Scrimmage or not, Fort Worth North Side and SW Christian grateful to meet Thursday
In the grand scheme of things, Fort Worth Southwest Christian and Fort Worth North Side were just happy to be playing football Thursday night even though it was only a scrimmage.
The Eagles and Steers weren’t slated to scrimmage each other this year but a global pandemic brought them together at North Side.
“Getting to this scrimmage has been draining for the players and coaches,” Southwest Christian coach Jeromy Flowers said. “Our players were ready to hit someone else tonight.”
Travel guidelines meant the Eagles needed one bus and four smaller buses to transport the 60-man roster to the game. Getting to the scrimmage provided the staff a rehearsal for next week’s game at Carrollton Prince of Peace on Sept. 25.
The scrimmage featured a pair of playoff teams from last season. Southwest Christian went 6-5 last year while North Side broke a 40-year playoff drought while posting a 5-6 record.
The teams went through a 40-play controlled scrimmage and then one quarter of timed play. The Eagles dominated both portions.
Southwest Christian scored twice in the controlled scrimmage on a 55-yard run by Darrion Gipson and a 33-yard run from Holt Percifield. In the timed play, Gibson broke off a 44-yard run to the Steers 2. From there Carson Tatarevich found the end zone on the next play.
“We wanted to come out and show a sense of dominance with our offense and we were able to do that,” Flowers said. “We were physical and disciplined coming off the ball. Now there still were some mistakes that we have to clean up.”
The Eagles tallied 172 yards rushing on 15 plays in the timed scrimmage and 200 yards rushing on 17 carries in the controlled scrimmage.
North Side didn’t look crisp on offense. Steers wide receiver Da’Wain Lofton, a 3-star Virginia Tech commit, managed one catch for 12 yards.
“We have a lot of work on,” North Side coach Joseph Turner said. “We have been out of football for a while. Not having spring ball hurt us quite a bit because our timing was off. There are a lot of things we need to work on, on both sides of the ball but that is what scrimmages are for.”
Turner said he was just glad he was able to find a scrimmage, and playing a team than runs the ball a lot will pay off since Carrollton Creekview is in the Steers district. The Mustangs use an option-base offense.
“Truthfully, we are happy we have made it this far without any problems,” Turner said. “We are going to continue to have our guidelines in place. We are just looking forward to Joshua next week.”
The Steers play Joshua in a non-district game Sept. 25 at Owl Stadium.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 10:20 PM.