CALIFORNIA - The California Pintos (0-2) are looking to bounce back from a 48-6 loss to Mexico last week.
The Pintos will face the School of the Osage Indians (1-1). The Indians are coming off of a 17-7 loss to Moberly.
The Pintos have given up 48 points in both of their losses so far this season. So far the most points the Pintos have scored in a game is 12 which they scored in the first game of the season in a loss to Lighthouse Christian Academy.
Osage has also had problems scoring as their season high came in its 14-6 win against Fulton in the Indians' first game of the season.
Through the first two weeks of the season the Pintos have been pretty healthy and head coach Derek Scroggins said that has not changed going into this week's game.
Scroggins said this week the team has been focusing on both mental and physical toughness.
"We definitely have some things we have to work on but that is what we have been keying on," he said.
Scroggins said the team is looking to bring the fight to Osage and their option offense."(Osage) can run a lot of option, they can throw the ball pretty well and they got athletes on a lot of different positions," he said.
California likes to run the option as well and Scroggins said the Pintos defense should be used to facing it.
"Our kids should be used to it, used to seeing and knowing their option responsibilities and going from that angle," he said.
The Pintos did cut down the number of turnovers on offense they had in their first game against Lighthouse Christian at seven to only one vs Mexico. Execution will still be a big key for the Pintos on offense this week.
"Last week we had some mental breakdowns where we did not execute very well offensively," Scroggins said. "It ended up costing us. Last week we had a 21 point swing starting in the last 1:30 of the first half, and the first five seconds of the second half where we feel behind 21 more points. That ended up shooting us in the foot and part of that was offensively where we ended up giving up a ball on our turnover for the night and those are things we have to cut out. Really we just got to keep executing."
Calen Kruger had California's only touchdown against Mexico, that coming on a 30-yard run.
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Related Media
California Pintos Football Podcast [School of the Osage preview, Sept. 13, 2019]