LC Closes Camp with Scrimmage against Hendrix

The Louisiana College Wildcats football team traveled to Freedom Fields in Bossier City, LA on Friday to complete their 2016 fall camp with a scrimmage against Hendrix College.  The scrimmage allowed both teams to fine tune themselves against an unfamiliar opponent just one week before the start of the college football season.

 

After both teams traded two kickoff attempts each the Hendrix offensive starters took the field against the Wildcat defensive starters.  The Warriors took the ball down the field in just a handful of plays and into the endzone for the first score of the night.  The Wildcat defense though would respond to the opening score and only allow Hendrix one other field goal the rest of the night.

 

Defensive coordinator Justin Charles said, “The guys came out a little nervous, didn’t realize that its not practice anymore, but after that it was really just about execution and I think they came out and executed well. They focused on the things that we’ve been practicing.”

 

“I think we’ve gotten better since day one of fall camp and it was just great to see the guys out there competing and doing what we have to do.”

 

Defensive leaders like Ryan DeMattie, Willie Smith, Orel Ledet Jr., and Mike Collins made plays throughout the scrimmage especially in the short field when the team worked on their red zone packages.

 

Head Coach Dennis Dunn said, “I felt like the defense really stepped up in the red zone, really proud of the stop that the one’s had down there.  Our red zone play last year was not real good so we wanted to emphasize red zone tonight and our guys did well. We were able to score a couple of time in the red zone and we held them to a field goal outside of that first drive.”

 

The offensive production during the scrimmage was consistant throughout the night with the Wildcats able to establish the running game with Aurren Cooksey, Nick Julien, and Tristen Ausama, behind the big offensive line.

 

The one thing that held the offense back during the scrimmage were dropped passes.  Each of the deep receiving corps members seemed to put the ball on the ground at least once.  Even with the drops Shedrick Davis, Farron Jones, D.J. Latino all caught touchdown passes and one of the highlights of the night was the 70-yard screen pass for a touchdown by Lamar Carroway.

 

Dunn said, “We did drop a lot of passes, I think it was seven or eight drops we had from our receivers, catchable balls that were drive stoppers.  Even with that I thought our effort was really good, our guys played with confidence and poise.  We saw the possibilities of what could be for 2016, Hendrix is a good team, they’re an 8-2 playoff team from last year and played Huntingdon toe-to-toe.  If this scrimmage was any indication of the things to come then there are some exciting weeks ahead for Louisiana College football.”

The Wildcats will open up the 2016 season on Saturday as they host the #24 ranked Huntingdon Hawks.  Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Wildcat Field on the campus of Louisiana College.