greenfield (9-1) rolled to its district title, and shutouts in the last two games gave the Wildcats four four the season.
“We’re playing pretty well,”LaSalle said. “I think we’re playing about as good as we have all year.
A big key for us is no turnovers, and playing good defense is our big thing. When we’re playing really good on defense, we tend to do real well.”
Archie (4-6) finished second behind Adrian in District 6.
“They run kind of a spread offense, and they like to run a lot of option,” LaSalle said. “They would rather run the ball than throw. On defense they like to blitz a lot. They are not an overly big team, but they are pretty quick.”
Lockwood at Thayer
The Tigers have the toughest test among their Class 1 conference brethren. Thayer was state runner-up a year ago, falling to Orrick 34-28 in two overtimes.
“This is the toughest test that we’ve had in the six years that I’ve been here,”Lasater said. “They run the football very well. They are big and physical up front, probably the best team I’ve seen up front. They have three backs who are fast and run the ball hard. They lost their quarterback from last year, and people thought that might make them down, but their line is so good and their backs are so good, it makes them tough to stop them running the ball.”
Lasater said his team is playing its best football right now.
“We played real well in Week 7 against Greenfield,”he said. “Week 8 against Jasper we came up short (19-15) in what I thought was a really good football game. We passed for 350 yards against Sarcoxie the next week, and then in the mud bowl against McAuley it was hard to tell anything.”
Pierce City at Warsaw
Pierce City (6-4) also faces a daunting task as the Eagles open Class 2 playoff action at Warsaw for the second straight year.
“They are big, fast, intelligent, aggressive,” Pierce City head coach Brad Hocker said. “Everything you look for in a team that’s going to compete to go to the Dome they are it.
“What we need to do is to strive to keep the ball out of their hands, convert on third down, run time off the clock ... do the things you try to do each and every week.”
Warsaw (10-0) almost saw its perfect regular season end last week, but the Wildcats nipped El Dorado Springs 14-8 in four overtimes. The previous week, Warsaw whipped Skyline 48-0 to give head coach Randy Morrow career victory No. 250.
The Wildcats averaged 40.2 points this season and allowed 14.5, but they’ve held five of their last six opponents to a touchdown or less.
The Eagles have averaged 30.4 points and given up 17.2. The Eagles have won three of their last four games, losing 35-0 at Lamar in Week 8 when they were without their quarterback and strongside linebacker.
“We replaced them with freshmen, and that’s a rough thing to do,”Hocker said. “The kids played hard, and in the other two district games, we played pretty well when we were full strength.”
