Running game sharp in final season tune up

Graham’s final scrimmage against Glen Rose on Thursday showed this year’s team has the pieces to surprise a few people.

The Steers first-team offense moved the ball fairly easily throughout the evening, scoring twice in the 12-minute live quarter. Although the Lions were able to score three times, head coach Kenny Davidson said playing such quality teams will only make his young squad stronger.

“I could go down the list of the things we have to improve on,” Davidson said. “Basically every phase of the game we have to get better, especially our third-and-long situations and long-yardage defense. This was a good test for us by facing a team that had a lot of juniors last year and are now seniors. We needed to be put in a situation where the mistakes really count. I told my team after that they didn’t have the scoreboard on tonight, but next Friday night the scoreboard is going to be on and we have to be ready. Scrimmages like this are really good about conditioning, because this is as closest to a game-like situation you can get.”

After sitting out in last weeks scrimmage against Burkburnett, senior running back Chase Gilmore showed his big-play potential for the upcoming season. After nearly running for 2,000 yards as a junior, Gilmore scored twice against the Tiger defense. Other bright spots included sophomore Daniel Gilbertson scoring the other Graham touchdown and junior kicker Greg Simental made all of his extra points. Quarterback Jack Mercer took reps with the second-team offense.

The Graham defense began the scrimmage by putting pressure on quarterback Cam Griffin. Junior defensive lineman Gordo Renteria broke through the offensive line and earned a sack on the first play of the entire scrimmage.

J.J. Lee, who starred for the junior varsity defense a season ago, batted down a third-down pass, which...

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