CARROLLTON, Texas – Forney faced a familiar opponent on Friday night in Carrollton, Texas, during a preseason scrimmage against the Carrollton Creekview Mustangs – a former District 15-4A opponent the past two seasons.
CARROLLTON, Texas – Forney faced a familiar opponent on Friday night in Carrollton, Texas, during a preseason scrimmage against the Carrollton Creekview Mustangs – a former District 15-4A opponent the past two seasons.
Due to University Interscholastic League (UIL) changes in classification for the 2014-15 school year, Forney is preparing for their first season as a 5A team in District 12. There is no significant enrollment increase at this year’s 5A schools which is typically the reason for reclassification. Instead, UIL changed the old Six Man Division to 1A and bumped all other classifications up one level. For the first time ever, Texas has 6A football as its highest classification.
The preseason scrimmage on Friday is a format that needs explaining for many readers. Junior varsity (JV) and varsity teams are on the sidelines for both teams. The JV team takes the field first and runs a predetermined number of plays. Turnovers, lack of first downs, etc. do not impact the number of plays a team gets.
Varsity then takes the field after “swapping” possession. The scrimmage then alternates like this for several possession changes. After approximately two hours of this format, the varsity teams take the field with regular season refs and play a two quarter full-on scrimmage, minus kickoffs. Teams are also not allowed to attempt blocks on Special Teams.
During the initial stage of the scrimmage, both varsity teams moved the ball decently. Forney gave up one long touchdown run, which was the only score for either team. Starting quarterback Luke Skipper showed his familiar scrambling style – avoiding the rush of the Mustangs and extending plays. The still-young quarterback needs to learn to throw the ball away in situations when a receiver doesn’t get open during the scramble.
Too many hits to key players and negative plays will cripple an offense that needs to maximize their potential in order to lead the Jackrabbits to the playoffs after last year’s disappointing absence.
The offense showed they are definitely capable of moving the ball this year, matching increased expectations around town. Running backs Chazz Slatinsky and Mylon Agent had several good runs from the backfield along with Skipper and backup quarterback Cory Marr.
Starting tailback AJ Atnip did not participate in the scrimmage due to a previous injury. Atnip is expected to be ready for the season opener next Friday night, August 29, 2014, against the Wills Point Tigers at Forney's City Bank Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
The Jackrabbits put the only points of the game simulation on the board with a 30-yard Rhett Coleman field goal. Coleman had come up short on a previous 48 yard attempt. As the final buzzer sounded, the Jackrabbit offense was knocking on the Mustangs door at the 20-yard line.
Defensively, the Jackrabbits had some big moments. Several quarterback pressures and sacks from the front seven, notably DE EJ Newman, kept the Mustangs offense in check all night long. Newman also recovered and created a fumble. Middle Linebacker Corey Sandlin had an interception near midfield in the game simulation. Creekview's longest plays of the night were on short to intermediate routes that turned into big gains after a missed tackle or two.
Late in the game simulation, sophomore middle linebacker RJ Hedges filled the hole on a 4th-and-1 and made the biggest hit of the night as he absolutely stuffed the Mustang RB and drove him backwards resulting in a turnover on downs. Jackrabbits definitely won the turnover battle in the game simulation, which should be a big key for this team in 2014.
With the final score of 3-0 in favor of the Jackrabbits, it wasn’t an overwhelming performance by either team. However, it could definitely be described as a solid performance for teams that are still fine tuning for the season opener. Some promise was showed on both sides of the ball by the Jackrabbits, who many consider an experienced team after losing only 10 senior starters to graduation last year.
The team slogan this year “One Team, One Season, One Chance,” reflected on t-shirts available from the Forney Quarterback Club, speaks to the togetherness and outlook this year’s team has embraced. Despite the hot temperatures, fall has officially arrived in Texas as high school football season is five days away from opening kickoff.