The big games just keep coming for the California Pintos.
One week after beating a one-loss Blair Oaks team 21-10 in a battle of state-ranked squads, the Pintos face another one-loss team with aspirations on the Tri-County Conference title - the School of the Osage Indians.
California comes in at 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the league race, with a home game against Osage and a contest at Warsaw left on the schedule. Osage enters at 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference.
"If they can beat us, they can still have a chance for part of the title," California head coach Marty Albertson said. "They're going to come up here and have nothing to lose. After the Blair Oaks game, we can't go into this one not ready."
Don't expect that on California's Senior Night. If anything, the game against the Falcons proved the Pintos can handle a big-game atmosphere, winning the Homecoming contest in front of a huge crowd.
"I thought they played pretty focused with a lot going on," Albertson said of his players. "It was a big game. ... And it was a game you can look back on and say we can improve and can get better, because if we have to play (Blair Oaks) again, we'll have to get better. And I'm sure they will, too. So it's going to have to be a better football game and we have to clean up some mistakes and do some things better."
Osage is in the midst of its roughest four-game stretch of the season. After starting out the year 5-0, the Indians lost their only game of the season to Blair Oaks (55-6) and followed it up by winning their rivalry game with Eldon last week (21-16). Now the Indians face the second-ranked team in Class 3 before ending the regular season at 6-1 Hallsville.
California is looking to end the drama in the conference race by beating Osage. Two more wins would return the title to the Pintos after a one-year absence, as they last won the crown in 2012.
"It's a big deal," Albertson said. "That's our first goal of the year. Our first is conference title, the second is district title and the third and ultimate goal is a state title. We have three each year, and No. 1 is the one we're looking at right now."
The challenge for the California defense is slowing down Osage's passing game.
"They've got a pretty good quarterback (Austin Riley) who can throw the football, they've got good receivers," Albertson said. "They do have some talent. You can't take them lightly, because obviously they've won a lot of football games, they're 6-1."
Riley has completed 62-of-119 passes for 1,108 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His favorite targets are Collin Samuelson (19 catches for 396 yards and six touchdowns) and Britton McLaughlin (14 catches for 175 yards and one touchdown). Jeb Robertson has only seven catches for 152 yards, but three of them have been for scores.
When the Indians run the ball, the bulk of the carries go to Jake Ulmer. He's racked up 96 carries for 773 yards (110 per game) with six touchdowns. Justin Heiser is next on the squad with 31 carries for 250 yards and two touchdowns.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Indians like to bring pressure.
"They do a lot of blitzing, so we obviously have to pick those up," Albertson said. "I told the kids we've got to be able to control the football and run the football and control the clock. So we're going to work real hard on our running game this week and our line play and get back to that a little bit."
But if the Indians bring too much pressure, the Pintos might be able to burn the defense for long passes, as quarterback Jaden Barr did several times against Blair Oaks by extending plays.
"Jaden has a lot of talent, he's able to scramble well and is elusive back there," Albertson said. "If he gets outside, which he did a few times, he can buy himself some time. Our receivers are getting used to coming back toward him and getting open, and he's pretty good at finding them."
The one thing that could be problematic for the Pintos' offense will be the absence of running back Allan Burger.
"We're pretty healthy other than Allan," Albertson said. "He doesn't even know what he hit, but he slashed his knee open (last week). He had 11 stitches put in his knee. His knee's not sore, it was just cut wide open. So I don't think he'll be available for (tonight) just because you don't want to break those stitches open."
The absence will affect California on both side of the ball.
"Dylan Norton will have to play all the time on defense. He plays part of the time, but he'll have to play all the time now," Albertson said. "It also cuts down one of our running backs, so Dylan will probably have to play running back as well. He plays receiver, but he can also play running back. He hasn't played there much, he's only had three or four carries so far, but with Allan out, he may have to move back to running back.
"Allan's been having a great year for us and we'll miss him greatly. But Dylan is another senior who has some experience back there, so hopefully he'll do fine."
Notes: The team in front of California in the Class 3 rankings is the team that's held down the top spot all season, Maryville (7-0). ... The Pintos and Indians have four common opponents so far this season. In addition to Blair Oaks, both teams have beaten Eldon, Southern Boone and Warsaw.
California hosts School of the Osage - Updates on Twitter: @tjrackers, @SOTOsports and @PintosAthletics. Listen live online: pintosonline.com or cool1027.com