Mustangs, Cardinals clash in annual scrimmage

NIXON — In last Friday’s scrimmage between Shiner St. Paul and Nixon-Smiley, it was the Cardinals who had the advantage over the Mustangs. The scrimmage on Friday was mainly controlled plays with no live quarter. During those controlled plays, the Cardinals scored eight times while the Mustangs were left outside of the end zone.

Despite outscoring the Mustangs, St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth believes the team needs to continue to focus on improving, instead of leaning on the merits of any success they may have had.

“I saw some good things effort wise, missed a lot of assignments, I think there’s going to be good and bad,” he said. “That’s kind of what you expect. My hope is that they understand however you do in a scrimmage, you got a lot of work to do.”

The Cardinals were able to score off big run plays, including three from 70 yards out, one from 63 yards out and one from 52 yards out. Wachsmuth credited the offensive line as well as the talent the Cardinals have in the backfield.

“When you execute a play, it’s 11 guys, and when you don’t execute a play, it just doesn’t look very good,” he said. “We had a couple kids out but we had 26 kids that competed and I would say each one of those kids did some good things and each one of those kids probably did some stuff that they’re not really wanting to watch. We’re trying to be a full team. Obviously you can see guys that you probably recognize, but the key is getting some of these other guys to step up and play too. There were some nice plays with our backs but when those happen, linemen did a pretty good job.”

On the Nixon-Smiley side, Mustangs head coach Pablo Ybarra believes effort was a problem, but he isn’t too worried about his defense, especially because his defensive front played straight up, instead of the usual stunts and blitzes the Mustangs will attempt during the regular season.

“Our effort could be better,” he said. “We got better kids than we showed, to be honest with you. [St. Paul is] good, they play good, sound football, they execute very well, that’s why we scrimmage with them, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Ybarra chalked up the mishaps to effort and figuring out timing with the new offense in place.

“There were some plays that we looked good for a copule of plays, then we come back and make two mistakes after that,” Ybarra explained. “We were trying to take two steps forward but then we take two steps back. That consistency, which will come with time and learning the offense and the knowing how to hit the timing and where the holes are, read stuff like that. Like I told the kids, we’re not looking to hit all cylinders until probably September, October, when we get to district. That’s when we want to be hitting cylinders 100 miles per hour.”

This week, the Cardinals travel to Flatonia for a scrimmage on Friday at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, the Mustangs host Universal City Randolph on Friday for a scrimmage at 6 p.m.