Hurley Jacobs News Today

Last season, the Capital City Cavaliers took a step forward as a program, sending six wrestlers to the Class 3 state tournament. This season, Capital City coach Mitch Werdehausen said he is more focused on what happens during matches than the end result.

It has been a season of a lot of firsts for the Capital City Cavaliers. The first above-.500 record, the first winning streak, the first 60-point game, the first two 1,000-yard rushers. Now it’s time for another. For the first time, Capital City will host a playoff game.

The energy went way up in the second half. The Capital City Cavaliers scored 47 second-half points to build a 68-21 win against the Kirksville Tigers and close out a 7-2 regular season, by far the best in the three years of the program. The 68 points are far past the highest scoring total in school history, with the previous high being 49 in both last week’s win and a Sept. 18, 2020, loss to Rock Bridge.

For the first time, Capital City will have alumni coming back for Homecoming. After the school graduated its first senior class in the spring, they will have their first homecoming opportunity when the Cavaliers host Kirksville at 7 p.m. today for both Homecoming and Senior Night at Adkins Stadium. The Cavaliers will try to end the regular season on a three-game winning streak, staying near the top of the Class 5 District 4 standings with a win against the Tigers.

It’s just alignment, assignment and technique this week for Capital City. The Cavaliers got back on track with a 42-29 win against the Sedalia Smith-Cotton Tigers last week. Now they will face the Truman Patriots, who have only one win in the last three calendar years.

Once Capital City got rolling, it never stopped. The Cavaliers scored on six of their first eight possessions, with their ninth consisting of one quarterback kneel, to beat the Sedalia Smith-Cotton Tigers 42-29 and end the Central Missouri Activities Conference portion of Capital City’s schedule with a league record of 3-2.

Last week, the Capital City Cavaliers earned their first in-town win in program history. This week, they’ll go for their first city championship. “That game meant a lot to the boys,” Capital City coach Joe Collier said of beating Jefferson City 28-7 last week. “It meant a lot that for a year, after three years, they can say, ‘We won that battle.’ It’s important to them to have those bragging rights.”

It’s a tough offense to slow down, much less stop. The Helias Crusaders know they will have their hands full when they face Capital City and the option attack of the Cavaliers in Central Missouri Activities Conference action tonight at Adkins Stadium. “That’s the key matchup, our ability on defense to stop their run,” Helias coach Chris Hentges said.

The second half was all Capital City. The Cavaliers scored every time they touched the ball in the second half to lead to 28 unanswered points in a 28-7 Central Missouri Activities Conference win Friday night against the Jefferson City Jays at Adkins Stadium. The Jays went into halftime up 7-0, then the Cavaliers got moving.

The Jefferson City Jays have a big game tonight at Adkins Stadium as the Capital City Cavaliers will be on the opposite sideline. Despite all the surrounding noise coming into the game, the team on the other sideline is not a worry to the Jays. “It truly is just another week for us,” Jefferson City coach Damon Wells said.