CALIFORNIA, Mo. - For the second consecutive year, California and Southern Boone will meet in the regular season and in the district playoffs, as the Pintos host the Eagles tonight in the first round of the Class 3 District 7 playoffs.
Last month, the Pintos used a trick played with a 1:20 left in the game to pull away from the Eagles and win 20-12.
As far as playing Southern Boone again, California head coach Marty Albertson doesn't particularly care for the postseason rematch.
"I don't really like it that well," Albertson said. "We know what they do defensively, so obviously we can game plan against that and try to get our kids in the right spots to be successful. There are some pluses and minuses I guess."
Albertson stressed the importance of stopping the run and forcing Southern Boone to pass the ball the last time these two teams met. While the Eagles only scored 12 points, they gained 241 yards on the ground on 41 attempts. The Pintos used two turnovers to stop important drives for the Eagles.
Senior free safety Landon Mouse forced two fumbles in the game, including one that gave California the ball with an eight-point lead and less than a minute remaining. Southern Boone had just completed a pass to get into California's territory, but Mouse stripped the ball-carrier from behind and linebacker Jacob Wolken recovered it.
Southern Boone recorded only 93 passing yards in the game, and ideally Albertson wants to force the Eagles to throw the ball more. He was quick to complement their two running backs and rushing attack.
"They have two good backs (Laron Wallace and Tanner Smith), (Smith) didn't play against us last time," Albertson said. "They've got a lot of quickness. We've got to take care business with those two and stop the run. I think they want to run the ball if they can, so we have to handle their option and do the things that take away their run."
California's pass defense has been dominant this season, only allowing 76.5 yards per game while forcing eight interceptions and 11 pass-break-ups. The Pintos had a few broken coverages against Warsaw, but were saved by incompletions for the most part.
"I think we broke down in coverage a couple of times, so yes, we will be working on that quite a bit," Albertson said. "I'm sure Southern Boone saw that, too, so they're going to try to hit us over the top, down the middle."
Prior to the first matchup with Southern Boone during the sixth week of the season, California only had one 100-yard rushing performance as a team. Wolken led the team in rushing from the quarterback position with 76 yards on 16 carries and junior Gunner Baquet had 32 yards on nine carries against the Eagles.
Since then, the Pintos have put up two 200-yard rushing games in the last three weeks of the season.
"We're beginning to be a more balanced football team over the last three weeks, which is good because early in the season we couldn't do that well and people stacked up the secondary against and made it tough to throw," Albertson said. "Now when they have to worry about stopping the run, it opens our receivers up a little better in the passing game."
California rushed for 263 yards against School of the Osage and 249 yards last week against Warsaw, but Blair Oaks held California to just 64 yards the week after Southern Boone.
The emergence of senior Brandan Gump at the running back position has re-energized the position. Gump is a converted tight end who has made the biggest impact on defense at linebacker, but has 10 carries for 155 yards in the last two games.
"Him moving back there to give Gunner a break has helped out a lot," Albertson said. "He's got some power and speed when he gets out in the open. It gives us another dimension in our running game that people have to put up with."
While Wolken is the team's leading rusher, Baquet has seen better production since Gump moved to running back. Wolken gained 227 yards and four touchdowns and Baquet has 113 yards on 21 carries, an average of 5.38 yards per carry, during the last two weeks.
A week after using the shotgun read-option play successfully, Albertson moved more toward the speed option play against Warsaw and ran it almost perfectly.
"We want to get (Wolken) outside in the option game a little bit and put pressure on their outside people," Albertson said. "He's out there, he's a good size kid and if they have a defensive back coming up to make a tackle on him, sometimes that doesn't happen."
It remains to be seen what wrinkle Albertson will use in the rushing game this week against Southern Boone, and kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Riley Field in California.
California hosts Southern Boone - Updates on Twitter: @CDemocratSports, @PintosAthletics and @SBooneHS. Listen live online: pintosonline.com. Watch live online: Lake TV
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