While Morgan City High School may not have scored during its scrimmage Friday with H.L. Bourgeois, the Tigers’ offense certainly got better during the two-plus hours of work against its Terrebonne Parish opponent.
“Really pleased the way the kids played hard,” Morgan City High School Coach Chris Stroud said. “I thought early we got a little dazed, because H.L. got the best of us early. Those kids are big. They played hard, so we kind of little had that look in our eyes.”
However, Stroud said his team, which has a lot of players on offense and defense, got some rest with the second-string players working on the field.
“They really fought through it pretty good,” he said. “We had a few bangs and bruises, but played hard. In that live quarter, we looked like a decent football team.”
After a rough start on its first play block in which the team was unable to gain a first down, Morgan City bounced back with its second drive as Tate Alcina connected with Maurice Martin for a 54-yard catch-and-run on the Tigers’ first play of its second play-block.
However, the Tigers were unable to get any points off the drive.
Later in the play block, Deondre Grogan made a nice adjustment on a throw by Khai Hartley, coming back in front of the defender to catch the pass for a 30-yard gain.
Defensively, the Tigers’ first-team surrendered just one touchdown during first-team work when D’keyvion Sanders scored on a 3-yard run.
“We saw some good things,” H.L. Bourgeois Coach Ryan Fournier said. “I thought defensively, we played really well. Anytime you go a night where you don’t give up any touchdowns is a good thing. Offensively, we’re behind. We’re young on offense, and it’s a new system for our kids, so I’m hoping we can learn something from the film and get better next week going into the jamboree on offense.”
During the 12-minute live quarter, both teams moved the ball into the others’ territory, but neither could reach the end zone.
Morgan City’s best drive was its first of the live quarter as the Tigers moved the ball down to the H.L. Bourgeois 21.
The Tigers lined up for a 33-yard field goal attempt on 4th-and-7 from the H.L. Bourgeois, but the play was blown dead after what Stroud said was a mistake on his part, calling a fake punt on the play during the controlled scrimmage.
Later in the quarter, H.L. Bourgeois recovered a Morgan City fumble at the H.L. Bourgeois 48.
The Braves then moved the football inside the Morgan City red zone where, on fourth down with 13.9 second remaining, the squad attempted a 30-yard field goal. Conner Kimball’s attempt was short, keeping the live quarter scoreless.
“We’re calling them the silver-hat defense,” Stroud said of his squad, referencing the color of their helmets. “We try to get 11 silver hats to the football. … We had some depth issues. We had a few injury issues, but kids that are on the field are running to that ball, and they are playing very hard.”
Alcina’s heave down field on the scrimmage’s final play was intercepted to keep the game scoreless.
Earlier in the scrimmage, H.L. Bourgeois scored its junior varsity touchdown when Ty Henry crossed the goal line on a 3-yard run.
Morgan City will have its final preseason prep Friday when it meets Patterson at approximately 7:30 p.m. in Morgan City’s annual jamboree.