Hopewell Football
Hopewell HS Football Team Scrimmages Ellwood City
Ellwood City– Head coach Matt Mottes and his Hopewell football team got on the bus this morning for a scrimmage at Ellwood City.
The Vikings were originally scheduled to host Freedom but that was canceled at the last minute which meant the competition improved.
Hopewell Sports Nation was in attendance and has a few thoughts on the scrimmage.
The most important detail is that it’s very difficult to come to any conclusions after a scrimmage.
The biggest reasons for that are: 1) each team runs 10 plays on offense, regardless of the outcome. If the defense forces a turnover, the offense still keeps the ball. 2) Each coach is working on and calling a variety of plays that they might not call in a normal game. It seemed as though both teams ran a lot of the same plays and didn’t want to put anything on film for their regular season opponents. 3) The quarterbacks aren’t allowed to be touched and the whistle is blown as soon as the defender is near the quarterback.
For all those reasons and more, coming to any concrete conclusions isn’t a good idea.
That all being said, after the opening drive in which Ellwood City drove the length of the field for the only touchdown of the scrimmage, the Hopewell defensive front played solid football and matched the Wolverines physicality.
Without the luxury of seeing film, it’s hard to pick out who played well up front but there’s no doubt, that a handful of players played well.
Two players in the secondary that played well were safety Avery Bokor and cornerback Jacob Brunton. Bokor had an interception that he would’ve returned for a touchdown along with coming close to a second one.
Offensively, the Hopewell passing game had a hard time getting into any rhythm. I suspect that will be a work in progress all season but I think they’ll be productive sooner rather than later.
In terms of the running game, Thomas Pipkins has a couple nice physical runs as did freshman Brody Rock. The Hopewell running game is going to be key as to how well this offensive performers this season.
No more scrimmages as the regular season kicks off this Friday at home against Riverside. Kickoff from Tony Dorsett Stadium is at 7 pm.