Football begins season with scrimmage

Football+begins+season+with+scrimmage

Jacob Clanton, Sports Editor

The beginning of the season is rough no matter what sport you’re talking about. Making the first showcase under the lights an intra-squad scrimmage is sure to only worsen that roughness.

“There was just a lack of focus,” senior quarterback Ian Trapp said. “[With] it being a scrimmage, I don’t know if everyone took it as seriously as they should’ve.”

The Manhattan High Varsity and Junior Varsity football teams took the field Thursday night to play in the annual Soup-Scrimmage. This was the fans’ first opportunity to see the team play.

In an effort to make the teams even, the Varsity offense was teamed with the J.V. defense, while the J.V. offense and the Varsity defense were together.

The Varsity offense started with the ball, and got off to a strong start. On the first play of the scrimmage, junior Reece Wewer ran the ball off the right side of the offensive line, and gained 39 yards on the play. However, the drive quickly stalled when the Varsity offense fumbled the ball on the 24 yard line. Turnovers would prove to be a theme for the night.

“[We had] way too many execution busts,” head coach Joe Schartz said, “and we had too many turnovers, so we got a lot of work to do in one week if we hope to be successful next Friday night.”

Much like the Varsity offense, the J.V. offense’s first drive included a long run. The difference? J.V.’s scored a touchdown off of junior quarterback Talon Claussen’s 64-yard run to give them the early lead. Senior Andrew Scott missed his first extra point attempt of the night to give the J.V. team a 6-0 lead.

Even with the early miss, Schartz continued to have Scott kick all of the extra point attempts.

“Andrew was the kicker off and on last year,” Schartz said. “[He] did a nice job, and has a lot of experience, and hopefully he has a positive senior season.”

The offenses traded three-and-outs with neither team getting anywhere. The Varsity offense started their next drive at their own 25-yard line. The drive ended just as soon as it started, with Trapp throwing an interception on the second play. Senior linebacker Chance Andrade was able to get his hand on the ball, and held on to return the ball 30 yards for a pick-six.

“I didn’t see [Andrade] or where he came from,” Trapp said. “I tried to hit Reece over the middle to get a short gain, and [Andrade] kind of just popped up out of nowhere, and jumped 80 feet in the air and intercepted it with his fingertips and ran it back.”

The subsequent extra point made the score 13-0 in favor of the J.V. offense, a score that one would have expected to be flipped. However, the Varsity offense would not be denied for much longer.

After three-and-outs by both teams again, the Varsity offense was able to get its only sustained drive of the scrimmage. Aided by two complete passes from Trapp, Varsity marched down the field to erase the shutout. The team punched its way into the endzone with a one-yard run by Kevontae McDonald, sophomore. The touchdown and extra point got the Varsity offense closer at 13-7.

Schartz said the key to the drive was senior Parker Beer’s 15-yard sliding catch.

“You could see everybody kinda relax at that point and settle in,” Schartz said.

Trapp added that the offense wanted to prove that they could play against the MHS defense.

“We just got tired of…getting shown up by the defense,” Trapp said. “We knew we could score on them, we do it every day, but they were having a good night. We knew we were capable, and it just kind of came together on that drive.”

The Varsity score made it a one-possession game, but the J.V. offense soon broke it open again. McDonald added a 61-yard touchdown to his stat sheet, as he pushed the score to 20-7.

Trapp and the Varsity offense had one more chance to respond, and started to get a nice drive going. The last drive ended the same as the first though, as a fumble recovered by the defense put a damper on any chances the offense had of scoring.

Although the Varsity lost the scrimmage, Schartz said it was still good to get out and play in a game-like scenario.

“Tonight was the first time under the lights,” Schartz said, “and we took the next step, hopefully we gaIn from this experience. There’s no substitution for the real thing, and we’ll see that Friday night, but we’re trying to do everything we can that gives these kids game-type experiences before next Friday night happens.”

Andrade said the team needs to eliminate mistakes and play together as a team more.

“Right now, the young guys are kind of lagging behind,” Andrade said. “They haven’t been in the program as long as the seniors have, so the seniors need to teach them the ways of…Manhattan High football.”

Trapp added the seniors had to make sure the team was where they wanted it to be in terms of focus.

“We’ll be talking,” Trapp said. “As a team, as seniors, as leaders and stuff like that, and we’ll get [the focus issue] figured out.”

Schartz agreed that it’s up to the seniors whether or not Manhattan High has a positive season.

“We always expect a lot of our seniors,” Schartz said. “It’s their responsibility to carry on the Manhattan football tradition; that’s not a responsibility that needs to be taken lightly. They have a lot of work to do…[and] I think they’re working in the right direction to have a positive season.”

The first game for the Indians is Friday night against Shawnee Heights at Bishop Stadium.