[heading]Rock Bridge vs Fort Zumwalt West: What you need to know[/heading]

No. 6 Rock Bridge (6-5) at No. 4 Fort Zumwalt West (8-3)

7 p.m. Friday Nov. 15 at FZW

Spread: Bruins by 13

Overview:

Neither of these teams were expected to be here, playing for the district final. For both of them, this is an impossible dream.
RBHS shouldn’t have put 48 points on the No. 3 Jays (6-4) in Jefferson City, a team they had lost to 31-21 the week before. At home. On homecoming. By all normal considerations FZW shouldn’t have upset the top-ranked team in the district, defending state runner-up #1 Francis Howell (7-3), in the district semifinals last week. There’s no way the Bruins beat #2 Francis Howell Central (6-4) by 21 points.
On Friday night, one of these teams will wake up.

Breaking it down for the Bruins:

I’ve seen two different teams this season. Both came from RBHS, wore the same uniforms and had the same names on the backs of those uniforms. One team is 6-1, the other is 0-4.
For the first half of the season RBHS dominated most teams they played, and averaged 34.4 points per game. That average dropped to 24.3 during their 4-game losing streak that ended the regular season.
However, junior quarterback Logan Twehous’ injury in the first round of the playoffs provided the necessary jolt that forced the Bruins to return to their original form. In the last two games, the Bruins have outscored their opponents 82-31.

Key stats:

• Twehous’ missed game didn’t affect his performance; rather, it improved. In his first game back, he threw for four touchdowns and one interception. This year, he’s thrown for 2,945 yards with a 59.5 percent completion rate (200/336). He has 33 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Twehous has a 157.82 Quarterback Rating (QBR).*
• By comparison, in his junior year in high school, Johnny Manziel threw for 2,782 yards with a completion rate of 60.5% (211/349) and 13.185 yards per completion. He had 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. Manziel’s QBR in that year was 142.52.*
• Zach Reuter, who now owns almost every single-season and career RBHS receiving records, caught four touchdown passes last week. He has 1,260 receiving yards, averaging 21 yards per touch. That’s ridiculous.
• 4-star recruit Junior Alex Ofodile, the #1 recruit in his class in Missouri, is also playing some impressive football. He has 1,069 yards on the season and 12 touchdowns.
• Senior Ross Alexander leads the Bruins with 7.5 sacks and 132 total tackles.

Extra points:
The Bruins defeat the Jaguars 48-14 in the third week of the season, though as this postseason has shown that shouldn’t bear much relevance on the current situation.

Prediction:

With the way the Bruins have played recently, I doubt the Jaguars could stop them. However, I probably could say the same thing about FZW’s squad.
Still, I have to pick RBHS. There’s a reason they were No. 2 in the state earlier this season, and I would argue they’re playing at or above that level now. The Jaguars are good, but not good enough to defeat a rejuvenated Bruin squad.
By Brett Stover
*A previous version of this story used the NFL formula for calculating QBRs. The numbers have been changed to be in line with the NCAA formula.