Kingston head football coach Brad Hill wanted to challenge his football team that is once again loaded with expectation in its move to Class 3A with a rugged preseason slate.
Mission accomplished. Perennial powers Broken Bow, which is ranked second in Class 4A in most polls, and Class 3A Top 10 rated Metro Christian were the initial challenge last week in the Redskins’ first scrimmage and even with several new faces in key areas Kingston was up to the challenge.
Each squad delivered its share of haymakers but the Redskins stood toe-to-toe with the opposition throughout the night.
“They are both excellent football teams that gave us two different looks,” Hill stated. “That’s exactly what we were looking for. Metro spreads it out and throws it all over the place and Broken Bow wants to be physical with its running game and capitalize on their speed and athleticism.
“We felt really good about the physicality the kids showed. We knew we would have some things exposed and that’s why we scrimmaged those people. We had a few communication errors early but did a really good job defensively other than that. We even came up with a couple of interceptions against Broken Bow. We definitely held our own and couldn’t be more pleased with what we saw and can build off.”
Offensively, the Redskins came out of the gate a little slow but seemed to improve drastically as the night went along. They connected on a couple of long runs and long touchdown passes.
The highlight run of the night was a highlight reel burst by junior Kelly Gray down the Metro sideline, running over a defender along the way. Collinsville, Texas move in Trent Stewart had a solid touchdown burst and returnee Jaksyn Martin made an electric move over the middle and sprinted for another score.
Hill also pointed to big offensive contributions from newcomers Damien Almos, Aiden Polk and Kayden Fenwick.
Senior Ethan Mowles performed well while moving into the starting role at quarterback, protecting the ball prolifically against a couple of aggressive defensive units. They got very good protection from the offensive line led by seniors James Trout and Blane Henry.
Several of the same crew did a nice job on the defensive side with Redskin coaches also pointing to the tackling of newcomer Bear Bell in the secondary.
Another physical test for the Redskins comes Thursday night with their final scrimmage when they host Davis and the Wolves’ flexbone rushing attack.