Oct. 20, 2017

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --- It was nine weeks ago that this high school football season started, a night of celebration at Helias.

Welcome to the world, Ray Hentges Stadium, as all this concrete, all these bleachers, and this 120-yard plot of lovely, fuzzy green field turf came to life.

A thing of beauty. It's what this 2017 season will be remembered for.

Now, this --- this football game was not a thing of beauty, but this Helias football season still has life.

In a defensively-challenged affair, Blake Veltrop rushed for four touchdowns and the Crusaders pulled away in the second half to the throttle the Liberty-Wentzville Eagles 66-42 in the Class 4 District 7 opener Friday night at Ray Hentges Stadium.

It really doesn't matter if this were an attractive outing, or not. Because at this point, just win and advance --- that's the name of the game.

Helias (5-5), the district's No. 4 seed, had its way on offense against No. 5 seed Liberty (5-5) from start to finish. But in the first half, the same could be said the other way.

Tackling seemed like a foreign concept. To put it another way, you'll see harder hits on a Tuesday afternoon at the mall than you saw on this football field Friday night.

Again, that was in the first half, which featured 617 total yards, 316 by the Eagles.

No less than 205 of those yards came on three touches by explosive Liberty senior Wesley Hines, who scored touchdowns on runs of 78 and 80 yards, and took a swing pass for a 47-yard score on an improbable final play of the first half.

The Crusaders had defensive answers after the break, however, holding Hines in check and pitching a shutout until the game's final minutes against the team's lower units.

But the Eagles had no such answers for the Helias offense, just more blank stares and missed tackles.

Helias led 10-7 after one quarter and 31-28 at the half, before blowing it opening at 59-28 on the heels of a 28-point third quarter. The biggest lead of the game --- a phrase usually reserved for basketball --- was 38, at 66-28.

The offensive stars for Helias, which was likely playing its final home game the season, included:

^ Veltrop, who scored on a 29-yard scamper on the Crusaders' first play from scrimmage, and also had touchdown runs of 2 yards (on the first play of the second quarter), 12 and 13 yards;

^ Daniel Rhea, who hit paydirt from 17 yards and 4 yards;

^ and Connor McKenna (21-yard run), Blake Savage (8-yard run) and Jacob Weaver (7-yard run), along with a 37-yard field goal by Vito Calvaruso.

The Crusaders still need two more wins --- starting next Friday at Warrenton in the district semifinals --- to secure a second straight winning season under third-year head coach Tim Rulo. Rulo is now 15-18 at Helias, but only two of those wins have come against teams that ended the season with winning records.

One was Tolton, a team Helias beat earlier this season. The other?

Warrenton in last year's district semifinals.

Loeffler's Link

Crusaders find some defense, pull

away from Eagles in district debut

The Helias Crusaders ran over and around the Liberty-Wentzville Eagles in a 66-42 triumph in the opening round of district play Friday night at Ray Hentges Stadium.