Fort Dale Eagles air it out during practice
Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 17, 2006
Three days after scrimmaging at Wilcox, the Fort Dale Eagles returned to the practice field Monday and finished what they started Friday afternoon
At the beginning of practice Monday, the usual run-first offense went away from the ground and took to the air as the Eagles continued work on the spread offense.
On Friday afternoon, Fort Dale head coach James “Speed” Sampley took his team to Wilcox to scrimmage in live situations.
Although the teams did not keep score like a live game, the Fort Dale offense was dominant, scoring six times.
“It went well and what's important is we moved the football and everybody played about the same amount,” Sampley said.
During the situational scrimmage, the Eagles worked a lot on the passing offense and it proved to be successful.
Nine receivers caught at least one pass Friday and four players attempted a pass, with quarterback Ty Newton finishing 14-of-18 for 305 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. The other three passers combined for 134 yards.
Mika Jones was the leading receiver for the Eagles with five catches for 126 yards and one touchdown. Davis Watts and Dalton Gregory also each scored a touchdown.
Paul Whigham finished with four receptions for 64 yards.
The Eagles were also productive running the ball with Jeffrey Stead finishing as the leading rusher with 68 yards and one touchdown off of seven carries.
Barry Boan and Newton also each scored a rushing touchdown.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles were everywhere, coming up with five interceptions.
Eric Moody, Blake Mullins, Adam Vickery, Whigham and Jones each had a pick for the defense.
The Eagles also recovered three Wilcox fumbles.
The Eagles will scrimmage again this Friday at Pike Liberal at 7 p.m.
Also, as a reward and as a teaching tool, Sampley took his players over to Troy to watch one of the Trojans' practices.
“I wanted them to see how hard Troy practices,” Sampley said.
Sampley said Troy head coach Larry Blakeney was extremely courteous with the team and even let the Fort Dale players break up into groups and go watch the Troy players and coaches at each position.
“Getting to be right down on the field with the team was very important for our team to see just how hard their guys work.”