SportsZone Football Friday Game of the Week Preview: Smith-Cotton at Rock Bridge
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Rock Bridge's road to back-to-back conference crowns begins on Friday night.
The Bruins (0-1) and Smith-Cotton Tigers (1-0) are preparing to battle in their Central Missouri Activities Conference (CMAC) opener, kicking off a streak of seven straight games against league opponents for both teams.
The Tigers and Bruins are our SportsZone Football Friday Game of the Week. You can watch the game live over the air channel 17.3 on KZOU. Here is a look at other local listings:
- DirecTV - Channel 18
- Dish Network - Channel 32
- Mediacom - Channel 12 & 709
- Centurylink - Channel 12
- Spectrum - Channel 183
Rock Bridge has dominated Smith-Cotton in previous years, owning an undefeated record (5-0) against them since the inception of the CMAC in 2020. During that stretch, the Bruins have posted five straight shutouts against the Tigers.
However, head coach Matt Perkins' team is not relying on past success ahead of Friday's game. Instead, the Bruins are focused on improvement, following their 20-point loss to Park Hill in last week's season opener.
"We just got to clean it up. We got to be a little bit more prepared. I thought, when we played clean, we were very, very good," Perkins said. "There were some bright spots on both sides of the ball. I thought we had dominant offensive line play. I thought the guys that were carrying the football ran the ball really hard and with a purpose. I thought I saw a lot of selfless things on the offensive side with receivers blocking and running routes really hard when they know they're really not in the fold. So, a lot of really good things to take away on that side of the ball. Defensively, I thought we played really, really well."
On the opposite sideline, Smith-Cotton is entering this showdown with a feeling of confidence. In Week 1, the Tigers tallied their first season-opening win in three years, defeating Warrensburg by 10 points. It was also Smith-Cotton's first win over its rival since the 2017 season.
"It was great. It was great to see our kids continue to fight. We went down 7-0 early, and then, we went into halftime 7-7. I think that shows a lot of our kids' grit and determination and the ability to not get too high or too low but understand where we're at in the ball game and what we're doing, which is a big step for us as a program as a whole," Gray said. "It was a big win for us. It was a big win for the program, for this football team, and obviously, our community, with the Silver Tiger on the line and all that."
At the same time, Friday's contest represents the start of a second season: CMAC play. Rock Bridge and Smith-Cotton will each play all seven of their conference challengers over the next seven weeks, and both programs recognize the importance of capturing a win in that first game of the league slate.
"It's a big deal. Obviously, Smith-Cotton, I think it's the first time they beat Warrensburg in seven years, and so, they're coming in pretty high on the hog. We've got to match that intensity, and I think we will," Perkins said. "We want to, what Coach [Jake] Floyd says, we want to flush it, want to get that taste out of our mouth and, hopefully, get going in the right direction. So, I think you're going to see a really hungry Bruins football team."
"It's a tough conference. I think from top-to-bottom, you got to bring your A-Game every week, which is good because that prepares you for your districts," Gray said. "It's vital that we come out and just work on and execute what we need to do and not worry about who it is we're playing but making sure that we're doing what we need to do each snap."
In the meantime, Smith-Cotton and Rock Bridge have been tackling practice in preparation for Friday's game, identifying their opponents' strengths and assembling a game plan to combat them.
"They've got really good skill. I think the back end of their defense with number nine, the safety, patrolling back there. He's a handful. He's very long, very rangy, runs sideline-to-sideline. He's a physical player. They've got some speed at linebacker," Perkins said. "For the last three or four years, they've been really good at the junior high level, and so, as a staff, we knew this was coming where they were going to be a little bit better program, and Coach Gray does a really good job. They'll have a really good plan for us, and they're going to be aggressive."
"They've got great athletes that are well-coached, so for us, defensively, alignment, assignment and getting to the ball on defense is what it's about," Gray said. They're a physical defense. They get off the ball well, so for us, again, it's making sure we trust our rules offensively, and the plays that we're running that we can effectively and not get too wound up in what happened on the last play. It's about the next play."
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rock Bridge High School.
