Yoemen gain experience in multiple scrimmages
The Cameron Yoemen football team is set to open the 2021 season on Friday night against Lago Vista at home. They got a warm up with two scrimmages over the last two weeks.
They had their first scrimmage of the year on the road against the Taylor Ducks on Friday, Aug. 13. They also played Madisonville Thursday, Aug.19, for their final scrimmage game of the year before the start of the regular season.
Overall, Coach Rick Rhoades was satisfied with his teams play against Taylor considering it was their first matchup of the year with a different opponent.
The way the scrimmage games work is the team’s first play a scripted portion where the teams take turns running their offensive possessions against the opposing team’s defense for a few plays. Then, they play one full quarter as if it’s a regular season game with the normal season rules.
“I was pleased considering that we were missing some key players,” Rhoades said. “We started a little slow, but I felt we turned it up as the scrimmage went on. I was pleased with the effort in the game like situation.”
However, after the game he mentioned his concerns about the team’s consistency on offense and eliminating big plays on defense and felt that they could improve on those areas of concern coming into the scrimmage against Madisonville.
Rhoades also thought he had a lot of players stand out in the first scrimmage game against Taylor. Those key players will make a positive impact on the team and hopefully show great leadership quality and step up to allow the Yoemen to have a successful season this year. If they are going to make an impact on the team this year, Rhoades feels that they need to play consistently on both sides of the ball at this level.
The Yoemen finished up their scrimmage schedule on Thursday against the Madisonville Mustangs as they prepare for the regular season opener at Yoe Field.
The Yoemen outscored the Mustangs in the scripted portion of the scrimmage one score to none and then shut out the Mustangs 7-0 during the one live quarter that they played.
“I think we played a little bit harder,” Rhoades said. “We made some plays when we needed to make some plays. We kind of hamstrung ourselves, a couple kids got in trouble and couldn’t play. It’s hard to say without looking at the video, but I feel like we did some good things. I thought our defense played well again tonight. Offensively, we may have gained a little bit of consistency, something that we need to build on every week. But we’re getting there, it’s going to be a process, it’s going to be a journey.”
That journey will continue on Friday as the Yoemen host the Lago Vista Vikings for the season opener. The scrimmages may be over, but Rhoades feels there are still a few areas to improve on despite being victorious in both scrimmage games.
“We’ve played two scrimmages, we’ve won both of them, and our defense has played well in both of them,” Rhoades said. “Those are things we’re going to continue to work on. In your scrimmages you kind of work on everything, and once you get into a game, you kind of cut down what you’re doing, but you get really good at what you’re doing, so hopefully that’s the case.”
Friday’s game against Lago Vista will kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Yoe Field.