Monday night, Hannibal will have a chance to get revenge on the Crusaders.
Under the lights at Porter Stadium on Oct. 30, the Hannibal football team took on the Helias Crusaders in the season’s final regular season game. The winner of the contest would earn the District title and the home-field that comes along with it. The loser would face a daunting task of playing road games the entire way on its trip to a State title. Thanks to some uncharacteristically poor ball control, the Pirates coughed the ball up three times, and some poor defense, the Pirates dropped the game 42-17.
With both teams’ winning their playoff openers Wednesday, the two teams are set for a rematch Monday night. Ten days after losing to Helias at home, Hannibal hopes to return the favor by dropping the Crusaders in Sectional action of the State playoffs.
Hannibal (9-2) appeared to be vulnerable after a loss to Helias (11-0) to close out the regular season, but the Pirates responded in a big way Wednesday night. In its playoff opener, the Pirates headed to St. Peters and convincingly beat Fort Zumwalt East. With its passing game clicking for big plays and touchdowns, the Pirates rolled to a 37-12 win to set up Monday night’s rematch.
With the tightly-compacted playoff schedule, the teams will square off for the second time in less than two weeks. On one hand, that’s an advantage for the Pirates. Helias is fresh in the heads of the Pirate players. Coaches and players don’t need to spend extra time game planning for an unknown opponent — Helias is still very fresh in the minds of everyone involved with the program. On the other hand, the same can be said for the Crusaders. Still, Hannibal head coach Mark St Clair said the outcome of the last game actually helps his team.
“It’s an advantage for us, but it’s also an advantage for Helias,” St Clair said. “I think we have the bigger advantage because Helias won the game and now we have another shot at them. They won the game, and now they have to convince their kids that they have to practice hard and get ready.”
St Clair said the winner of Monday’s game should be a legitimate threat for a State title. If that team is going to be the Pirates, Hannibal can’t afford a repeat of Week 10. The first thing the Pirates will need to shore up will be the turnovers.
Throughout his coaching career, St Clair has said that the team that takes care of the ball will have a better shot of winning the game than the team that turns it over. For the season, the Pirates are plus-six in the turnover margin. If Hannibal can be on the plus side Monday, the Pirates will have a better chance of moving on. If fumbles continue to plague the Pirates, Helias could go 2-0 against its former NCMC rival.
“It’s nothing we can do schematically to limit turnovers, we just simply have to take care of the football,” St Clair said. “Our kids understand that. ... We have to end up on the plus-side of the turnover ratio to be successful. You can’t give the ball away to a good team.”
Defensively, Hannibal will also need to play a lot better. The turnovers by the Pirate offense put Helias in good field position, but that still doesn’t explain how a defense that had gone five straight weeks without allowing a single point suddenly surrendered 42. The Pirates’ defense got back into a groove against Fort Zumwalt East and will need to keep that play going Monday. As St Clair said Friday afternoon, the Pirates defense has been lights-out all season long and is capable of playing better.
“We have got to play better than we did, there is no question about that,” St Clair said. “They don’t want to give up 42 points again. ... We’ve had maybe three quarters of bad defense this year, and, unfortunately, two of them were against Helias. They took care of us when we didn’t get physical.”
Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City.
Hannibal, MO —
