What to make of preseason scrimmages?
Last weekend was the first opportunity for area football teams to hit someone other than one of their teammates when each school engaged in a three- or four-way scrimmage as a tuneup for this weekend’s season-opener.
Not surprisingly, most coaches hope to accomplish the same thing. “We want to be physical, we don’t want to turn it over, we want to do the fundamentals right, and obviously we want to come out healthy,” said Oxford third-year coach Mike Chrystie.
So how did Chrystie’s team fare against the likes of Chenango Forks, Delhi, and Vestal? “I felt it was the best we’ve looked since I’ve been here,” he said. “Scoring on Forks twice gave us a lot of confidence. We didn’t show anything but our bread and butter stuff, and I think that’s what the other teams did, too.”
Unadilla Valley-Edmeston is coming off a winless season, and it had just a skeleton crew eligible for a four-way scrimmage that included Sherburne-Earlville, B-G, and Morrisville-Eaton. “I thought we held up physically until fatigue set in at the end,” said Storm head coach Jack Loeffler. “We ran nothing but our base stuff, and it was good. We have an intelligent buch of kids, and they all have good football sense. We saw some flaws, of course, and went to work on those this week in practice.”
S-E first-year head coach Mike Jaspar echoed many of the same sentiments as Chrystie and Loeffler as he weighed in on the good and the bad from last weekend’s scrimmage. “I thought we had good success moving the ball on the ground and executing our offense,” he said. “Defensively, we came out flat in the first series, but picked it up the rest of the scrimmage. It was a little sloppy out there, but it was the same for everyone.”
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The following are game previews for this weekend’s local games:
Owego at Norwich, 7 p.m.
After two decades, a new “John” takes the helm for Norwich as John Martinson steps in for John Pluta, who amassed over 100 career wins and is second all-time on Norwich football’s coaching victories list behind the legendary Kurt Beyer.
“Our first game tonight, it’s tough to show too much (of our offense and defense), but we’ll look similar to what people have seen in the past,” Martinson said
Owego visits Tornadoland for the second straight season. On opening day a year ago, Norwich rallied for two second-half touchdowns to upend the Indians, 18-14. “They look impressive on defense and return seven starters,” Martinson said. “Offensively, Parker Evans played a lot of tailback for them last year, and they look to get him the ball on the corner and by running traps. He’s a fast, elusive kid.”
Norwich is coming off a scrimmage in which it looked good in some areas, while other are in need of improvement. “We were happy with the way our backs hit the holes, but they need to work on their faking, and our linemen need to stay on their blocks longer,” Martinson said. “Our motto all preseason has been to block to the whistle, fake to the whistle, and run to the whistle.”
Regardless of where Norwich stands in the finer points of the game, Martinson make one promise about his team: “We’ll come at you, we’ll hit you hard, and we’ll fight and never quit.”
Greene at Oxford, Friday, 7 p.m.
Outside of the yearly Oneonta-Norwich matchup, the Oxford-Greene rivalry may be the most intense among Chenango County grid outfits. “Even though we’ve beaten them the past two times, it’s still a rivalry game and it’s easy for the kids to get excited for this one,” said Greene coach Tim Paske.
The Trojans struggled in the first half against the Blackhawks last year turning it over three times before scoring 31 points in the second half to win going away. “It’s kind of ironic for us that we turned it over in the first game, and in our last game (the Section IV finals), we were on the short end of the stick after turning it over four times,” Paske said. “That book-ended our season. The good thing in the Oxford game is that we fought through the mistakes and got better in the second half.”
Oxford finished with only two wins last year, its lowest victory total since a two-win season in 1995. Head coach Mike Chrystie knows his team, based on last year’s results, will enter tonight’s game a prohibitive underdog. “Greene has a good team that everyone believes will be going for a sectional title,” Chrystie said. “There is no pressure on us. We were 2-7 last year, and that’s how people see us. We have the opportunity to play a good team, and show everyone how far we’ve come.”
