SportsZone Football Friday Game of the Week Preview: Jefferson City at Rock Bridge

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Rock Bridge is preparing to play on its home turf for the first time this season. The Bruins will welcome the Jefferson City Jays to Columbia for their home opener on Friday night.

The Jays and Bruins are our KZOU Game of the Week. 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

Both teams bounced back from season-opening losses in Week 2. The Jays soared past Sullivan 35-22 at Adkins Stadium while the Bruins shutout Smith-Cotton 50-0 on the road. Rock Bridge football coach Matt Perkins was proud of how his defense responded last week after the team allowed 46 points in a heart-wrenching triple overtime loss at Park Hill. Jefferson City football coach Eric Thomas also liked the adjustments his group made in Week 2, especially their effort.

"We played harder in Week 2. That's the big thing we've been talking about all along, but sometimes when you're thinking and everything else is going on, you slow down. So, I thought we did a better job in Week 2 of playing fast. We simplified things quite a bit on both sides of the ball and just tried to allow the kids to go play fast. I think we saw that. I thought we saw our penalties go down. We went from like 14 to like five, so we cut that even more than in half. Just the physicality of the game, and kids starting to learn how to play physical," Thomas said.

"I think they did respond well [in Week 2]. We're young in a lot of key areas [on defense], and those guys are going to have some ups and downs. How they respond to that adversity is key because it's not going to be always on the uphill climb with things going well, and I thought they handled the adversity better," Perkins said. "I thought we traveled well, even the Park Hill game, it's not like we were flat or anything. I thought we played pretty solid on the night. That's a good football team. They're 2-0 right now, and I think they'll be 3-0 after this week, so it's not like we lost to a bad team. [We're] just trying to right the ship a little bit. I thought we got on track last week, and now, we get to be at home with the Jays coming into town. There's a lot of excitement for sure."

Entering Week 3, Rock Bridge and Jefferson City both have an opportunity to boost their young 2024 CMAC resumes. The Bruins are a flawless 1-0 in conference play while the Jays are seeking their first CMAC win of the Eric Thomas era. To accomplish that goal, Jefferson City will have to snap a skid of seven straight losses to Rock Bridge by earning their first win against them since the 2016 season.

"We got to make sure that we understand that we can go compete at a very high level, so the mental part of it is the first part of it. Getting over, I don't think we've beat Rock Bridge in quite awhile now, and getting through the pregame of the looks and the feel of everything that's associated with Rock Bridge," Thomas said. "I think the turnover battle is huge, and then, as always, it sounds really cliche but it's going to be won and lost at the line of scrimmage and can our offensive line take care of that defensive line and can our defensive line hold in there against a big, physical offensive line."

"They're going to fly around. They're going to play really physical. They're going to be hungry. They're going to come down here thinking that they want to knock off Rock Bridge. I feel like we've got a target on our back every night we play. I'm sure they're going to have us circled, and this will be like winning the Super Bowl for those guys. We're not going to let that happen. We're going to come out and play really aggressive and be super classy and beat them up," Perkins said.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rock Bridge High School.