KINGDOM CITY, Mo. - The North Callaway Thunderbirds may have found a formula to fit their offense.
North Callaway stopped a two-game losing streak in dramatic fashion with its wild 42-37 Eastern Missouri Conference win at Clopton/Elsberry last week. The Thunderbirds (3-4, 2-3 EMO) will try to extend that momentum tonight when they host Wright City (4-3, 3-2) in a conference matchup. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Junior quarterback Milo Henry was able to wriggle his way into the end zone from a yard out on fourth down with 6.4 seconds left to send North Callaway to the thrilling victory. The Thunderbirds were limited to 126 yards in the first half, but responded by scoring on five of their six possessions during the final 24 minutes in racking up 354 total yards.
"I thought our game plan was pretty good, we just didn't execute very well in the first half - both blocking-scheme wise and getting the ball where it needed to be when we did throw," North Callaway head coach Kevin O'Neal said. "We tweaked some of that at halftime and changed (some) personnel in there and got rolling in the second half.
"It's definitely something that we're going to build off of, hopefully, and add to it. We installed a couple of quarterback runs for Milo to get him going, and I think that helped out to calm him down a little bit."
Henry was certainly helped by the changes, concentrating on shorter, higher-percentage throws. After misfiring on his first eight passes and going into halftime just 1-of-9 for only 3 yards, Henry bounced back to finish 11-of-21 for 194 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
He hooked up with junior running back Wyatt Branson on a 49-yard catch-and-run for a score in the third quarter, then his screen pass to sophomore tight end Adam Reno turned into an 18-yard touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter. In addition to his game-winner, Henry also had a 5-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter and ended up with 51 yards on 20 carries.
"Milo threw a lot of good balls, even his incomplete passes," O'Neal said. "He did better on his deeper balls, putting them where they needed to be. To help his confidence, we installed a lot of the quick, easy reads to get the ball out on time."
The Thunderbirds will encounter a Wright City defense that has given up a combined 62 points in the last two weeks after allowing a total of just 57 points in the first five games. The Wildcats are led by senior linebackers Austin Buchheit (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) and Kyle Tuepker (5-11, 175).
O'Neal stressed Wright City is constantly shuffling defensive players around in its schemes, making it more difficult to maintain blocking assignments.
"It becomes a little bit of a problem for offensive linemen to block those guys in space," O'Neal said. "When you've got big guys up, with their hands down, you know who you've got.
"They put a lot of guys in space and try to take advantage of that. We're going to have to be pretty disciplined up front."
Offensively, the Wildcats are averaging 27.3 points per game and are coming off a 44-18 victory at home last week against EMO foe Van-Far. Wright City bowed the previous week at home in a 44-42 overtime conference shootout to state-ranked Mark Twain.
The Wildcats are guided by senior quarterback Andrew Pfuhl (6-0, 180). Senior Derenzo Blanks (5-10, 200) will line up in the backfield next to Pfuhl, but will also take direct snaps.
Wright City's main receivers are seniors Tyler Brittain (5-9, 145) and Troy Muse (6-0, 180).
"They get their skill-position kids in space with the ball," O'Neal said. "They'll do it in a lot of different ways with bubble screens and quicks (passes) to the outside guy, then they'll run some jet sweep and some counter off of that."
North Callaway's defense allowed 302 yards of total offense last week, but just 79 yards rushing. Despite committing five pass-interference penalties, the Thunderbirds intercepted Clopton/Elsberry junior quarterback Stephen Talbert two times and sacked him twice.
"We're going to have to continue to defend the pass," O'Neal said. "That's something that we didn't see the first several weeks of the season, but we definitely saw it Friday night and I thought we did an OK job.
"We need to improve in that area this week and then next week against Van-Far we're going to see it a little bit more. ... We just need to stay disciplined and solid up front. I think our front seven do a very good job of shutting down the run."
Notes: North Callaway lost a major offensive and defensive piece when Reno - who also plays outside linebacker - broke his collarbone on the game-winning drive last week and will miss the rest of the season. Sophomore Austin Edwards will replace Reno at tight end and senior Tyler Mattes will fill in for him at linebacker.
North Callaway hosts Wright City - Updates on Twitter: @FultonSunSports
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