Bainbridge-Guilford at Sidney, Friday, 7 p.m.
Facing the Warriors in week one, the Bobcats may not see a tougher opponent the rest of the regular season.
Warriors junior Dylan Umbra is back for a third season at starting quarterback as is Aaron Wood, one of Sidney’s better running backs a year ago. “Umbra has to be one of the best quarterbacks in all of Section IV,” said B-G coach Tim Mattingly. “Last year’s game came down to the final 14 seconds. This is a nice rivalry game for us and the kids are excited about it.”
Billy Holden, a converted offensive lineman, had a strong scrimmage at fullback, and is a new threat on offense for the Bobcats. Senior quarterback Justin Pepper was also especially sharp.
Hamilton at Sherburne-Earlville, Friday, 7 p.m.
Sherburne-Earlville, who have three straight losing seasons, look to turnaround that recent trend beginning tonight against local rival Hamilton, who are also coming off a losing season as well.
“They seem to be a team that will line it up and run at you or spread it out a bit,” said S-E coach Mike Jaspar. “They have good athlete (Colby Graham) at quarterback, and the team rallies around him.”
The Marauders, as documented in the Thursday Fall Sports Preview, have no starting experience returning in the skill position spots. Junior Will Slentz is the likely go-to running back. “Hamilton wants to bounce back and have a better season, and we’re trying to do the same thing,” Jaspar said.
Newfield at Unadilla Valley-Edmeston, Friday, 7 p.m.
UV-E didn’t come close to a full complement of players at last weekend’s scrimmage with more than one-third of the players unable to suit up due to a variety of reasons. Loeffler expects to have plenty of eligible players available for tonight’s game against the Trojans. The two schools last met in 2007 with Newfield winning, 20-6. “When we’ve played Newfield in the past, they’ve always had a good quarterback,” Loeffler said. “They usually have a good passing game and center their offense around the quarterback.”
With just a baker’s dozen plus one getting most of the playing time last week in the scrimmage, expect the Storm to stick to their base offense that features a power running game.
Not surprisingly, most coaches hope to accomplish the same thing. “We want to be physical, we don’t want to turn it over, we want to do the fundamentals right, and obviously we want to come out healthy,” said Oxford third-year coach Mike Chrystie.
So how did Chrystie’s team fare against the likes of Chenango Forks, Delhi, and Vestal? “I felt it was the best we’ve looked since I’ve been here,” he said. “Scoring on Forks twice gave us a lot of confidence. We didn’t show anything but our bread and butter stuff, and I think that’s what the other teams did, too.”
Unadilla Valley-Edmeston is coming off a winless season, and it had just a skeleton crew eligible for a four-way scrimmage that included Sherburne-Earlville, B-G, and Morrisville-Eaton. “I thought we held up physically until fatigue set in at the end,” said Storm head coach Jack Loeffler. “We ran nothing but our base stuff, and it was good. We have an intelligent buch of kids, and they all have good football sense. We saw some flaws, of course, and went to work on those this week in practice.”
S-E first-year head coach Mike Jaspar echoed many of the same sentiments as Chrystie and Loeffler as he weighed in on the good and the bad from last weekend’s scrimmage. “I thought we had good success moving the ball on the ground and executing our offense,” he said. “Defensively, we came out flat in the first series, but picked it up the rest of the scrimmage. It was a little sloppy out there, but it was the same for everyone.”
––––
The following are game previews for this weekend’s local games:
Owego at Norwich, 7 p.m.
After two decades, a new “John” takes the helm for Norwich as John Martinson steps in for John Pluta, who amassed over 100 career wins and is second all-time on Norwich football’s coaching victories list behind the legendary Kurt Beyer.
