Quitman and Alba-Golden battle in scrimmage; regular season gets underway on Friday night

Posted 8/25/22

It would have made a great pre-district game: the Alba-Golden Panthers and the Quitman Bulldogs. As it was, the second scrimmage of both teams was held between them at Bud Moody Stadium last …

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Quitman and Alba-Golden battle in scrimmage; regular season gets underway on Friday night

Posted

It would have made a great pre-district game: the Alba-Golden Panthers and the Quitman Bulldogs. As it was, the second scrimmage of both teams was held between them at Bud Moody Stadium last Thursday.  

Both teams took advantage of the opportunity to “set their pads.” There was plenty of aggressive tackling and solid effort. Neither varsity squad, however, found the end zone. In a contrast of styles, both squads traded blows, but neither could crack the opposing defense.

In the scripted portion of the scrimmage, the Bulldogs ran on 20 of their 22 plays from scrimmage. Their best production came on a 17-yard carry around the left end. They averaged just under 3 yards per carry. 

A nice catch on a “go” route against double coverage accounted for a 40-yard gain, the longest of the night for the Bulldogs.

While Quitman employed a tight running formation, the Panthers used more widely-dispersed formations and motioned backs into the backfield to take hand-offs and pitches. The Panthers were split 50/50 on their play calling, rushing for 27 yards and throwing for 46. 

The Panthers’ best effort of the night was their first pass attempt. A beautifully-thrown ball into the right flat was taken in stride and the receiver turned up field for a 16-yard gain. Just as the Bulldogs, the Panthers averaged just shy of 3 yards per rushing attempt.

As evidenced by the statistics, the defenses were keyed up to face county rivals. 

The scrimmage ended after two 15-minute periods of near-actual football. The coaches cleared off the field, and the sides used the whole field. In 13 possessions between the two, there were eight punts, one turnover-on-downs, two turnovers (Quitman forced a fumble, while Alba-Golden snagged a deep ball for an interception) and two clock expirations.  

The evening also featured junior varsity competition. Both junior varsity squads gained the end zone. Alba-Golden struck first with an arcing long ball which was caught in the north end zone for a 30-yard scoring strike. The Bulldogs rallied to score late by driving the ball down the field and pushing it across the goal line with a 4-yard quarterback keeper. 

The scoreboards will be fully operational on Friday for the first games of the season. Alba-Golden will be hosting Detroit, while Quitman will make the trip to New Diana.