This past Thursday, the Smyer Bobcats hosted the Morton Indians for a football scrimmage, that resulted in a highly competitive, back-and-forth matchup.
The scrimmage began with each team getting a series of controlled drives, where each offense ran an allotted number of plays, no matter the outcome.
Following that period, the two teams competed in a live timed half, simulating a real game scenario.
There was no official score, but Morton edged out Smyer in an extremely competitive matchup, scoring two touchdowns to their one.
Smyer began the scrimmage burning hot, making several big gains on reverse runs by senior wide receiver #3 Ryann Gutierrez, and seemingly moving the ball at will.
Which led Morton Head Coach Trevor Bulmer to call a time out after the slow start.
“You try and let the kids play out of it, right? We’re starting slow, you know the frustration on my part was they hit us with the same play three times in a row,” Bulmer said. “We weren’t smart enough to fix it ourselves on the field, so I called that time out to make sure we did fix it. I’ll give credit to some of our seniors, in that huddle they were getting everybody to refocus as much as I was truthfully.”
Bulmer credited senior defensive lineman #60 Britton Boggs for immediately making a tackle for loss to stop another reverse run right out of the time out, which brought Smyer’s momentum to a halt.
Then shortly after #6 EJ Rivas made a huge interception at defensive back to swing the momentum in the Indians favor and then the senior proceeded to catch a deep ball touchdown from junior quarterback #2 Brayden Villarreal at wide receiver.
The Bobcats didn’t go without an answer though as senior quarterback #9 Skyler Pond hit Ryann Gutierrez on a short pass, which he took nearly 50 yards to the crib to tie the game.
Then Morton had the opportunity to take the lead with minimal time left and Smyer was able to get them all the way to a 4th & 18, which the Indians somehow found a way to convert and score a touchdown.
Following the score, Smyer was unable to comeback with only a few seconds left on the clock, which is an unfortunate end but a great learning experience according to Bobcats Head Coach Scott Funke.
“We got them to a 4th & 18, and they play actioned and one of our kids bit on it. It shows some are learning still and I’m sure there was fatigue involved,” Funke said. “Great pass by their kid, good catch by the receiver. It’s part of being in a scrimmage though, in real life we probably blitz and don’t let him sit back there and drop super deep. Hopefully by real game situations they’ll have learned lessons. I’m not taking away from anything they did though, it was a good scrimmage for both teams.”
Coach Bulmer and Funke both discussed the value of such a competitive scrimmage to help prepare their squads for the upcoming season.
They both view scrimmages as an opportunity for players to have learning experiences and improve their craft, which this scrimmage achieved.
After watching them in realtime action, I have confidence that both teams can make a splash in competition this season.
My biggest takeaway from Morton was how tight knit and encouraging this year's team is, whether it was a great play or a poor one, the entire sideline was rooting on and uplifting the players on the field.
Coach Bulmer expressed that these encouraging and tight knit traits indicate “a team that can do great things” because when players care about each other's success more than individual success, the sky's the limit.
For Smyer, my biggest takeaway was really the physicality and decisiveness they played with.
Coach Funke has his boys competing and playing winning quality football.
Now with their preseason scrimmages under their belt, both teams kick off their regular season on their home fields this Friday.
Smyer plays against the Iraan Braves at 7 p.m. and Morton plays against the Seagraves Eagles at 7 p.m.