Coahoma Scrimmage
By Cam Tovias
August 25, 2007
I heard the other day at work that the boys were "spanked" at Coahoma Thursday evening. I wasn't surprised that the person who said it wasn't even at the game. It's true Rotan wasn't able to generate much offense, and the blocking up front was pitiful in the beginning. But anyone who was at the game (and paid attention) could see the big picture.
Neither team was able to generate much offense. Coahoma is a 2A school who may be better than a lot of people think. They are definitely better than last year. They also ran a complex defense that I'm not sure I've ever seen in a scrimmage. We would have had to study tape and practice accordingly for a week just to scheme against it. And we played the live portion without Josh Reese, Dexter Daniel or Hunter Kennedy. Jordan Miller was visibly sick. These four have a huge impact on an offense that is already lacking depth.
But if all that sounds like excuses let me tell you what we accomplished. Toward the end of the night, Rotan pounded the ball down field. The line looked much better against Coahoma's big boys as the red team was driven back play after play. Phillip ran as hard at the end as he did in the beginning. This while battered and bleeding. Several players dug in with cuts and bruises and sprains.
In short, we're exactly what I thought we would be. Not razzle dazzle, but grinders. Tough kids who won't give up. Sean Lee illustrated this with a 90 yard sprint to catch a defender who recovered a fumble and ran for a touchdown. Sean was in full sprint and never let up. In the end he was blocked in the back and the touchdown was called back. Coahoma got the ball on our 20 yard line (10 yards from the spot of the penalty). Our defense held. Coach Lucas was justifiably excited as he heaped praise on Lee.
There were some rough moments for sure. Some of the underclassmen looked scared and timid at times. We put the ball on the ground a couple of times, and blocking was ugly at first. But to classify the scrimmage as a spanking is just plain wrong. Besides being inaccurate, it's unfair to the warriors in the bunch who fought valiantly to the end. I would be careful not to listen to people who watch 20 minutes of action, form an opinion, then hop on the grapevine to tear people down.
In the end, Coahoma scored once and we didn't. They dropped one pass in the end zone and lost another TD on a penalty. Give me our guys and 4 quarters of real football and I say we win a close one. Give me a healthy Josh, Jordan and Hunter and we spank them.
- Previous Entry: « Cross Plains/Sterling City scrimmage
- Next Entry: Hammer Update »