The Fulton Hornets come into the first round of the Class 3 District 6 playoffs knowing they are facing an opponent they beat by a wide margin three weeks ago.
Fulton head coach Pat Kelley talked about trying to keep his second-seeded Hornets (7-2) grounded going into their district opener against the No. 7 Boonville Pirates (2-7) at 7 p.m. today at Robert E. Fisher Jr. Stadium.
The Hornets breezed to a 47-13 North Central Missouri Conference blitz of the Pirates on Oct. 2 in Fulton.
"On any given Friday night, anything can happen," Kelley said. "There are upsets in the sports world every day, so you can't take anything for granted.
"They're a team that's had a disappointing season, so I'm sure a win over us in a rematch would be huge. So we've got to go out and work, and make sure that doesn't happen."
Fulton relied almost exclusively on its running game in last week's 53-14 home romp against NCMC foe Kirksville to end the regular season. The Hornets amassed 557 yards of total offense, including 465 rushing, and 30 of their 37 plays were rushes.
Senior running back Travis Dean gained 240 yards last week and became Fulton's single-season rushing leader with 1,732 yards. Dean finished with 243 yards and scored three times in the earlier win against Boonville.
Junior quarterback Devin Masek threw for 185 yards and two touchdowns against the Pirates, while rushing for 28 yards and a pair of scores.
Kelley said the Fulton offense will seek to show more balance tonight with a strategy that has served it well this season.
"We're not going to try to put in anything new to trick ourselves," Kelley said. "We've had success with what we've done all year, so we're going to go out and stick to our game plan and try to execute.
"We're not going to change any schematics or anything like that. I'm not going to say we don't have a few wrinkles here and there, but we're basically going to line up and run our offense."
Boonville - averaging just 12 points per game - has lost three straight entering tonight's matchup. Kelley said the Pirates have been making adjustments since their previous meeting with the Hornets.
"Last week against Marshall (a 35-14 loss), they were in a few more power sets," Kelley said. "Their big fullback (6-foot-3, 215-pound senior Dalton Bealmer) has been playing better and better each week. He's a great lead blocker.
"When you look at them offensively and what they bring to the table, that's something that's a little different than two weeks ago."
Boonville junior Keon Johnson (5-8, 180) rushed for 125 yards and a touchdown in the loss to Fulton. Johnson broke off a 58-yard gain to set up his 6-yard score in the second quarter.
"We have to do a better job of reading (the offense)," Kelley said. "He (Johnson) had the one big run on the option. We didn't play really good assignment football on that play.
"He hurt us on the dash a little bit and the jet sweep, so we have to do a better job there with our defensive ends and our outside people. He's definitely a weapon we have to be careful of."
Pirates junior quarterback Nick Zeitlow (6-5, 185) endured a dreadful outing against the Hornets, completing just 2-of-9 passes for a meager 19 yards. Zeitlow has averaged 16 passes in the two games since then and has thrown for three touchdowns.
"We'll have to look at that," Kelley said. "A lot of that (passing) has come when they were already down big. We've looked at that and tried to chart the tendencies, but when you're down 35-0 in the second half, you have to throw.
"That's the same with us. When we were down in both of our losses, we threw a lot more than we usually do. So it's hard to know if that's a tendency, or if that was just desperation trying to catch up."
Fulton hosts Boonville - Updates on Twitter: @FultonSunSports. Listen live online: kfalthebig900.com
Podcast