Lafayette wraps up spring with three-team scrimmage
The Lafayette Ramblers wrapped up their second spring practice under head coach Paul Ellis by participating in a three-team spring scrimmage in Calhoun on Friday night.
The Ramblers took on Adairsville for two quarters before facing host Gordon Central for two more quarters. The Tigers and Warriors met to finish off the night.
Starters played all of the first quarter and approximately four minutes into the second quarter before giving way to the younger players for the rest of the half. There were no kickoffs and no contact on extra points or punts.
Although scores were not officially kept on the scoreboard, Lafayette managed three total touchdowns against Adairsville while allowing two. The Ramblers gave up two scores to the Warriors in the second half of the night’s action and scored once before Central’s back-ups scored with about nine minutes left to play.
“Like any spring game, it’s not going to be completely clean, but at times I thought we were really sharp,” Ellis stated. “One of the things we have to work on is when we get teams on the ropes, we have to be able to finish it. We didn’t really have anybody on the ropes tonight, but we did have them in some tough situations and we kind of let them off the hook.
“All in all, though, I was very pleased with what we did. We’ve just got to have a great summer because if you look, were very young in spots.”
Jacob Moses set up his team in excellent field position by recovering a fumble at the Adairsville 21-yard line. Jamario Clements would score moments later from five yards out with Max Studdard kicking the extra point. However, Lafayette would return the favor later in the first quarter by fumbling in their own territory to set up the Tigers for a score.
Adairsville would score on a 15-yard run with 42 seconds left in the first quarter, but Clements broke off a 17-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter to tie things up before two rising freshman, quarterback Zach Barrett and receiver Sam Hall, connected on a 21-yard touchdown pass and a two-point conversion with less than a minute to play to give Lafayette the win.
The Ramblers’ first and second drives against Central featured sizable gains on most every play. The first drive would culminate in a 16-yard touchdown pass from Zach Cowan to Hunter Deal with Studdard adding the PAT.
Cowan would hit Clements on a big third-down screen pass on Lafayette’s next drive, but the Ramblers would bog down after a five-yard loss on third down at the Warriors 25-yard line. A fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
That would be the last real scoring threat of the night for Lafayette as Central scored on a pair of TD passes to lead 14-7 at halftime. Johnny Madaris and Brady Beard both came up with sacks on defense.
“I thought some of our young kids really didn’t play like young kids tonight and our seniors showed really good leadership all spring,” Ellis added. “They’ve all had an unbelievable year in the weight room, including winning the Region 5 weightlifting meet. We just have to continue to get the community excited about this game and I think we’re going to get there. My goal, before I leave Lafayette, is to see our home bleachers full in that first spring game and, hopefully we’ll get there.”