The Peebles Indians and Manchester Greyhounds took to the gridiron on a steamy Monday night at Veterans Stadium for each team’s first preseason scrimmage action. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles offense shines in the Monday night heat
Peebles’In the face of the Peebles pass rush, Manchester quarterback Aaron Lucas gets off a pass attempt in Monday night’s scrimmage action. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ Christian Gerth (85) makes a leaping interception of a pass intended for Manchester’s Kayden Butcher (25) as the two teams battled in an August 8 preseason scrimmage. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
After hauling in a pass, Manchester tight end Logan Neria (40) is hauled down by Peebles defender Sol Beech-Turner, (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
After a washout of a scheduled preseason scrimmage on the previous Saturday, the varsity football squads from Manchester and Peebles met on Monday night in Veterans Stadium in Manchester for each team’s first preseason action. The Greyhounds of Manchester are now under the direction of new head coach Justin Schmitz, while the Indians return a solid, experienced team that can boast to being back-t0-back champions of the Southern Ohio Independent League.
Monday night’s scrimmage began on a sad note as the two teams met at midfield and held a moment of silence in memory of Montgomery Myers, a former North Adams football standout who was tragically lost in an ATV accident on August 7. hen it was time for the two teams to battle near 90 degree temperatures in their first action with another team on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
The first portion of the scrimmage was set up for the offense to run 10 plays at a time, no matter the result and the Indians got the ball first and showed what everyone expected, their offense will be explosive. With senior Zane Knechtly under center, the Tribe produced a pair of touchdowns in their opening possession, one coming on a 3-yard Knechtly sneak and the other on a short scoring run by Landen Storer. The Indians got big plays from the running game and Jayce West and a nice revers jaunt from Hunter Meade and also a beautiful long pass from Knechtly to receiver Brandon Rayburn, who went full extension to make an acrobatic catch.
The first Manchester possessions was a bit more slow-paced, though a nice pass play from quarterback Aaron Lucas to tight end Logan Neria on a crossing pattern took the Hounds to the Peebles 25. But a big sack by the Indians’ Michael Hudgel pushed the home team back and they ended their 10 plays at the Peebles 35.
The Indians offense got their second opportunity and this time posted three scores in the span of their 10 allotted plays. The first came on another long pass to a wide open Rayburn and then later the visitors got back to back 65-yard scoring plays, one on a run by Knechtly and the next on yet another long scoring pass to the elusive Rayburn.
The next 10 plays for the Hounds were a struggle as Coach Schmitz worked on his team’s passing game, but two of those tosses were picked off by the Indians, one on a leaping sideline grab by Christian Gerth and the second interception went to Sol Beech-Turner. the Hounds did finally find the end zone on the final of their 10 plays when Lucas again found his tight end Neria for the score.
After a break, the teams completed the evening by playing a pair of 10-minute quarters with a running clock. By this time, a bit if fatigue had likely set in as neither team could find the end zone. The Peebles offense held the ball for the first 12 minutes but eventually turned the ball over on downs, while the Manchester offense turned the ball over on a fumble recovered by the Indians.
“We’re where we need to be,” said Peebles head coach Mike McDonald after the scrimmage concluded. “Last year for most of our games we came out a little bit slow and we wanted to correct that. Maybe we over-corrected because we came out tonight really, really hard for the first part of the scrimmage and then kind of had some issues as the scrimmage went on. We were moving the ball but getting a lot of penalties that set us back.”
“I’m really proud of the boys and I thought Manchester looked pretty good. We try and tell the boys that we all know what we saw but there are corrections that need to happen, the little things that negate the good things we do, that one little reach or that one little hold.”
The regular season for both teams is right around the corner as the Greyhounds will open up at home on August 19 with Cincinnati Country Day while the Indians will host North Adams on August 26 in their home opener.
