Tomorrow at 7 p.m., the Bruins take on the Hickman Kewpies in the annual Providence Bowl for their second straight road game.
With crosstown bragging rights on the line, RBHS hopes to have a change of pace from its rocky start. Narrow defeats against Rockhurst High School and Battle High School at home and two demoralizing beatings on the road against De Smet Jesuit High School and Lee’s Summit West High School (LSWHS) have resulted in an 0-4 record on the season.
“We’ve played four really good football teams, and there’s times we kind of make mistakes and beat ourselves, and every time we make mistakes the other teams are capitalizing on it,” Head Coach Van Vanatta said. “And instead of capitalizing on their mistakes, we’re making more mistakes, and that’s just where we’re at. It is just frustrating.”
Blunders such as allowing a touchdown on the opening kickoff return against LSWHS keep the Bruins from reaching their full potential. Junior offensive lineman Daniel Forte said these mishaps don’t demonstrate what the team’s ability and capacity truly is.
“I believe that the scores of the past four games do not reflect who we are as a team and what we are capable of,” Forte said. “Our effort, intensity and physicality has been apparent in each game. Mental mistakes are what is holding us back.”
Furthermore, Forte said if every Bruin rallies as one and executes on each play, the team would improve astronomically.
“We need to come together as a team by believing in each other and persevering through adversity,” Forte said. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken,” said Forte, who was quoting Ecclesiastes 4:12 New International Bible. “We cannot change the past for the future is what lies ahead.”
Because the team hasn’t unified yet, its play has suffered. Van Vanatta elaborated on who exactly is responsible for the Bruins’ unsatisfactory performance; he said it’s not one individual player, coach or unit but everybody.
“I just feel like we don’t look like we know what we’re doing right now. I think if we could fix that. . . but we’re getting to mid-season and it’s not getting better,” Van Vanatta said. “We’re not working together and doing the things that we’re supposed to do all the way down the chains from myself, to assistant coaches to players. We’re just not getting it done. We’ve gotta get that fixed, but we’re running out of time.”
Not every mishap has been in the Bruins’ control. Various injuries have diminished the team. This includes Forte who hurt his elbow late in the fourth quarter in last week’s game against LSWHS, along with senior wide receiver and cornerback Spencer Nivens who injured his wrist well into the fourth quarter of the same game. During the week two matchup against De Smet, senior running back and free safety Peyton Carr slightly pulled his hamstring, and senior inside linebacker and offensive lineman Jaden Lewis injured his ankle.
“We’re banged up; we are injured,” Van Vanatta said. “And listen, [there are] three or four really key players that I think could make a difference, but it’s not going to matter until each and every one of us accepts ownership and our accountability, and it starts with me.”Forte, Nivens and Carr are expected to be cleared to play by Friday’s vital game, while Lewis, who possesses a more persistent injury with an ankle fracture, is foreseen to be out of play for at least six more weeks.
Despite the legion of injuries, RBHS must plod on to tomorrow’s matchup against the Kewpies. Hickman has a 2-2 record with a win against Pattonville High School and a throttling of Smith-Cotton High School.
The Bruins need to be equipped accordingly in order to break their losing streak.
“First we will start with watching film and studying Hickman. Practices have to be with high intensity and focus, and we will need to improve our weaknesses,” junior free safety and wide receiver Max Vanatta said. “We all need to learn our jobs and assignments so we can be ready for Friday night.”
Although RBHS has blown out Hickman in the past few contests with a 31-0 trouncing last season and a 41-9 flattening in 2017, the last thing the Bruins will do is underestimate them. There is no shortage of motivation, especially with the hunger for their first win of the season.
“Every game we play, no matter the team, is the hardest game we play all year,” Max Vanatta said. “Hickman is a good football team, and in order to beat them, we need to have a good week of practice and come out on Friday fired up and ready to win.”
Van Vanatta believes that for the players to secure a victory on Friday, something in how they lay the groundwork this week needs to differ from the past.
“Hopefully we don’t prepare like we have been preparing,” Van Vanatta said. “We don’t have 11 guys doing their job at the same time, and, until we do that, I can’t tell you what our future holds.”
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