SportsZone Football Friday Game of the Week Preview: Battle at Hickman

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

There will be much more than just city bragging rights on the line when the lights are fired up over Alumni Stadium on Friday night. Battle is set to make the short trip to Hickman for a crosstown showdown where one of the two programs will walk away with their first win of the 2024 season.

The Spartans and Kewpies 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

Hickman and Battle both kicked off the young season with slow starts. Entering Week 4, the Kewpies and Spartans both hold 0-3 records, including losses to Capital City and Helias respectively in their most recent outings. Along with the identical records, both Hickman head coach Justin Conyers and Battle head coach Matthew Herman have preached the same message to their teams: stick together.

"For us, the one solid thing that I will say is we've stuck together," Conyers said. "We're doing the right things. We're saying the right things. We're in the moments. It's just the things that we talk about and we preach day in and day out is consistency, and the reason we're not having success in the win column is because we're not doing the things that we need to do on a consistent basis, and our kids can see it."

"For us, it's about staying together. That's something we've talked about a lot this offseason, this winter, this spring, being back here this summer and in the fall, but going through and making sure that we're staying together," Herman said. "Staying together has been our thing that we've talked about a bunch, and we have the right guys to do that."

This rivalry has only featured one winner in the nine all-time meetings between the two schools. Battle has yet to lose to Hickman in the history of this relatively new crosstown showdown, adding an extra layer of meaning to Friday night's contest for Conyers' crew.

"This one is big, and the reason it's so big is because since the inception of Battle High School in 2013, Hickman has never beat Battle High School. For us, this game means a lot. It's more than just city bragging rights. It's an opportunity to set the tone for the future of Hickman Football," Conyers said. "We're both sitting here. We're both 0-3. Somebody's going to win. Somebody's going to have a win when we walk away from this thing on Friday night, and why not us?"

"No matter if you play Hickman or Rock Bridge, it's going to be a good game. It's going to be everybody's best. Everybody wants to give 100% effort the entire time. Usually, that week of preparation is a lot better than it has been in the past, and for us, it's all about what can we do," Herman said.

From the potential of flipping the script of their seasons to claiming that first win of the new campaign against a city rival, there's also a personal component to this matchup this year. Conyers and Herman were both on the same coaching staff at Battle High School from 2013-2018, and now, both head coaches want to make sure they are the one walking away with the victory.

"It's going to be a bit of a different dynamic. This is the one time we're trying to make sure that the other guy actually loses on Friday night, and so that's going to be a different change for us, but you know, it's great," Herman said. "It's going to be a different environment for us, but I'm really excited for our kids to get out here and go compete and get a 'W' this week."

"It's straight pride. You go to a place, and you obviously have a guy on staff that's like a brother to you, you know, you work six years together day in and day out. We had a real close-knit relationship during that time, but I don't want to lose to him. He doesn't want to lose to me," Conyers said. I told [Herman] this during one of our professional development days before the school year started. Every other week I'm rooting for you, you know, and I want [Battle] to be successful and I want them to win. I was there for six years, and we had a ton of success during that time, but this week I don't want you to win, and I want to kick your tail."

The opening kick of this contest is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.