By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

Bearcat Nation converged on Charles Bland Stadium Friday (Aug 19) night to catch their first glimpse of the 2011 Bearcat Football team in the preseason Jamboree.

The ‘Cats faced off against teams from Kennett, East Prairie, and New Madrid County Central in the preseason scrimmage.

“[There was] good and bad, about like every year. We hit some good plays in both the passing game and running game tonight,” head coach Aaron Pixley said. “We didn’t execute a few times, but I felt like defensively we kind of struggled a little bit early, but I felt like we got better as we went. “

”We need to play with more energy, we came out a little flat tonight. I don’t know if it was the humidity or what, but we didn’t have the energy I felt like we should have.”

On one of the more humid evenings that the ‘Cats have been on the field, they seemed to be a little flat at the beginning of the jamboree, but once they picked up the tempo, the revamped ‘Cats put on quite a show.

The ‘Cats utilized their one-two punch of Nick Summers and Josh Overall out of the backfield extensively. Running behind a great offensive line, led by senior tackles Zach Lacy and Theo Gaul, both backs were able to string together impressive runs during the scrimmages.

Summers’ strong, physical running style allowed him to drag nearly seven Kennett defenders on a nine-yard run early in the jamboree. Overall’s quick, more ‘finesse’ style had him juking and stiff arming his way into several impressive runs.

“They’re different style runners; both of them bring someone to the table and they’ll both be used,” Pixley said of the two backs. “If our passing game is going good, our running game will be going good. I felt like the offensive line got downhill really hard and physical on some runs.”

The ‘Cats passing game also stood out during the scrimmages, with senior quarterback Cody Stevens connecting on several excellent passes.

“Our pass blocking was pretty good for the most part,” Pixley said. “We had some protection breakdowns late in the jamboree, but those are fixable things.”


Looking ahead, the ‘Cats are ready to kick off the regular season Friday (Aug 26) at home against Ste. Genevive.

“Ste. Gen didn’t really lose anything; they lost two or three position players, but everyone else is back,” Pixley said. [ “Against Ste. Gen, we’re going to have to have some high tempo, some high energy,” Stevens said. “We’ll need to have people flying around hitting people; Ste. Gen’s a good team.”

“We expect them to be one of the best, if not the best, team on our schedule. They will be very good, and we’ll have to play very well to beat them,” Pixley added. “I expect a very good football team to be coming through that gate Friday night.”


Kickoff for the regular season opener against Ste. Gen is set for 7:00 P.M. on Friday, August 26.

Photos above
Top Photo: Josh Overall squeezes in between defenders during the ‘Cats’ first scrimmage of the night against the Kennett Indians.
Bottom photo: Defensive End Jake Lee drags down a Kennett ballcarrier during the evening’s scrimmages.

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