Area squads hit the road for 7-on-7

Three of the four Lodi area high school football teams were in action in Elk Grove on Thursday.

Tokay, Liberty Ranch and Galt were three of the six high school varsity football teams competing in the Thursday Night Lights 7-on-7 passing games at Cosumnes Oaks High. Each team had three games that lasted approximately 30 minutes.

Tokay played Galt, Cosumnes Oaks and McNair. Tokay coach Michael Holst and his assistant coaches stayed busy keeping their eyes on returning and incoming players on both sides of the ball.

“We got a little better,” said Holst of the Tigers’ progress in each game. “We just wanted to come out and run our stuff. We did make a lot of mistakes. But we played with enthusiasm, and competed.”

On defense, Holst was pleased with the performances of senior Ralph Martinez at free safety. Martinez had a combined four interceptions in three games. Cory Glasgow, who started at cornerback last fall, played strong safety in all three games.

“He’s still learning but he understands the concepts of playing,” said Holst of Glasgow, who played center field on the Tokay baseball team this spring. “We had a lot of takeaways. We were going up and getting the ball, and that’s always a great sign that we’re going up against the ball. We have some things that need to be fixed. A 7on-7 doesn’t mean a whole lot, other than getting a lot of guys reps. We’re evaluating guys at this point.”

The Tigers will continue to run

their spread piston option offense this upcoming season. On defense, Tokay will use a base 4-2-5. Tokay will open its season at Heritage of Brentwood in a pre-season game on Friday, Aug. 25.

Liberty Ranch coach Anthony Linebaugh, who was recently named the school’s new athletic director, didn’t hesitate to answer the question of how his team did in general. The Hawks played against rival Galt, McNair and Cosumnes Oaks.

“It’s really early, we looked like it was really early,” Linebaugh said. “This was only the third day of our summer program.”

Linebaugh wouldn’t single out any Hawk player who stood out in the games. He pointed out, however, that the games were a “good opportunity” to continue to get better.

“We’ll have our weight room and classroom sessions,” Linebaugh said. “We need to work on a lot of things. Collectively, we worked well as a team. Everyone enjoyed (Thursday’s) experience.”

Liberty Ranch will continue to run the wing-T offense. On defense, the Hawks also run with a 4-2-5 look.

On Aug. 25, Liberty Ranch will also open its season at River City of West Sacramento.

Galt coach Jermaine Allen, now entering his second season at the helm, welcomed the passing games to look at two quarterbacks, including one who is a sophomore. Along with playing Tokay and Liberty Ranch, the Warriors took on Laguna Creek of Elk Grove.

Running its I-formation offense, Galt also spread out into different formations that included an empty backfield.

“We did good,” Allen said. “We moved the ball up and down the field. We had a good showing. When we played Tokay, I thought we were pretty even. We’ll be spreading out the offense, and try to be more balanced. We’re going to be utilizing different formations that we didn’t use (last season). We want to open it up a little bit.”

Galt players who stood out at Thursday’s games were Jacob Maldonado, Ozzy Rodriguez and Isaac Lopez, all of whom are looking to run the ball this season.

Allen said that his Warriors and Liberty Ranch scored on each other twice in their game.

Galt, which plans to stay with its 4-4 base defense, opens its season at Ripon on Sept. 1.

Tokay, Liberty Ranch and Galt will be back at Cosumnes Oaks next Thursday.

Lodi High is not competing at Thursday Night Lights.