While Moniteau won by a 41-point margin last week, Union lost its 23rd consecutive game.

Yet Warrior coach Steve Wilson doesn't fear a letdown when his team hosts the Golden Knights come Friday night.

"You're always wary of a letdown in high school football, but we dug ourselves a hole to the point that we have to win pretty much every game," Wilson said. "We have to come out right away and establish ourselves."

Moniteau (1-2) defeated Union by scores of 46-0 and 68-7 the past two years. The Golden Knights (0-3) have been outscored 134-12 this season.

Despite the lopsided losses, Union coach Tom Kidder has seen improvement in his team.

"We gave up 40 points (against Keystone) last week, but our defense actually gave up 28," he said. "If we can get that down to 20 to 24 per game, that's a marked improvement compared to where we've been at."

Union surrendered 43.9 points per game last year.

"Their quarterback can throw the ball and the (Colton) Davis kid can run it," Wilson said. "They are a team playing with nothing to lose.

"They may come out with a couple of gadget plays and we're suddenly down by seven or 14 points. You can't take anything or anybody for granted."

Matt Schandelmeier rambled for more than 200 yards against A-C Valley last week and has 442 yards rushing and six touchdowns this season.

"We've been waiting for him to have a break-out game like that," Wilson said.

Davis leads Union with 42 carries for 245 yards and a touchdown. Kolby Davis (no relation) rushed for 106 yards and a score last week.

Quarterback Toby Painter completed just two of 15 passes for the Golden Knights last week.

"Toby can throw, he's just a little inexperienced because he didn't play last year," Kidder said. "Those numbers are misleading because we missed a few of those passes.

"We had eight or 10 of those passes that could have been completed."

Wilson lauded the play of sophomore Joe Criley and junior Travis Shaffer defensively last week.

"Joe did a great job against the run and Travis defended the pass really well," he said.

Moniteau is fighting the flu bug this week. Five players missed school Tuesday because of the flu and two others were under the weather during practice.

Wilson said the coaches have been guarding against the situation getting any worse.

"We've been making sure no players are sharing water bottles, things like that," he said.

Kidder is bringing his Union team up against the very program he helped build up physically a few years ago. Wilson succeeded him as coach of the Warriors.

"I know where Moniteau was a few years ago," he said. "The difference is in the size of the schools, though. Moniteau will graduate three times as many kids next spring as Union will.

"They have a physical team, no doubt, and we have to try to be quicker than them up front, force them into blocking schemes that work to our advantage."

Wilson didn't dispute his team's physical edge.

"Most teams want to put their 11 best athletes on the field," Wilson said. "We want to put our 11 most physical kids out there."

Completely shutting down Moniteau is an unrealistic goal in Kidder's eyes.

"We want to have a little success defensively and a little success offensively," he said. "If that happens, we'll be satisfied."