After Waco Midway held Belton scoreless in a pair of 10-minute periods Friday night at Tiger Field, there’s plenty to mull over.
It was the only scrimmage for the Tigers, who open their season Thursday against Ennis at Waco ISD Stadium.
With less than a week before the season begins, coach Rodney Southern and his staff had several starting positions to fill, including quarterback, running back and wide receiver.
At quarterback, both junior Kevin Thornton and sophomore David Ash gave Southern reasons to smile, but cringe as well.
“I think both of them did some good things,” Southern said. “I think both of them, again, have got to better understand what we’re asking them to do within the scope of what plays we’re running offensively.”
Thornton led the Tigers in both of the 10-minute sessions, but the offense managed just one first down and turned the ball over on a Thornton interception.
Thornton looked sharper during his turn in a 10-play red-zone session.
On Belton’s second play, he threaded a pass down the left sideline to the 3 to receiver Cole Dominguez, who took it in for a touchdown.
Ash’s only appearance came in Belton’s second offensive set, which lasted 15 minutes.
He led the offense on an eight-play drive that was capped by running back Seth Alcozer’s 6-yard touchdown run.
Alcozer and the Tigers’ other running backs saw limited action in the two 10-minute periods.
In three running plays, junior Anthony Huber gained 2 yards on a delayed draw, senior Rajon Gill picked up 12 on a cutback up the middle and senior Josh Newman was stopped for no gain.
Alcozer, Newman and Huber are all candidates to carry the load for Belton.
“I think we’ve got, again, two or three guys,” Southern said. “We’ve really got to watch this on film and see. Like we’ve said from the start, those guys can do two or three things for us.”
The most glaring, though easily correctable, weakness was Belton’s rushing defense.
Midway’s Josh Hubert took a handoff on the Panthers’ first play from scrimmage in the first 10-minute period up the middle, going nearly untouched for a 46-yard touchdown.
That was the last of several plays during all three phases of the scrimmage, in which Midway burned Belton’s defense by simply cutting back into open space.
“The big thing that we didn’t do tonight is we didn’t take care of the cutback,” Southern said. “When you don’t do a good job on the cutback against a good running back, he’s going to make a play on you and he made two. I think we’ll have to see exactly whose responsibility it was . . . that’s something we can correct.”
Southern said after breaking down film from the scrimmage, he’ll have a better idea of how his starting roster for the Ennis game will come together.
“We’ve still got four days we’ve got to work,” he said. “We’ll go back to work (today). Whether we’re ready or not, it’s going to be here in four days.”
