How trust and special teams vaulted Rock Bridge over Helias, as the Bruins are CMAC favorites

Up by four points on the road, with a chance to knock off a key conference rival, Matt Perkins decided to get creative.

In a move that was significant for a myriad of reasons, the Bruins head coach called a fake punt. Caleb Froman, also known by his teammates as the "Froggernaut," took a direct snap and rumbled to the Helias 1-yard line.

This was a play that required discipline; a penalty could ruin the play before it began. It was a play that required smarts; anyone who didn't properly handle their assignment could also ruin the play. It was a play that required trust; a coach who has known his players for only five months needed his players to believe in the call.

And it worked.

Rock Bridge defeated Helias 31-20 on Friday night for the Bruins' first win over the Crusaders since 2018.

The Bruins dealt Helias its first Central Missouri Activities Conference loss in the two-year history of the league.

"You gotta trust your kids," Perkins said. "Unfortunately, I've lost a couple games where I look back and say, man, I didn't trust my kids well. And so we're going to take shots and just let them play a little bit. My thoughts were that our kids have so much heart. I'm honestly in awe of it."

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The win puts Rock Bridge in line for a CMAC title with league games against Hickman and Battle remaining. However, both the Kewpies and Spartans have lost to Capital City and Helias. The Bruins have beaten Capital City, Smith-Cotton and Jefferson City along with Helias.

In Perkins' first season, the Bruins have begun to achieve heights it expected in the last couple of seasons.

Friday was proof of how talented the Bruins are. It was also a testament to how Rock Bridge's star players have grown under Perkins' staff to help bridge the gap.

"There's just good kids here," Perkins said. "I know that everybody says that they've got good kids and everybody does have good kids, the kids are just awesome to be around. I think that's why we always stay in the coaching job all the long hours and all that stuff. It's nice to be around the kids, but man, they are special at Rock Bridge."

Part of that gap last season existed as the Bruins struggled to respond when a team fought back.

Helias fought back when Rock Bridge grabbed a 24-7 lead in the second quarter. The Crusaders scored 13 unanswered points. Perkins' team needed a response and found it on special teams.

The cliche exists that special teams are only discussed when the unit struggles.

On Friday, Rock Bridge's special teams made winning plays.

After Helias scored a touchdown to cut the Bruins' lead to 24-20, linebacker Grayson Clutchlow blocked the ensuing extra point to keep it a four-point game. That set up Froman's fake punt.

The call was gutsy. But it was a call Perkins knew Rock Bridge had in its back pocket.

Leading up to Friday, the Bruins' coaching staff knew Helias had a certain look on its punt coverage team that would give Rock Bridge a chance to catch the Crusaders off guard. Assistant coaches Jake Floyd and Tuf Borland noticed the look and had the team work on a play that countered that alignment.

Perkins knew they would see that look at some point. Rock Bridge finally saw that look in the fourth quarter.

"We're on the plus side of the field, so it's not like you're just killing yourself by getting stopped, and so I thought it was a good time to call it," Perkins said. "We worked on it every single day this week and put a little bit more time into it than we normally would."

That led to Froman's rumble to the 1. Cooper Myers punched it in. That sealed the win.

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Rock Bridge is now the leader in the CMAC title race. Helias has won the first two titles since the conference's inception in 2020. With wins over Hickman and Battle, the Bruins can clinch that title in Perkins' first season.

That's impressive, considering Perkins' praise for the program Helias has built.

"It's so loud there, honestly it's the loudest stadium I've ever been at," Perkins said. "The communication is always an issue and I thought our kids, we had some mistakes where we had some penalties because of the communication, and that's a frustrating thing.

"The heart of our kids just not being deterred by negative and just responding to the next play, I'm really proud."

With a title in sight, Perkins has Rock Bridge in a position where its lessons don't deter the Bruins from their next steps.

First, it was simply learning the terminology. The new Bruins staff was confident it was going to click, and it did. Perkins credited the players with being willing to open their arms to new philosophies, and the learning curve has progressed from understanding the terminology to finding success with the scheme and, now, executing a full game.

What's next? Perkins said the team will find that as it keeps aiming to improve. For now, there's no reason to think the Bruins can't take another step forward.

"We'll be a little bit better on Monday, a little bit better on Tuesday and by the time Friday rolls around, we'll be six or seven days better," Perkins said. "That's always the goal."

Chris Kwiecinski is the sports editor for the Columbia Daily Tribune, overseeing University of Missouri and Boone County sports coverage. Follow him on Twitter @OchoK_ and contact him at CKwiecinsk@gannett.com or 573-815-1857.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How trust vaulted Rock Bridge over Helias