“Our first game tonight, it’s tough to show too much (of our offense and defense), but we’ll look similar to what people have seen in the past,” Martinson said
Owego visits Tornadoland for the second straight season. On opening day a year ago, Norwich rallied for two second-half touchdowns to upend the Indians, 18-14. “They look impressive on defense and return seven starters,” Martinson said. “Offensively, Parker Evans played a lot of tailback for them last year, and they look to get him the ball on the corner and by running traps. He’s a fast, elusive kid.”
Norwich is coming off a scrimmage in which it looked good in some areas, while other are in need of improvement. “We were happy with the way our backs hit the holes, but they need to work on their faking, and our linemen need to stay on their blocks longer,” Martinson said. “Our motto all preseason has been to block to the whistle, fake to the whistle, and run to the whistle.”
Regardless of where Norwich stands in the finer points of the game, Martinson make one promise about his team: “We’ll come at you, we’ll hit you hard, and we’ll fight and never quit.”
Greene at Oxford, Friday, 7 p.m.
Outside of the yearly Oneonta-Norwich matchup, the Oxford-Greene rivalry may be the most intense among Chenango County grid outfits. “Even though we’ve beaten them the past two times, it’s still a rivalry game and it’s easy for the kids to get excited for this one,” said Greene coach Tim Paske.
The Trojans struggled in the first half against the Blackhawks last year turning it over three times before scoring 31 points in the second half to win going away. “It’s kind of ironic for us that we turned it over in the first game, and in our last game (the Section IV finals), we were on the short end of the stick after turning it over four times,” Paske said. “That book-ended our season. The good thing in the Oxford game is that we fought through the mistakes and got better in the second half.”
Oxford finished with only two wins last year, its lowest victory total since a two-win season in 1995. Head coach Mike Chrystie knows his team, based on last year’s results, will enter tonight’s game a prohibitive underdog. “Greene has a good team that everyone believes will be going for a sectional title,” Chrystie said. “There is no pressure on us. We were 2-7 last year, and that’s how people see us. We have the opportunity to play a good team, and show everyone how far we’ve come.”
Bainbridge-Guilford at Sidney, Friday, 7 p.m.
Facing the Warriors in week one, the Bobcats may not see a tougher opponent the rest of the regular season.
Warriors junior Dylan Umbra is back for a third season at starting quarterback as is Aaron Wood, one of Sidney’s better running backs a year ago. “Umbra has to be one of the best quarterbacks in all of Section IV,” said B-G coach Tim Mattingly. “Last year’s game came down to the final 14 seconds. This is a nice rivalry game for us and the kids are excited about it.”
Billy Holden, a converted offensive lineman, had a strong scrimmage at fullback, and is a new threat on offense for the Bobcats. Senior quarterback Justin Pepper was also especially sharp.
Hamilton at Sherburne-Earlville, Friday, 7 p.m.
Sherburne-Earlville, who have three straight losing seasons, look to turnaround that recent trend beginning tonight against local rival Hamilton, who are also coming off a losing season as well.
“They seem to be a team that will line it up and run at you or spread it out a bit,” said S-E coach Mike Jaspar. “They have good athlete (Colby Graham) at quarterback, and the team rallies around him.”
The Marauders, as documented in the Thursday Fall Sports Preview, have no starting experience returning in the skill position spots. Junior Will Slentz is the likely go-to running back. “Hamilton wants to bounce back and have a better season, and we’re trying to do the same thing,” Jaspar said.
Newfield at Unadilla Valley-Edmeston, Friday, 7 p.m.
UV-E didn’t come close to a full complement of players at last weekend’s scrimmage with more than one-third of the players unable to suit up due to a variety of reasons. Loeffler expects to have plenty of eligible players available for tonight’s game against the Trojans. The two schools last met in 2007 with Newfield winning, 20-6. “When we’ve played Newfield in the past, they’ve always had a good quarterback,” Loeffler said. “They usually have a good passing game and center their offense around the quarterback.”
With just a baker’s dozen plus one getting most of the playing time last week in the scrimmage, expect the Storm to stick to their base offense that features a power running game.
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