Van-Far knew a tough North Callaway team would follow after a tough loss at home to Wright City last week.
Still, Van-Far allowed 457 total yards and managed four total yards in a 50-8 loss to …
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Van-Far knew a tough North Callaway team would follow after a tough loss at home to Wright City last week.
Still, Van-Far allowed 457 total yards and managed four total yards in a 50-8 loss to Eastern Missouri Conference rival North Callaway (7-1, 5-0 EMO). The Indians (4-4, 3-3 EMO) tied North Callaway at 8 in the first quarter on a 78-yard interception return for a touchdown by Gaven Gaston but fell off after that.
Head coach Lucas Gibson said North Callaway’s defense showed why it hasn’t allowed points in three straight weeks.
“Their linebackers are really good and pursue the ball well,” Gibson said. “They are pretty aggressive on defense.”
Gibson said it was like “a house of cards” as Van-Far was down a few players going into the night and then lost key players like Gaston and Evan Utterback. Gibson said North Callaway’s offense with multiple threats became harder to stop when Gaston wasn’t in the secondary and Utterback wasn’t on the line.
“We were getting pretty thin when we only have 20 guys,” Gibson said. “We had Pacey (Reading) at safety, and he never played the position before. A lot of things were backing up against us in the second half.”
North Callaway had 269 yards on the ground and scored five touchdowns that way. Kellen Long had 200 total yards, including 88 rushing and three touchdowns on the ground. Gibson said it is difficult to address everything when facing a dual-threat offense, but his team ultimately did a “decent job” stopping the run after North Callaway ran for 362 yards in the previous week and 405 yards in the week before that.
“Our game plan was to stop the run because they are big and physical and can run the football,” Gibson said. “Our game plan was to stop one or the other. We have a better chance at stopping the run the way our team is built.”
Van-Far closes the regular season at Scotland County (5-3) at 7 p.m. Friday, and Gibson is focused now on getting healthy before districts.
“I just hope we can get back healthy before the postseason,” Gibson said. “That’s my main goal. I feel like we have a good shot at districts if we can (have) our guys.”
