By Jim Fryar
jfryar@joplinglobe.com
The player wearing No. 29 will be a marked man when the Lamar defense takes the field today in a Class 2 quarterfinal football playoff game at Fair Grove.
For Caleb Schaffitzel, that’s nothing new. He’s been marked by opposing defenses throughout his prep career. Not that it’s done much to slow him down.
Schaffitzel is the Missouri high school career record-holder for touchdowns (140). He broke the record set by current Pierce City coach Brad Hocker.
The 6-foot, 205-pound senior running back has gained 2,650 yards and scored 48 touchdowns this season, after scoring 53 in 14 games a year ago.
“He has the ability to just take over a game, to break a tackle or two, to take it 50 or 60 yards through your defense,” said Lamar coach Scott Bailey, whose staff had started a scouting report on Fair Grove for a potential quarterfinal match a year ago. Lamar didn’t make it that far then, but the Tigers were aware of Schaffitzel and his ability.
Now they get to see first-hand. Today’s game kicks off at 1:30 p.m.
Lamar, 6-6 with five wins in a row, will again be cast in the underdog role. It’s a familiar, and increasingly comfortable, role for Lamar’s players.
“Playing the (Big 8) conference schedule we play, I think it prepared us well for the level of teams we’re playing now,” Bailey said. “We’re playing a pretty good caliber of teams, but we’re playing with confidence.”
The same can be said of Fair Grove. The Eagles, 12-0, ended the regular season as the No. 2-ranked Class 2 team in the state.
They made a rapid recovery after graduating 16 seniors, many of them starters, from a state semifinal qualifier last season.
“We graduated every starting offensive and defensive lineman as well as our first backup,” said Jason O’Neal, Fair Grove coach. “We scheduled some larger schools early, so we had to kind of get things figured out quickly. To our kids’ credit, they bought in to what we were doing and worked hard. We have a lot of young kids playing this year and they felt like they had something to prove, to continue something we started last year.”
A small but solid nucleus returning on defense included Schaffitzel and fellow veteran linebackers Sam Padgett and Jared Green.
“Schaffitzel gets a lot of recognition due to his offensive statistics,” O’Neal said. “But to be honest, I think he makes as big a difference on the defensive side of the ball. He’s a hitter and he’s always flying to the ball. He’s very fast and he prevents a lot of big plays from happening.”
Said Bailey: “They’re not a defense that just dominates teams. They’re just kind of opportunistic. They seem to rise up and get a stop when they need it, to make a play when they need it.
Bailey knows Schaffitzel and Co. will likely do some offensive damage. He just wants to control it to some extent.
“We know he’s going to get his yards,” Bailey said of the Fair Grove back. “But we can’t let him take over the game. It’s going to have to be a team defensive effort.”
O’Neal said Fair Grove will face a challenge in stopping Lamar’s offense.
“Lamar is a very good ball club and I think it’s going to be a great game,” he said. “Their offense is based on deception and a lot of misdirection. It’s hard for kids to defend. The key for us is going to be playing good old assignment football on defense. They’re good up front, with some big kids who come off the ball, and they have the skill-position players who can execute their offense.
“I know they will be prepared. Their schedule is brutal.”
Today’s winner will play either Maryville or Hogan Prep in the state semifinals.
