Friday, Aug. 22, 2008

Mustangs Face Dragons in Scrimmage

GHS Football

By John English

Contributing Writer

Things did not go exactly as hoped for in Grapevine’s opening scrimmage, as they came up short against a stacked Denton Ryan team, but coach Gary Mullins said it is still very early and said the Mustangs will look to get back on track tonight against their old district rival Carroll.

With realignment, Grapevine will not face the Dragons in district play this year, and Mullins said, as usual, Carroll should present a good challenge for his team.

"They’re going to be wired up, and I’m sure they’re going to have things cranking with that throwing attack," Mullins said. "They’re probably going to take a look at a couple of quarterbacks themselves. I pretty much expect them to be like they’ve been.

"They’re going to be real mobile on defense, and have some big guys up front; they’ll let their middle backer make a lot of plays as well, probably," Mullins said.

"It’s going to be another good test for us...to make sure that we get our legs under us for the first game. We’ll get our group in there for several series and see what happens, and hopefully get out of there unscathed."

Mullins said he was quite impressed with Ryan’s firepower in the scrimmage and said it was a wake up call of sorts for his team.

"That was quite enlightening," Mullins said. "They have an excellent ball club. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but somebody better watch out. They’re loaded. They’re going to make a strong run at it."

Mullins said he did see some good execution from his team on the offensive side of the ball during the Ryan scrimmage and said, ultimately, he feels his team benefited from the contest.

"It worked out well because we had a really good work out today," Mullins said on Monday evening. "They really responded well to that. We just have to pick up the pace a little bit and shift gears, and continue to get ready for the season."

Grapevine plays at 7:30 tonight against Carroll at Dragon Stadium.