Mustangs and Cardinals battle in annual scrimmage
by José Torres, Gonzales Inquirer Sports
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Gonzales Inquirer Article | St. Paul Cardinal Football
NIXON — The Nixon-Smiley Mustangs hosted the St. Paul Cardinals for their annual scrimmage Saturday morning, with both teams leaving in good spirits after a competitive scrimmage.
Finding a hole: A Mustang running back finds a hole in the line as a St. Paul defender attempts a shoestring tackle on the runner.
[ NOTE: click on photo to enlarge ]photo by José Torres, Gonzales Inquirer Sports
The Mustangs’ defense dominated the first part of scrimmage but the conditioning wasn’t quite there yet as St. Paul was able to sustain a few drives near the end of scrimmage.
"I thought that we actually got a little bit better as we went along," St. Paul’s head football coach Jake Wachsmuth said. "[We] made a lot of mistakes but I’m very encouraged overall and I think we have an opportunity to be a good football team."
Mustangs’ head football coach Carlton McKinney saw the scrimmage as a positive as well, giving the Cardinals credit for always showing up to play despite the roster-size advantage they may have over St. Paul.
"I thought St. Paul is always a good scrimmage for us because I always know what [Wachsmuth] there is going to do, he’s going to make sure they’re well prepared and they’re going to go hard," McKinney said. "They don’t have a ton of numbers but whomever they’re going to have they’re going to go hard so I was impressed with that and I was impressed with our kids."
When Nixon-Smiley’s offense took to the field, their first couple of plays wouldn’t necessarily work out but then the Mustangs would suddenly turn it on and convert third-and-longs. Nixon-Smiley converted three first downs before scoring a touchdown during that first drive.
"That’s just not reading what you’re supposed to be looking at, but you know, it’s just early," Wachsmuth said.
McKinney noted that they tried some new things early on before getting to their "meat and potatoes offense."
"It’s a struggle," McKinney said, "but when we got into our meat and potatoes offense we were able to sustain some drives and move the ball and it’s always good when you know we can do that, we can march down the field, we can use the clock, we can get the ball in the end zone and that was a positive."
Later in the scrimmage, St. Paul began to turn it up as they sustained a long drive of their own. Wachsmuth mentioned the inconsistency of the offense early on, but praised the kids for getting a string of plays together.
"We’d have a good play on offense and then we’d have a bad play on offense," he noted, "but that drive we kind of put a series of plays together and, you know a scrimmage is a little different than a game because you’re not necessarily running [your offense], you’re trying to look at all of your plays but we did some good things."
McKinney talked about how the mistakes that were made were correctable, but his main concern was trying to get the players to understand their assignments better, especially those who have been unable to get to practice.
"Honestly, I think the biggest problem for us is I thought our numbers were good but we’ve had some kids miss some practices via travel or whatever the case may be and you saw it today with some blown assignments and some confusion," he said.
As the scrimmage wound down, both teams seemed to have come out okay with minimal injuries, which is essential to both football teams.
"I’m sure we’re going to see a lot of things that weren’t good but I thought our kids you know came out without injuries," Wachsmuth said. "We seem like we’re in good spirits so overall it’s a good day."
McKinney had the same sentiments, finding some good and bad things with the team, but overall the Mustangs’ coach felt the team was headed to the right direction.
"I think there were some positives, I thought there were some negatives too, I think there were more positives than negatives. We got a little winded and with the second group we let them sustain a drive and that’s just some conditioning. Those things are things I’m not concerned with to the point that I think we’ll get there, that’s just some adjustments at practice."
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