YODER – Area high school football teams had their first chance to hit someone other than themselves this weekend as Lingle-Fort Laramie traveled to Guernsey to face a pair of conference foes, while Torrington traveled to the Southeast Jamboree in Yoder.
Torrington
The Blazers left Saturday’s scrimmage looking for better ways to get the guys going early.
“I wasn’t extremely thrilled with how we started the scrimmage,” THS coach Mark Lenhardt said. “I thought we came out lackadaisical.”
That is the second week in a row the Blazers have done that.
“Maybe we need to look at how we do our pregame routine to get these guys going,” he said.
But on the flip side, when Torrington got into the groove of day, Lenhardt said he saw some good things out of his team.
“For the most part, everyone was assignment sharp,” he said.
Now it’s a matter of going back, looking at tape and fix those technique mistakes Lenhardt pointed to heading into Friday’s showdown in Glenrock.
Starting roles which were up for grabs have been settled.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, but for the most part, Casey Britton has secured the job as quarterback,” Lenhardt said. “He’s done some really good things. I think Jared Lemmon has proven he can do some stuff for us in that role whether it is as a wildcat quarterback or whatever it maybe, but he’s done a nice job.”
The Blazers will have their hands full with a pair of Glenrock running back who combined for more than 3,000 yards a year ago.
Kickoff with the Herders is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“It’s a tough place to play and we are going to have to continue to have a good week of conditioning and clean up the little things to be able to beat those guys because they are a pretty good football team,” Lenhardt said. “We are nowhere near a polished product. It’s going to take some time, and hopefully, we’ll be playing our best football at the end of the year and not right now.”
Southeast
The Cyclones hosted its annual Southeast Jamboree with Burns, Niobrara County, Wheatland and Torrington, and it was the first time this season Mark Bullington’s crew has been able to tackle live.
“Our tackling struggled,” he said. “We’ve only got 20-21 kids and you can’t tackle live. We saw that, and we struggled today. We knew that would happen.”
As a result, the Cyclones battled some timing issues.
“This was the first live, live tackle we’ve had for two weeks,” Bullington said. “If you can’t work live against someone else that struggles too.”
However, Bullington remains confident heading into Friday night’s contest against Mitchell, Neb.
“We’ll get there. It’s a long season,” he said.
Southeast will hit the road for the first of many times this season as they lost a home game when Saratoga decided not to field a varsity team this season.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., and Bullington knows what to expect out of the Tigers.
“We watched last year’s film, but they are big up front like they have been,” Bullington said. “They have some speed. They run a lot of sprint stuff. They have good numbers so they will run a lot of people at us. That’s what we have to be in shape for.”
Lingle-Fort Laramie
Area high school football teams had their first chance to hit someone other than themselves this weekend as Lingle-Fort Laramie traveled to Guernsey to face a pair of conference foes, while Torrington traveled to the Southeast Jamboree in Yoder.
The Doggers played a half against Guernsey-Sunrise and a second half against Midwest.
With all but one athlete playing a similar position to what they did a year ago, L-FL head coach Matt Cornelius was thrilled with what he saw.
“I can’t give the kids enough credit for the effort I saw tonight,” he said. “We made some mistakes, but the neat thing about the mistakes we made, they are fixable mistakes.
“We only have one kid on the entire team who played the position they are playing last year. We are going to get nothing but better. From what I saw tonight, I’m expecting some neat things from us.”
Running back Alex Pugsley shined for the Doggers with his speed and ability to hit the holes created by the offensive line.
“Keep an eye on Alex Pugsley this year. He’s a great runner and he does read his blocks extremely well, but we also have to give major credit to the offense line,” Cornelius said. “They opened up a couple holes that you could drive a dump truck through. His speed has improved a lot and his toughness and effort is all there.”
No scores or stats were kept for the scrimmages but feelings around the L-FL looker room is high going into Friday’s contest with Sioux County, Neb.
The Warriors are coming off a 50-20 loss over the weekend.
“I don’t know much about Sioux County. They played Minatare (last Friday),” Cornelius said. “Hopefully, we’ll get some film on that and be able to evaluate and get ready for next Friday. It’s a nonconference game. It’s meaningless as far as records go, but it’s a big deal for us for pride.”
Kickoff is scheduled 2 p.m. in Harrison, Neb.
