Collinsville High School enters their first Southwestern Conference game of the year fresh off a sloppy victory.
The victory matched the Kahoks (1-1) total for the entire 2012 season and was their first under new head coach John Blaylock. The team celebrated the victory, but soon discovered that Blaylock was not satisfied with merely winning.
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There was plenty of additional conditioning work as a result of the 16 penalties committed in the 24-14 win over Triad, Blaylock said. In addition to punishment for past penalties, the team focused on technique changes for the wide receivers and hand placement for the offensive linemen to reduce future mistakes.
The Kahoks prepared for Belleville East (1-0) this week, but their primary focus was on improving their fundamentals. “We have to focus on ourselves, not on our opponent,” Blaylock said. “Our focus this week was on cutting down mistakes and improving our game.”
As the final score would suggest, the game was not all doom and gloom for Collinsville. The Kahoks turned the ball over only one time, while forcing three. They committed three turnovers and forced four in the season opening 23-21 loss to Althoff.
The 3.5 turnovers per game is slightly ahead of last year’s 3.33 rate. Forcing turnovers is a point of emphasis. “We have techniques we teach to try to force fumbles,” Blaylock said.
The offensive line also graded out well, which may surprise some. Collinsville rushed for 221 yards, about half as much as their first game. If some holding calls were taking away, the total would have been slightly below the 428 gained against Althoff and two touchdowns would have added to the scoreboard, Blaylock said.
When the Kahoks have the ball against the Lancers, they will attempt to take advantage of some alignments and matchups Blaylock believes favors his team. They will also try to overcome Belleville East’s speed on defense.
When Belleville East has the ball, Collinsville will attempt to neutralize the running game, led by junior running back Demarius Ward. Ward has rushed for over 100 yards in each game this year. He has rushed for 223 yards and averages 6.8 yards per carry on the season.
“They are a good old fashioned ‘I’ team that will play smash mouth with you if you’ll let them,” Blaylock said. “Coach Funk isn’t going to change his approach because he’s playing the Kahoks.”
Blaylock has been pleased with Collinsville’s special teams play, especially the punt and kick-off coverage. “With Josh Calvin’s leg, sometimes you don’t need a coverage team,” Blaylock said. Calvin, a senior kicker and punter, missed the first game of the season. He averaged 40 yards per punt and 55.75 yards per kickoff against Triad. He twice hit booming punts from his own end zone to avoid allowing Triad to gain possession on the Kahoks’ side of the 50 yard line.
The game will be rough and tumble, Blaylock said. “It will be a very physical Southwestern Conference football game,” Blaylock said. “If we don’t play well, they can roll it up on us pretty quickly.”
Kick off is at 7 p.m. Friday at Belleville East Football Stadium. The game will be streamed live at kahoksports.com.
