By CHRIS HOLLIS
Sports Reporter
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After some 45 minutes of waiting until the searing heat index dropped to a playable level McCreary Central’s football team finally got to experience some action Friday night in their first preseason scrimmage at Casey County.
For the several of the young Raiders it was their first time on the field against varsity competition and it showed early on.
The Raiders first three possessions ended with them fumbling the ball away deep in their own territory setting the Rebels up for three easy scores against a seemingly shell shocked McCreary team.
The Raiders ran only eight plays in the three possessions and Casey needed only a total of eight snaps to put the ball into the endzone three times while amassing a total of only 92 yards.
McCreary was finally able to keep possession of the ball on their next series and began to move down field on a drive that lasted twelve plays and reached as far as the Casey County 30-yard line before being moved back seven yards on the final two plays and turning the ball over on downs.
After finally getting out of the shadow of their own goal post the Raider defense stepped up and held Casey to only 17-yards on their next possession and then after yet another turnover by the Raider offense that gave Casey the ball only 34-yards from another score the Defense held again stopping the Rebels just short of the goal line on fourth down.
After a possession by each team following half time Casey scored their final touchdown of the game on a seven play, 42-yard drive and added a two point conversion to make the score 28-0.
McCreary’s offense got on the board in the final quarter as sophomore Arliss Dople spun away and dodged several defenders on an impressive 38-yard run that capped off an 88-yard drive of six plays.
Despite the deceptive score the Raider coaching staff was pleased with the performance of the team who dressed only 27 players due to rules that require a player to participate in a specific number of practices before they can practice or play in full pads. Coach Derek Smith noted that there were ten players on the trip who could not participate for this reason and they figure to pick up a few more players once school starts.
Coach Smith was also pleased at the players not getting down after the disasterous start. “They could have easily hung their heads after getting off to that kind of start but they didn’t. They hung in and competed well the rest of the night” he said. “If we don’t give them the ball those first three times this was a really good game and that’s just not going to happen often”.
The Raiders return to action on their home field Thursday evening as they host Russell County in their final scrimmage before the season opener on August 27th at home vs. Pineville.
