Prep Football: Jays facing Springfield Central for first time since 1965 season

Jefferson City running back Rashaun Woods bowls over a McCluer North player on his way to a big gain during last Friday night's game at Adkins Stadium.
Jefferson City running back Rashaun Woods bowls over a McCluer North player on his way to a big gain during last Friday night's game at Adkins Stadium.

Rewind to 2002 when the Jefferson City Jays were a 2-8 team. That season followed a state semifinals appearance. It was also the final time Central High School out of Springfield had a winning record in the regular season before the Bulldogs went 5-4 last season.

Now go all the way back to 1965. That's when the Bulldogs and Jays last met on the football field - a 41-0 victory for Jefferson City. Pete Adkins was in just his eighth of 37 seasons coaching the Jays.

The Jays and Bulldogs will finally meet again, facing off at 7 p.m. today at Adkins Stadium.

Jefferson City has changed head coaches three times since the teams last played each other. Central just hired Sean Nevills, who is its third head coach since 2012.

The newest head man for the Bulldogs has ties to Mid-Missouri, having spent the past three years as an assistant coach for the Battle Spartans.

He replaced Lorenzo Williams, a former standout defensive lineman for the Missouri Tigers and assistant coach at Helias. Williams returned to his home state, leaving Central to coach Westmoore in Oklahoma City.

Nevills leads a Bulldogs team coming off a 5-4 regular season before losing 76-48 to Glendale in district play.

"They look like Battle," Jays coach Ted LePage said of the Bulldogs. " They do a lot of things exactly like Battle does. They do them very similar, very efficiently. They are a very quarterback-dominated offense like Battle is. They want to put the ball in the hands of their best athlete, which is their quarterback."

Central didn't have any problems putting points on the board last season, averaging more than 34 points per contest. Its issue came on the other side of the ball, allowing opponents to score more than 35 points per game.

The Bulldogs only got into the end zone once last week, losing 31-6 to Logan-Rogersville.

"They are going through some areas where he's trying to find out what his team does well, what his team doesn't do well," LePage said. "I think they'll clean up a lot of things from the first week to the second week."

The Bulldogs were young at key positions last season, so they return junior quarterback Quintin Batson and junior running back Garrett King.

Batson completed 64.3 percent of his passes and averaged 181.5 yards through the air last season. King scored 16 times on the ground and averaged 128 yards.

"He is very efficient," LePage said of Batson. "He looks very much like the guy (we faced) last week. They do some good things up front. They have probably a little bit better schemes than last week. Last week they were pretty simple."

McCluer North quarterback Rashad Wilkins gained 65 yards on 16 runs while going 5-for-13 for 117 yards through the air against the Jays in Week 1.

Jays backup quarterback Devin Roberson served as the scout-team quarterback this week, helping the defense prepare for another dual-threat player behind center.

"We just told (Roberson) to keep running backwards and keep running sideline to sideline and just trying to make everybody put a net around him,"LePage said.

LePage said the defense should be able to keep the quarterback from getting too far downfield.

"Watching them all week during practice, it's flying around, excitement," he said. "It's a team mentality. We feel like we can contain the quarterback a little bit better."

As for the Jays offense, they are hoping to get their running game going after totalling 68 yards last week.

"I'd like to get our downhill game going a little bit more," LePage said. "We know we have speed to get to the edges. Playing a team like McCluer North, they were so fast it was hard to get to the edges."

The Jays have been preparing to go up against a 4-2-5 and a 3-3-5 defense this week.

"They are going to be extremely disciplined," LePage said. "It's a little confusing too because they also jump into a 3-3, which a 3-3 defense is penetrating, get them before they get us type of defense. You've got to approach it a bit differently."

Jefferson City leads the series with the Bulldogs 12-8-1, including seven straight Jays victories.

Jefferson City hosts Springfield Central 

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