By JASON KING
Leader sports writer
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, guys.”
Those were the first words by Cabot coach Mike Malham to his team after its first competitive play of the year.
Cabot traveled to Lake Hamilton Monday night to face off against the Wolves in their annual scrimmage game. It was the first chance for Mal-ham and the Panther coaching staff to see how much progress had been made during three weeks of summer two-a-days.
Malham seemed overall disappointed in Monday’s effort, although he did see signs of improvement and some good offensive plays, especially in the late-going.“We didn’t move the ball bad at first,” Malham said. “It’s just the same old thing. We had two seniors jump offsides three times, that’s inexcusable. They are better than that.”
The scrimmage was set up with each team taking 15 plays on offense before switching sides of the ball.
Lake Hamilton came out assaulting through the air, scoring three touchdowns on Cabot in the first hour of play.
Cabot’s offense was sloppy, with a series of encroachment penalties that prevented them from converting some first downs.
The second-part of the scrimmage saw a full-scale improvement for the Pan-thers, both offensively and defensively.
John Flynn helped turn the momentum defensively with a perfect read on a Lake Hamilton pass-play. Flynn took the pick from midfield all the way back to the Lake Hamil-ton 11 yard line. Lake Hamilton would only score one more full-field touchdown play in the last half of the scrimmage.
The offense stepped things up as well in the second stage, with several outstanding runs from Alec Tripp and quarterback Corey Wade. Tripp broke one for a long-yard-age TD, and had several first-downs.
Fullback Richard Williams pounded the ball up the middle for the Panthers, making several key short-yardage gains.
The Cabot offense looked impressive against a sizeable Lake Hamilton defense in the late stages of the scrimmage.
John Stone also took one all the way from mid-field for the Panther’s offense. Cabot stuck to its familiar ground assault throughout most of the scrimmage, with a small handful of passing attempts in the first part of the night that were unsuccessful.
“The second time out we really looked a lot better, we looked more machine-like,” Malham said.
“The offense looked better; it actually looked quite a bit better on both sides of the ball.”
Malham thinks the scrimmage against the Lake Hamilton team will be very beneficial to his team, as the Wolves hit the Pan-thers with several different formations in both directions.
“They do a lot of different looks,” Malham said. “Both offensively and defensively, which is good; it lets our kids see that they are not going to throw just the things you prepared for at you.”
