Hays' Shawn Leerssen breaks free from the Del Valle defense during the Rebels' dominating performance Saturday at Shelton Stadium. Hays next scrimmages at Temple Friday night before opening the season August 26 at home against Akins. (Photo by www.chaparralphoto.com)
By JASON GORDON
Just when it appeared that injuries might be the story of Hays’ first scrimmage against Del Valle, the Rebels showed signs of exactly what new head coach Blake Feldt has been talking about since he arrived on campus in March.
The Rebs were running on offense, attacking on defense and for the most part completely shut down a Class 5A Del Valle team at Shelton Stadium Saturday morning.
Despite the fact center Boone Feldt missed the scrimmage with a stinger in his shoulder, first-team slot receiver Taven Mayberry was out with an abdominal strain, fellow first-team slot receiver Michael Romero was limited by a sprained ankle and starting quarterback Caleb Kimbro played only the first series of the contest before being sidelined the rest of the day with a pulled calf muscle, the rest of the Rebels picked up the slack.
Hays moved the ball up and down the field on the Cardinals, who beat the Rebels to claim the district crown the last time the two teams faced off in the regular season in 2009, with back-up quarterbacks Mason Cervenka and Adam Castro, and strong offensive line play leading the way.
Defensively, Hays attacked the football and tackled Del Valle ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage more than a dozen times. The Rebels’ first-team defense wasn’t scored upon as Hays won the scrimmage four touchdowns to two.
Del Valle’s only touchdowns came against a mixture of second and third teamers on Hays’ defense late in the scrimmage.
“I saw a lot of good things out there today,” Hays head coach Blake Feldt said. “Our first-team defense flew to the football. We don’t have a lot of size on either side of the football but we can compensate for that by being fast and knowing our assignments.”
Nolan Jones’ fumble recovery and Antonio Oliva leading a wall of Rebels to top Del Valle on fourth-down-and-2 near midfield set the tone for the scrimmage early. Quarterback sacks by Daniel Minor and Mark Oldham, Joel Young’s tackle for a 10-yard loss, and additional tackles for loss by Nate Paez, Kyle Williams, Michael Pieprzica, JT Sivils and Oldham, continued the trend of the Cardinals not being able to get anything going offensively against the punishing Hays defense.
“We were out there trying to gang tackle on every play,” said Hays nose tackle Kyle Williams. “We were very happy with the way we played together and showed great speed and hustle. If we continue to move at that speed, we’re going to continue to make big plays.”
Offensively, Cervenka got the offense going with a 24-yard touchdown on a quarterback draw. Cervenka then lofted a 30-yard pass to Jaxson Schaubhut, who made a leaping catch, Romero followed with a 34-yard scamper, and then Cervenka was on the receiving end of a 30-yard Adam Castro pass, for three of the biggest plays of the scrimmage early on.
Cervenka then found Schaubhut with a 35-yard fade pass down the right sideline for a touchdown, and Castro came right back on Hays’ next offensive possession with a 15-yard touchdown run on a sweep to the left side.
Castro capped off the scoring for Hays with a 1-yard quarterback dive play for a touchdown on the final play of the two-hour scrimmage.
“We’ve been working very hard in practice and it’s great to see it paying off now,” Cervenka said. “The offensive line was dominating today, the receivers made big catches, the quarterbacks were making their reads and the defense played very well. Everything is going well for us right now.”
Blake Feldt said the scrimmage was a good first step heading into Hays’ season opener at home August 26 against Akins. The Rebs will have their final scrimmage of the preseason Friday evening at Temple High School.
“We still have a long way to go until we’re a finished product but it was an excellent first scrimmage,” Blake Feldt said. “I’ve been here since the spring and haven’t seen us go against another team. I wanted to see how we responded against someone else and I was proud of how we competed and the speed we played at.”
