Football

Tempers flare in first scrimmage

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GONZALES — Whether it was the heat, the cheap shots, the frustrations of sloppy August football or all of the above, tempers flared up as the Yoakum Bulldogs and the Gonzales Apaches at one point went to blows during a scrimmage Friday night at Bulldog stadium.

“Like spring time in Alaska,” Gonzales’ head coach Kodi Crane joked before the scrimmage as he walked onto the field.

Temperatures rose above 100 degrees as the Apaches faced their first test of the season against a Bulldogs team who made it to the state finals last year. Although the varsity team struggled early on, Crane saw some bright spots, such as an interception return for a touchdown, that he believes can carry the team throughout the season.

“I think our defensive front did a pretty good job and our offensive line did a pretty good job,” he said. “We got to be more consistent pitching and catching the ball, we got to improve coverage and I’ll tell you this, we adapted pretty good to their I-[formation] run game, but the I-pass game, all the misdirection of it, it’s something we just haven’t’ seen, the tight ends drag, all that stuff. Corey Anzaldua’s interception for a touchdown was just phenomenal, so yeah we did have some bright spots.”

Admittedly, the Apaches weren’t necessary preparing to “beat” Yoakum. In a scrimmage, Crane noted, the coaching staff was looking more at their techniques as well as how they communicate changes to their game plan on the fly, instead of worrying about the schemes Yoakum would show off Friday night.

“In the course of a football game, the coach-player communication has to be fluid and every game, every week we play somebody, they are going to come out and do something a little bit different,” Crane explained. “So, we’ve got to have practice in communicating that difference and making these tweaks and adjustments as quick as we can and not waiting until halftime.”

The rules set in place for player safety by UIL prevents teams from going “full speed” in practice, in reference to tackling.

“UIL rules say we can’t go hammer and tong every play and tackle to the ground,” Crane said. “We have a time limit that we can go full speed and we got to keep ourselves healthy.”

With Friday being the first time the Apaches can hit someone with “another color jersey,” as Crane said, it made sense that their tackling wasn’t up to par. That, and their physicality on the lines, is something that needs to be fixed according to the head coach.

“We have got to get more physical up front on the offensive line and defensive line and we got to be more physical tacklers with our linebacker corps and safeties,” he said.

Late in the scrimmage, tempers flared as some after-the-whistle shoves led to a scuffle on the field, forcing coaches to separate the teams before ultimately continuing the practice. Crane used the fight as a teaching moment, explaining to his athletes the sins of late hits and other penalties.

“Things happen in the course of a football game,” he said. “You’re blocking and hitting and tackling as hard as you can and tempers flare. But what we’ve got to do a great job of teaching our kids is we can’t do anything about that after the whistle. After the whistle is detriment to our football team. If it happens, we got to make the officials aware of it and we got to go do it the next play when it is a benefit to our football team. And [those are] little things that we just don’t understand yet and we got to do a better job teaching and they got to do a better job doing. And this got chippy. There were a couple of really cheap shots and that upsets everybody — us, the coaches, the players — and we just got to do a better job, all of us, of keeping our [emotions straight].”

Ultimately, Crane believes the team got what they needed in their first scrimmage of the season — a real test against a real live opponent wearing a different colored jersey

“We have some weaknesses we got to get fixed,” Crane admitted. “That’s why you scrimmage somebody this good. That’s why you do it, so you can see those things that you got to get improved.”

The Apaches host a scrimmage this Friday at 7 p.m. against Beeville Jones at Apache Field.

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