GREENWOOD — The Columbus North red zone offense had a solid showing in its scrimmage Friday night at Greenwood.
Both varsity groups had 15 plays beginning at their own 35 yard-line, 10 plays from the opponent’s 10 and 12 plays from the opponent’s 35. The Bull Dogs finished with four touchdowns to one for the Woodmen.
Three of North’s four scores came out of the 10 plays starting at the Greenwood 10. Bull Dogs coach Tim Bless said his explosive offensive weapons allow for favorable matchups when they are just yards away from scoring.
“I think that will happen on a lot of Friday nights with the height and leaping ability of our wide receivers,” Bless said. “That happens a lot in the red zone with fade balls going up and so forth. We just have to develop consistency to get ourselves down in the red zone so we can utilize those matchups.”
Wide receiver Tristan Bailey displayed some of those red zone mismatches when he found himself wide open for an easy touchdown catch from senior quarterback Trenton Kelley. Cortez Bandy handled most of the carries during the scrimmage and ran his way to to two touchdowns from 10 yards out.
“I felt pretty good,” Bandy said. “There are definitely things I need to improve on, and I’m going to improve on those things and work hard for this next week to get ready for Franklin and the rest of the season.”
North also showed a flash of its big-play potential when Kelley threw a 30-yard touchdown to D’Andre Scruggs.
But executing on offense is only half the battle. The defense has to be able to prevent scoring and the Bull Dogs did that.
North’s defense gave up only one score in 37 plays. The Woodmen punched it in on the 10th and final play during their series that began at the Bull Dogs 10.
“That’s the name of defensive football — to limit points,” Bless said. “If you only give up one touchdown in that many snaps, I would say. ‘Job well done.’”
Bless will go back and look at the video to see what the team needs to improve on before the opening game at Franklin next week and said he is excited to see how the first game will turn out.
