A dominant victory, a pair of school records and their first winning streak of the season has the Helias Crusaders confident heading into the playoffs.
"We're excited," Crusaders coach Tim Rulo said as Helias (5-4) gets set to host the Warrensburg Tigers (3-6) in the first round of the Class 4 District 7 playoffs Saturday at Adkins Stadium. "I don't know if two games counts as a big-time winning streak, but it's better than the roller coaster we've been on, that's for sure."
It was loss-win and repeat through the first eight games for the Crusaders before last Saturday's 50-27 victory against the DeSmet Spartans.
"We played a great game," Rulo said.
A pair of Crusaders established school records in the game.
On the defensive side, Zach Stiles picked off four DeSmet passes.
"You thought he had a magnet for the ball," Rulo said. "It was a great night for him."
Stiles returned one of the interceptions for a touchdown. It's the second straight week the Helias defense has scored a touchdown.
"That's such a momentum booster," Rulo said. "When you can turn takeaways into scores, that's such a positive."
On offense, Jacob Storms ran for a record 315 yards for the Crusaders.
"I've had some talented running backs in my coaching career and I don't know if I've ever had one even get to 200 yards," Rulo said. "For him to break 300 is unreal. I've watched the film many times and I'm still blown away.
"Jacob found another gear."
Helias picked up 516 yards on the ground in the game. To celebrate the big effort, the Crusader quarterbacks and running backs took the offensive line out to dinner this week.
"They realize that the line is playing at a very high level right now," Rulo said.
Helias did not complete a pass against DeSmet, finishing 0-for-5.
"Ultimately, we want to be able to throw the ball more," Rulo said. "But when you get 500 yards-plus rushing, you don't want to force anything.
"When you're running the ball that well, you just have to keep feeding the beast."
Warrensburg also will bring a two-game winning streak into the game, closing the regular season with victories against Nevada (22-0) and O'Hara (54-34).
Obviously, the Tigers are still improving.
"They are still working through things," Rulo said. "You can tell they are trying to figure things out."
On offense, Warrensburg operates out of the wing-T.
"People can say it's a small-school offense, but it's an offense that can be tough to stop when it's run at a high level," Rulo said. "If you're not totally prepared for it, it's an offense that can get big yards against you pretty quickly. Big plays can pop if you're not following your reads and our keys."
The Helias defense can't afford to get caught looking into the backfield to see who has the football.
"If you're focused on just the backfield, that's when you give up big gains," Rulo said.
Helias has not seen the wing-T this season.
"It uses a lot of misdirection and deception," Rulo said. "You can see they're getting better at running it each and every week."
The Tigers do not throw the ball very often.
"But they can run the ball and run the ball, then throw it for a touchdown when you key too much on the run," Rulo said.
After seeing a majority of spread offense teams in recent weeks, the Crusaders are back to preparing for a run-first offense
Now we're getting back to basic reads and packing things in tight, we've gotten some good looks against it in practice this week," Rulo said. "It will be a good challenge for us."
In another wrinkle, the Tigers often use the swinging gate to go for 2-point conversions.
"We've spent practice time against it, you have to be prepared for it," Rulo said.
Defensively, the Tigers use a 3-4 front, somewhat similar to DeSmet.
"Warrensburg has seen some offenses similar to what we run," Rulo said. "We do a few things differently, but they have had games against our style of offense."
This is the first step in what Helias hopes is a deep postseason run.
"I think we have a lot of potential for the remainder of the season, there are a lot of things ahead of us that we can accomplish," Rulo said.
"Our guys have put in a ton of work. Now we just need to keep getting better."
Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday.
III
Notes: Helias finished ahead of Hannibal in the final district point standings (39.49-38.61), but the Pirates got the No. 1 seed because of its 19-14 victory against the Crusaders on Aug. 19. "That can be frustrating, but the rules are the rules," Rulo said. The Helias-Warrensburg winner will face the Warrenton-Kirksville winner in the district semifinals. With a win Saturday, Helias would host that game. The other district games will pit Hannibal against Marshall and Moberly hosting Warrenton. Helias will be without starting lineman Sam Clardy for the second straight game. Starting kicker Sam Heckart is expected to see action Saturday for the Crusaders.
Helias Catholic hosts Warrensburg, 7 p.m. Saturday
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