Chicks have big plays in scrimmages

SEARCY— The Blytheville Chickasaws traveled to Harding Academy Tuesday night, playing a quarter scrimmage against the Harding Academy Wildcats and a quarter scrimmage afterwards against the Batesville Southside Southerners.

The Chicks squared off against the Wildcats first and the 12-minute quarter ended in a 21-21 tie.

BHS was led by senior running back Jermel Woods who on the first play of the game dashed for a 70-yard touchdown run. The extra point was good and the Chicks led 7-0.

The Wildcats took eight plays and a little over two minutes off of the clock before HAHS completed an eight-yard pass in the back corner of the end zone. The Wildcats tied the game at 7 with an extra point kick.

BHS was forced to punt the next series and eight plays later the Wildcats found the end zone again through the air with a two-yard pass. The PAT was good and Harding Academy led 14-7 with 5:43 remaining.

The following drive for the Chickasaws, the Chicks were helped out with a 33-yard completion between sophomore quarterback Jeremiah Northern to Willie King. That set BHS up on the three-yard line where Northern walked into the end zone untouched to tie the game again at 14.

Harding Academy quickly answered less than a minute later with a big 70-yard run by senior runner Stone Sheffield. The PAT was good and HAHS led 21-14 with 3:49 remaining.

During the next drive for the Chicks, after two incompletions and a false start penalty, Northern found Kylen Wells behind blockers, and Wells finished with a 75-yard touchdown. The touchdown tied the game again at 21 with 3:18 remaining.

The Chicks defense forced a punt on the following series to get the ball back with less than two minutes.

BHS was on the Wildcat 36 yard line with .3 seconds remaining in the game; however, Northern’s pass was intercepted in the end zone by the Wildcats and the scrimmage ended in a 21-21 tie.

In the second scrimmage matchup, Northern threw two interceptions and also fumbled on his own one yard line but the Chicks still came away with 13-7 victory over the Southerners.

The first interception came on the Chicks first drive after they had taken nearly four minutes off the clock. However, the defense came up strong and forced the Southerners to punt the ball.

On the next play from the BHS 30 Woods broke away for his second 70-yard touchdown run of the night and the Chicks led 7-0 with 5:50 remaining.

The next Wildcat drive the Chicks were helped out with an incomplete pass on fourth down to get the ball back.

On the next Blytheville series, Northern found Ty’Quan Love for two competitions that totaled 57 yards and gave the Chicks a 13-0 lead with 2:30 remaining.

With the Chicks on defense, Wells intercepted a Southerner’s pass with 21.3 second remaining in the game on the one-yard line.

However, the following play Northern was forced to run and fumbled the ball on the one yard line. The following play the Southerners found the end zone with a one-yard quarterback keeper. The Chickasaws intercepted the two-point attempt and the Southerners trailed 13-7 with 10.7 remaining.

The Chicks played the following possession and Northern was intercepted again as time expired.

After the scrimmage, Chickasaws head coach Lance Stone was impressed with his young receivers making plays and also added that the more things his quarterback sees the better he will be in the future.

“Jermel does what Jermel does. He had two touchdowns in the first quarter scrimmage and another touchdown in the second scrimmage. The O-Line looked good for the most part. We had some issues to pick up in the pass protection and some issues to shore up there,” Stone said. “I thought Taveres Townsend did a really good job catching some clutch passes in our first scrimmage. Ty’Quan (Love) had a touchdown. We are just trying to get the passing game more involved. We definitely need to work in that area. Jeremiah, he is just young so the more stuff that he sees the better. There is really no negative for him as everything he sees is going to make him better as we go.”

The Chicks picked up several false starts and jumped off sides many times on the night, issues Stone stated will be worked out via up-downs in practice.

“ Yeah, definitely that’s a good thing that we didn’t have any personal fouls. Nobody lost their temper, lost their cool. My guys played under control. Played with discipline,” said Stone. “The good thing about those false starts and offsides is it is a miracle what up-downs will do for curing that kind of stuff. So we will get that taken care of.”

BHS opens up the season on the road this Friday night against the Marion Patriots. Stone mentioned they were talented and have “big-time” players on both offense and defense.

“They are talented. They have big-time players on both sides of the ball. It is going to be a challenge for us. We also got to go to their place. So, it’s going to be a challenge,” Stone explained. “We are going to prepare to the best of our ability and be ready to go and show up and compete. That’s what our goals are. We don’t care if they’re 6A. They are a top five team in 6A. We are going to go out there and compete and put on a good show.”