By Jasmine Jones

Photos Courtesy Rylee Duff

Last Friday the Winnfield Tigers held a home scrimmage against the Cougars from Grant. Scrimmages, unlike real games, are simply a form of extra practice and no score is kept. This served as an opportunity to play 11-on-11 with someone other than themselves.

With the heat bearing down on Stokes-Walker Stadium, the Tigers played a little over 50 snaps with the Varsity players playing about two-thirds and the junior varsity playing about one third. Highlights of the evening include  John Micheal Pickett, Richard Williams, and Javonta Grisby making consistent and notable tackles throughout the entire night.  Quarterback Nickalas Mockosher handed the ball off to Jeremy Mamon, who was able to perform a successful drive getting a 1st down. Then, just two plays later Nickalas Mockosher was able to pull off a quarterback sneak gaining the Tigers another 1st down. 

A notable play for Junior Varsity includes an improvised sneak by quarterback Colby Pray, where the original play was busted, but with quick thinking, Pray was still able to gain yardage. In another play, Richard Williams took a handoff all the way to bring the JV team their first unofficial touchdown of the season. 

When asked about the team’s overall performance, head coach Jay Watson said “We played with passion. We definitely made some mistakes that were correctable, but we’ll be working on it in practice. Our physicality was good overall.” He also said “The bright spot of the scrimmage was our defense” and “Nickalas Mockosher made some really good reads. He did really good things as a first time quarterback”. 

When asked about the junior varsity’s performance he said “Our JV is comprised mostly of freshmen who worked the basic offence well. They had some really good runs by Richard Williams.” Commenting on this year’s pre-season games, “We are scrimmaging with two larger football teams with quality athletes which will give us a real big test early in the season. Win or lose it will prepare us for the upcoming season.” 

This Friday the Tigers will head to Tioga, home of the Tioga High School Indians to play in a Jamboree. Friday night’s temperature should be about 92 degrees with a forty percent chance of thunderstorms. Consider making the short trip out to support the Winnfield Tigers! The Jamboree will start with junior varsity playing at 6:30 and varsity playing as soon after.