SportsZone Football Friday game of the week preview: Battle vs. Rock Bridge
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Rock Bridge Bruins and Battle Spartans will meet in a cross town matchup on Friday evening. Since the rivalry game started, the teams are dead even, 3-3 overall in their meetings.
You can watch the game live on KZOU over the air channel 17.3 at 7 p.m. 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
The Bruins are looking to get back in the win column, following two straight losses. In week six, Rock Bridge fell in a 59-30 shootout against Liberty High School out of Kansas City. Head coach Van Vanatta said that loss showed him what his defense needs to fix.
"We just got to execute, we got to fly around, we have to tackle, I mean we got to cover people. I could go on and on," he said. "It's just one of those things that our kids have to be better. I think our kids learned a little bit. We're 3-3 and I know people would change with us in a heartbeat, but we're in a situation, at a turning point where we got to decide what we want to do for the next four weeks."
Vanatta added that despite a rivalry matchup, it is just another week for his guys to get better.
"It's going to be a great turnout, going to be a lot of people at the game. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a nice night. It's going to be two football teams that are going to get after each other. They know each other, we know each other, coach Dubinski and myself," he said. "But, I don't care who we're playing now. We're at a point in our season where we've got to decide which direction we're going to go as a team."
Meanwhile, Jonah Dubinski's group is coming into this matchup off of a 50-point win over Smith-Cotton in week six. As Missouri enters the back half of the high school football season, Dubinski said it is all about improving on the small things.
"After every Friday night it's evaluating where you are, finding what you need to focus on, and then attacking that, finding the solutions, getting better," he said. "We all make the playoffs so it's building to get, you know, you want to be playing your best football after week nine in the season. Just keep attacking the issues you've been having or the lack of execution or whatever your issue is and build into the postseason."
Dubinski spent the 2020 football season as an offensive coach for Rock Bridge, before accepting the head coaching position with the Spartans.
"They are intelligent, high effort players, which, to me, that's the biggest compliment you can give a team. Guys who are going to play hard, no matter what the score is, that's something else and you don't see it every Friday night," he said.
The Spartans and the Bruins will kick off at 7 p.m. at Rock Bridge High School on Friday night.
