Mitchell County’s big plays lead to scrimmage win over Westover

ALBANY — Big plays by what looks to be a potent offense doomed Westover Thursday night as Mitchell County took a 22-10 in a season-opening football scrimmage at Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany.

The junior varsity players opened the scrimmage and neither team was having much luck until the Eagles used a second quarterback. After getting stuffed on his first attempt to run around the left side of the line, sophomore quarterback David Campbell went back around the left side of the line and raced 55 yards to the end zone with 1:28 remaining to give the Eagles a 6-0 win in the JV contest.

The Eagles got another big run in the first quarter when running back Tony Burks blew straight up the middle 74 yards for a touchdown and then with less than a minute to play in the quarter, quarterback Antwan Gilbert connected with Knowledge Williams for a 50-yard touchdown pass.

The Eagles scored their third touchdown when disaster struck for the Patriots on the first play of the third quarter. The Westover quarterback dropped the snap from the center and Mitchell County defensive lineman Tra Hines picked up the ball and raced 20 yards into the end zone for the score.

Westover’s offense struggled all night to get going against the Mitchell County defense, but Patriot did get stand up and cheer when freshman quarterback Keyon Thomas lofted a long pass down the field and senior playmaker Kavon Johnson jumped over the Mitchell County defender and pulled down the ball and raced the rest of the way into the end zone for Westover’s only touchdown of the night.

Westover kicker Eddison Vicente booted a 27-yard field goal late in the game to end the scoring.

Both coaches saw areas for improvement.

“We have a long way to go,” said Westover head coach Adam Miller. “We have a very young football team and tonight was our first step before the season starts. We just need to continue to strive to play disciplined football, give great effort, and trust the process. It’s a very long season and tonight was just a small part of it.”

Mitchell County head coach Dondrial Pinkins said his team looked better but still has things to fix.

“I thought we improved overall from the spring,” Pinkins said. “However, there are a lot of little things that need to be fixed that are fixable and that’s a good thing. We must focus more at practice and treat each rep like it’s a game rep. The play is to go back to work this week and make the necessary corrections to be a more polished team next Thursday.

Both teams will be back at Hugh Mills this coming week. The Eagles will take on Monroe High School Thursday night at Hugh Mills in the regular season opener for both schools and Westover will face Dougherty on Friday night in the Hamp Smith Classic.

Joe WhitfieldJoe Whitfield