Choctaws open preseason on the road at Munford

 

Jason Peevyhouse

Editor, JP Productions Sports

After two weeks of work amongst themselves in Newbern, the Choctaw football team ventured out on the road and into the preseason on Friday evening as Dyer County travelled to Munford for a scrimmage with the Cougars.

Dyer County hosted the Cougars during the spring and first-year head coach Justin Dubruiel shared his thoughts on the second match-up with Munford on the scrimmage field.

“It went pretty well,” Dubruiel said. “When you play Munford, you’re going to get a pretty physical scrimmage.

“I liked seeing that we didn’t back down from that. We kept fighting the whole way through.”

Dubruiel added there were some things that the Choctaws need to clean up moving forward.

“Flags, holding and all those little things to help you get better as a football team,” Dubruiel added.

The Choctaw head coach pointed out one area of improvement from the spring scrimmage that he really liked.

“We were physical with them defensively and we made them drive,” Dubruiel said. “In the spring, they were very big play on us.

“They didn’t do that as much on us this go around. We were really physical and we started to move the ball a little bit.”

Small mental mistakes, though, were a factor for the Choctaw offense, the coach added. It’s a fixable problem, according to Dubruiel.

“You get the small things cleaned up and you can start moving the ball better,” the Choctaw head coach said. “You can start doing positive things offensively.

“We’ve got to be better up front. We’re only returning two guys that were starters up front last year. We’re trying to find the right pieces to fit.”

The skill player part of the offense played well, according to the head coach.

“We played really well,” Dubruiel said. “We ran good routes and we blocked well out on the perimeter.

“It’s just finding those five guys up front that will be the key for us this year.”

Dyer County remains on the road through the preseason and even into the season as the Choctaws will go to Jackson on Friday to face Trinity Christian Academy in the teams’ second scrimmage.

“Everybody wants to get better,” Dubruiel explained. “Defensively, if we can continue to make tackles – that’s going to be the biggest thing – recognizing where we need to be and get tackles.

“Offensively, we need to establish a running game. We struggled with that against Munford. I’d like to see us get a little bit better there.”

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