While scrimmages across the state were being delayed or canceled due to Hurricane Harvey, two powerhouse programs in class 2A faced off Friday night in Crawford, Texas. Bremond (Division II) and Crawford (Division I) met up to see where each other stood entering the 2017 season. The scrimmage was played in a 15/15 play, 2x 12:00 running clock format, with the varsity teams ending in a live quarter of football.
Bremond has won the State Championship for the past three seasons and has a record of 58-1 since 2013. The Tigers lost their star QB Roshauud Paul (Texas A&M) to graduation and were looking to evaluate his replacement Michael Pruitt against great competition.
The Tigers offense played spread and used their speed to try and outrun the larger Crawford defense. Bremond seems like they want to live and die by the QB keeper, which they ran a vast majority of the time out of different spread formations. The field vision and shifty footwork that Pruitt used while playing receiver last season transition well while running the football and led to the Tigers first touchdown of the scrimmage.
Bremond RB Kaidyn Peralez burst a great run for 30 yards, but excellent pursuit by the Pirate defense brought him down on the 12 yard line. Once again Bremond ran a QB keeper and Pruitt was able to find the end zone for the second time.
One thing the Tigers need improvement on is deep snapping, Pruitt found himself picking the ball up off the ground surrounded by defenders way too often. Bremond was able to make it inside the Crawford red zone on two other occasions, but turned the ball over on fumbles both times. The Bremond defense is slightly undersized, or at least was compared to the massive Crawford offensive line.
The Tigers use their speed to shoot the gaps and do an extraordinary job of attacking the ball carrier in numbers not one on one. The Tigers were able to force a couple of key sacks, one that forced the Pirates into a 4th and 17 from their own 15-yard-line.
The Crawford offensive didn’t waste anytime getting started. On the first play from scrimmage, RB Garrett Dutschmann took a handoff 70 yards for a Pirate touchdown. The Crawford offensive line is a dominant force and they opened holes all night for the RBs to have success. Crawford was able to run the ball in for another touchdown on their second possession, with great misdirection play calling that caught the Tigers defense off guard.
The Pirates’ offense effectively runs play action connecting in the flats and swing passes and running delay reverse runs. The Pirates’ defense is very strong at the point of attack, they were able to force Bremond’s offensive line back off the snap consistently. The communication amongst the Crawford defense is outstanding and they swarm to the ball and attack in numbers. The red zone defense was very impressive to watch, the Pirates forced two fumbles, one of which came after a 15-yard facemask penalty.
Overall, both teams look good and should do very well this season in their divisions. Bremond needs to be careful relying so much on the QB’s ability to run because one injury could be trouble for their offense. Coach Kelm believes the Pirates will be fine and said, “We want to be a physical football team and we want to run the ball and I’d like to think right now,
we’re pretty good in that area.” Both teams have the capability of playing in December and they will keep the attention of opponents around the state of Texas this season.
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