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Scrimmage Paves Way For First Football Test
jv rush
A junior varsity player keeps the ball tucked away as he looks to make headway up the field against the Argonaut defense in scrimmage action on Saturday. Times Photos By Marg Jackson

 

All three levels of Cougar football – varsity, JV and freshmen – got on the gridiron for some action over the weekend, hosting Argonaut in a Saturday morning scrimmage. Freshmen and JV took the field together, rotating the squads against Argonaut while the varsity had a solid day running the offense and defense against the visiting Mustangs.

“We were pretty happy, everybody got plenty of action,” said varsity head coach Mark Loureiro. “A lot of kids played well, both Bo and Blue Capps, Logan Widmer … Dustin Lawrence did a good job blocking as a tight end and as a linebacker on defense.”

Offensively, Loureiro said quarterback Dylan Azevedo ran the offense well and did connect on a couple of passes, including one to C.J. Gumbs for a touchdown. Gumbs scored twice on the day.

“Hunter Calton stepped up and ran the ball pretty well,” added Loureiro. “We still have great competition going at fullback, we have three guys we are looking at, Trenton Busch, Tyler Swinford and Tim Costa, we’re seeing good battles between those guys.”

Also still up for grabs is the second inside linebacker position, as the Cougars look to fill some spots.

“We came out healthy and we got better,” Loureiro said of having a successful day.

Following his team’s scrimmage in the morning, Loureiro and some assistant coaches scouted Patterson – their opponent this week – on Saturday night.

“These are such contrasting styles,” Loureiro said of the speed and finesse of the Tigers vs. the smashmouth football of the Cougars. “We are bigger in size, more physical, but they have three or four skill kids we don’t have an answer for ye.

“They have electrifying speed and are real athletic.”                                        

Escalon will travel for the season opener, heading to Patterson for the Friday, Aug. 28 contest. The JV team, under head coach Andrew Beam, will take the field at 5 p.m. and the varsity contest will follow with a kickoff at 7 p.m. The freshmen do not get a game this week, as Patterson does not have a freshman squad.

“It should be interesting, Patterson has a lot of team speed, and we’re playing on turf at their place,” Loureiro noted. “We will have our hands full.”