Hornets Roll In Final Scrimmage
Athens dominates Corsicana
The Athens Hornets look good. It's as simple as that.
Athens welcomed Corsicana into Bruce Field Thursday night for their second and final preseason scrimmage and gave the Tigers all they could handle in both the controlled portion of the scrimmage and during a live quarter.
"Number one thing is our guys played with a lot of passion and a lot of energy," said Coach Zac Harrell after the game.
Now the usual scrimmage caveats apply. We don't know what players Corsicana held out of the scrimmage and the Tigers were running basic schemes. But we can only evaluate what we see in front of us.
What was in front of us was the Hornets consistently rolling over the Tigers.
Before we get to the observations, I'm sorry for not highlighting more players in this column, particularly on the defense. There are never rosters available for scrimmages and players rarely wear the correct numbers. Coaches do that to make it harder on other teams trying to scout during the preseason, but it also makes it hard on old reporters.
My observations
1. Stat from the Dean of Henderson County Sportswriters Benny Rogers: The last time Athens and Corsicana were in the same district was 2001.
2. The scrimmage ended with a live quarter, giving the teams a chance to practice game management procedures like having coaches send down plays from the press box. Athens dominated the period and won 13-0. The Hornets put together scoring drives of 70 yards and 64 yards with almost all that coming on the ground. They controlled the ball for more than nine minutes of the 12:00 quarter. Defensively, Athens throttled Corsicana and allowed the Tigers a total of 25 yards and two first downs. The Hornets also picked up a sack.
3. After watching senior quarterback Ty Arroyo light things up last week (more on him later), the Hornets showed they could play smashmouth football this week. Jamauri Manning carried the ball six times for 49 yards during the Hornets' first drive, capping it off with a 3-yard touchdown run. Zay Hull handled rushing duties on the second drive and also picked up 49 yards and his scoring run was from 1 yard out. Manning's longest run went for 14 yards and Hull's went for 13. You don't generate a running game like that without your offensive line doing a great job, so hats off to them.
"I told Coach Yudizky going into that quarter that I want to pound the football and I want to run it until we can't. So that's what we did and you have to credit all five of the offensive linemen and you have to credit both running backs in that quarter," said Coach Harrell.
4. The Hornet defense came to play in the live quarter after getting pushed around a little bit on the ground during the controlled portion of the scrimmage. Of the 9 offensive plays run by the Tigers, four of them went for zero or negative yardage.
5. Speaking of the defense, this is the second straight week the opponent has had trouble snapping the ball. Could the Hornets' new 3-4 defense be stressing centers? It's something to watch for as we move forward.
6. Ty Arroyo once again looked like a star. Through the controlled portion of the scrimmage and the live quarter, he went 15-of-19 for 143 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. The interception was the one throw I'm sure Arroyo would like to have back from the two scrimmages, but otherwise, he's been excellent. He has a 73 percent completion rate through the preseason.
7. I can't finish this column without giving a hand to the Athens 2nd team defense. Those Hornets bullied the Tigers during their portion of the controlled scrimmage. In their 10 plays, they held Corsicana to just 24 yards and no first downs. They forced three straight 3-and-outs. Coach Harrell's team has some depth this year.
The Hornets will open the regular season next Friday, Aug. 26, when they play host to Brownsboro in the Battle of Highway 31.
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