Plainsmen pleased with scrimmage

Richard Anderson photos
Laramie senior quaterback Coleton Wilson, 13, looks to pass with fullback Charles Swearingen ahead blocking Saturday during an intrasquad scrimmage at Deti Stadium. At bottom, tight end Tyler English grabs a Wilson pass for a touchdown.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Just call it a preview of Laramie High School’s version of Friday Night Lights -- on Saturday night.

The Plainsmen football team turned on the lights at Deti Stadium on Saturday night and ran through about 70 plays, mixing up both the offense and defense with first- and second-teamers.

With Laramie opening the season on Friday at home against Steamboat Springs, Colo. -- the Plainsmen are one of two Wyoming teams playing a real game during “Zero Week” -- it was imperative that they worked under some game-like situations. The majority of the state will get a chance for jamboree type of scrimmages next week, something Laramie won’t be able to do.

“The difference between game-like and practice is huge. Then there is playing under the lights,” Laramie senior quarterback Coleton Wilson said.

First-year Laramie head coach Bob Knapton said they got a little more out of the scrimmage than they expected and didn’t come away with any injuries.

“We kind of wanted to make sure we got everybody some good series and we wanted to make sure that if we had any injuries we would close off early. But nobody got hurt,” Knapton said.

Knapton said it is tough to play a game without an actual scrimmage against an opponent. For the most part, he thought the Plainsmen handled it well.

“Usually when you scrimmage another team, it is more like a game. We wanted to try and make it as much as we could like that so when we go next Friday night they won’t be all starry-eyed and everything,” he said.

Laramie junior running back/defensive back Jon Sorenson said it was nice to get out on the field and play under the lights to get the atmosphere of the game.

“We have a couple of things we have to work on, but other than that we executed what we wanted to and we got off to a good start,” Sorenson said.

At times, the Plainsmen No. 1 offense ran against the No. 2 defense. Most of the time, though, the offense and defense was split up between starters and backups.

“I think it was just to get some guys some reps, get them into the flow of the offense and defense,” Sorenson said. “It was a good mix, pretty equal teams.”

The Plainsmen struggled a bit early, with a couple of fumbles. But as the scrimmage wore on, so did the quality of play.

“We put the ball on the ground a couple of times, but we all have confidence in each other and just started rolling and we felt good,” Laramie junior tight end/linebacker Tyler English said.

Wilson said the good thing about the scrimmage Saturday night was that it was just a scrimmage.

“Coach said tonight that we will make mistakes, but that is the nice thing about a scrimmage,” Wilson said. “This week in practice, we will be able to look at those mistakes and correct and we’ll be ready for Steamboat next week.”

Wilson and English teamed up on a nice 22-yard touchdown pass, as English was wide open in the end zone. It was one of five touchdowns the offense scored during the scrum.

“It’s a miss-direction play; it gets the defense going the other way and I just sneak out on the other side,” English said. “The safety usually bites down on the run and it was a good look that Coley had.”

Wilson said he had a lot of options on not only that play, but any of his passing plays in this offense.

“That is the nice thing about the offense; we always have two or three guys to throw to and if they are not open, I can run it,” Wilson said.

Sorenson scored on a pair of short touchdown runs for the Plainsmen, with fullback Charles Swearingen adding a 12-yard TD run. Backup quarterback Derek Schaneman also connected with wide receiver Rylan Harding from 10 yards out.

At this point of the season, Knapton said the offense should be a little behind the defense, but for the most part, he described his offense as “not too bad” on Saturday night.

“There was some good execution, but there were times when they fumbled it and they have to realize that you can’t do that with this type of offense, you can’t dig yourself in a hole,” Knapton said. “We called plays just across the board just to see if everybody remembers them and has them in. There are certain plays that worked real well for us on offense, but we went ahead and tried other plays, just like on defense. I’d do some calls that didn’t merit the situation, just because I wanted to make sure they knew what they were doing.”

English said that Saturday‘s scrimmage got the Plainsmen playing as a team and it gave them the opportunity to know how they are going to play and what they need to get better at. At the same time, he said it was still just Laramie vs. Laramie.

“We’re not trying to hurt people, but we wanted to get out here and improve and get better and do what we need to do,” he said.

The Plainsmen will now have a little less than a week to prepare for Steamboat Springs.

“I think we’re in really good shape, the conditioning was really tough,” Sorenson said of the first week of practice. ‘We came out a little sluggish, but our legs kicked in. Now, we’re just getting ready for Steamboat.”