WCMS has final tune-up: Pioneers face Baird in scrimmage
Warren County Middle School held its final scrimmage of the preseason Friday evening, playing host to Lebanon’s Walter J. Baird Middle School.
And although the final tally was five Baird touchdowns to Warren County’s two, first-year head coach Jeff Watson said his team showed a great deal of improvement over its previous scrimmages.
“We looked so much better from last week to this week, I really think we did,” he said. “We competed with that team, we just made too many mistakes.”
The Pioneers’ starting offense got on the board first, when Tucker Chastain burst through the middle for a long touchdown run. Shane Wilcher brought WCMS its other score late in the scrimmage on a similar play, as throughout the game rushing the ball inside proved to be the Pioneers’ most successful offensive tactic.
“When we ran up the middle, we did pretty good,” Watson said. “We didn’t really have the speed to get around the outside a lot, but our blockers did a good job on their angles, and opened up a few good holes for us to run the ball.”
Between their scoring drives, however, came several Pioneer drives that ended prematurely due to turnovers, including back-to-back fumbles which helped give Baird good enough field position to score their first two TDs.
“Most of the touchdowns they scored were because they had such good field position after we fumbled,” Watson said. “We made some mistakes, but they were correctable mistakes, stuff that you can fix, and a lot of people don’t understand that.”
Defensive highlights from Friday’s scrimmage included an interception by Ethan Womack, a fumble recovery from Kenny Roberts, and a stripped ball by Justin Bouldin that was recovered by Jonathan Paz.
The Pioneers open their season Tuesday, Aug. 27, at home against DeKalb County.