By Chad W. Smith
The Dodge County Indian football team took the field at Memorial Stadium on Friday, August 21, 2009 for the first time this season in a scrimmage game against the Northeast Macon Raiders.
The game, which was supposed to begin at 7:30 p.m. was delayed almost two hours because of the weather. The scrimmage was a chance for the Indians to get some live game experience before the season begins on this Friday, August 28 as they take on the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets in Brooklet at 7:30 p.m.
The game consisted of four quarters with no live kicking or punting. Each team began their offensive drives on their own 25 yard line. The fourth quarter also was dedicated to getting some of the younger players experience as both teams played second and third teams. The Indians lost 28-14 but gained valuable experience which is what a scrimmage is for.
The Indian running backs compiled a total of 271 rushing yards on the night. Cyprin Burse had 150 yards on 19 carries with one touchdown; Devon Simmons had 76 yards on 10 carries; Darion Fasion had 52 yards on six carries; Laquan Hogue also ran the ball hard. Shawn Honeycutt completed six passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. Hogue caught a 26 yard touchdown pass from Honeycutt. Devon Moorehead, Cole Evans, Tucker Stonecypher and Michael Knight all caught passes on the night. Defensively, Michael Knight, Leonard Floyd, Laquan Hogue, Cyprin Burse, Herschel Anderson, Derome Clark and Kenzie Graham led the defensive stats as far as tackles.
Coach Lee Campbell commented on the scrimmage,” I thought things went a lot better this year than last year, to me it was a day and night difference. The weather made us start later but it was better than playing in that monsoon we had last year. I was real pleased with our teams’ effort for this scrimmage. It was good to hit on somebody else, we had gotten tired of beating on each other and I thought we were pretty physical at times.
Our offensive line showed vast improvement from last year. They came off the ball fairly well for most of the night. Our running backs ran the ball pretty hard, our fullbacks blocked a lot better and caught a couple of passes out of the backfield. Shawn Honeycutt managed the game well at quarterback. We have still got to protect the ball better.
We cannot turn it over like we did last year and expect to be competitive. A prime example, we have a great drive at the end of the third quarter and fumble the ball on the two going in to score. Defensively, I thought we flew around the ball pretty good and we got a lot of different guys playing time. We have got to do a better job of tackling.
There were several times we had Northeast stopped at the line of scrimmage or behind the line for a loss and just did not wrap up.”
