Back In Black Competes For Missouri State Championship Crown

As the 2017 Missouri football regular season schedule came to a close, Back in Black Football found itself with a 7 - 2 record which easily could have been 9 - 0. None-the-less Back in Black secured a first round bye entering the Missouri State Championship Playoff weekend.

Back in Black's first contest of the day was against Go Mode. The Back In Black offense moved the ball up and down the field, out performing their opponents by a substantially large margin, leaving 14 points on the board was not the goal - but these things happen in playoff football.

The flip side for Back In Black in this contest was that the defense played its usual ironclad, no-holds-barred, lock down, in your face pass rush defense. The Back In Black defense held Go Mode scoreless for most of the contest, surrendering one single score.

Back in Black went on to defeat go mode by a score of 9 - 6 with the winning field goal coming from Jimmy Lee at the 2:31 mark of the fourth quarter. Lee's kick, combined with a relentless pressure driven defensive performance, allowed Back In Black to move on to the next round.

In the second contest of the day Back In Black faced the Outlaws, an old nemesis for certain. Back In Black avenged an earlier 6 - 0 lose in the regular season to the Outlaws. That game was filled with many questionable calls, as well as, numerous officiating inconsistencies. On that day the Back In Black offense produced almost 400 total yards and scored four touchdowns. However, three of those touchdowns were taken "off of the board" by the officials, leaving a bad taste with the Back In Black team, as well as a lasting image.

On this day in the second round of the playoffs against the same Outlaws team things would be much different. The winner of this contest advanced to the Missouri State Championship game. Back in Black decided that they would take the game over and literally put an iron curtain up on defense, to which the Outlaws had no answer. If you can't score the officiating doesn't come into play and that was the game plan from the beginning for the Back In Black defense - "today they do not score". On this day the Outlaws were exposed to a relentless pass rush and outstanding secondary press and man-to-man coverage that literally smothered any opportunity for the Outlaws to move the football successfully, much less gain a few first downs, if that, during the entire contest

The Back in black offense had plenty of success, moving the ball at will - up and down the field. The offense scored TD's on three different occasions and yet once again, two of them were called back for fantasy penalties. The deciding offensive drive occurred in the third quarter. Roosevelt Buck took a handoff from QB Corey Dowden on a 27 dive that netted 33 yards, that was followed up with a play call for a 28 dive which gained a hefty 26 yards bringing the ball to the Outlaws 39-yard line. Quarterback Corey down executed a fake Jet Sweep right 18 keep resulting in him celebrating in the Outlaws end zone with his Back In Black teammates after scampering the length of the field for the score. Back In Black went for two and converted, making the score 8 to 0. This was the final score in this contest and Back In Black was onto the State Championship game.

Back in Black played NTB in the Missouri State Championship game. The weather was horrific for this contest with several torrential downpours, lightning strikes and strong winds that combined for decreased temperatures of almost 20 degrees from earlier in the day. This was a back-and-forth, see saw contest. Back In Black moved the ball successfully on offense but had trouble penetrating the red zone on few scoring opportunities.

NTB had no answer for the dominant pass rush applied by the Back In Black defense. Several veteran and rookie players secured sacks that also came with numerous pass breakups. Back In Black intercepted NTB not once, but twice with Chris Cain making an outstanding back shoulder interception on a deep bomb at a key moment in during the third quarter of this game. The Back In Black defense almost secured three additional interceptions that certainly would have solidified field position in this contest - and field position was everything that mattered due to the weather conditions.

This state championship game remained scoreless throughout regulation with only two seconds remaining on the clock and with overtime looming just ahead for Back in Black and NTB. However, as they say "it's never over until the fat lady sings". NTB threw a bomb from the midfield stripe that was bobbled and somehow corralled in the endzone for the deciding score on the absolute last play of the game.

Many times in competition one team outperforms or excels over their opponent only to show an "L" instead of a "W" for their efforts at the end of the contest. This state championship game just happened to be one of those days.

It is unfortunate that this game was not postponed and played on a dry field and on a different day. Football is played in inclement weather all across this great country of ours throughout the USA.

The Back In Black football team has sent a strong message to everyone in the football community that after 33 years of competing and winning, this club still produces dominant performances and will be a team to be reckoned with for years to come. The nucleus of young players combined with veterans will give Back In Black a competitive advantage that opposing teams wished they comprised.

Every member of the Back In Black Football team should be proud of the teams performance this season. The efforts on the Gridiron this year were most certainly a "team effort", everyone contributed to this very successful season. It is said that there is no "I" in the word team. No other organization competing today exemplifies or epitomizes that mantra more than this Back In Black Football team

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Godspeed Always Gentlemen....!