After two weeks of practicing, the Odessa High football team finally got its first taste of action, going up against Abilene Cooper in a scrimmage Thursday night at Ratliff Stadium.
The scrimmage was split up into eight separate eight-minute segments during the controlled portion before the two teams played two live quarters.
Odessa High ended up winning the two live quarters, 27-0, as the defense managed a shutout. “We started off pretty slow,” Odessa High head coach Dusty Ortiz said. “We got some new people in new places. We started off slow but once we got to the live quarters, we started coming on, started gaining a little bit of confidence. We realized it was football and football is fun and we’re good at it. Once we got to the live quarters, we just kept the momentum going and did a really good job.”
The Bronchos started off the live portion of the scrimmage with a touchdown pass.
Odessa High made it 13-0 after quarterback Mikey Cota completed a 7-yard pass to Ivan Carreron.
Andrew Rodriguez had two touchdown receptions to make it 27-0.
“Andrew Rodriguez is only a sophomore and he played freshman last year,” Ortiz said. “He went to a bunch of camps this summer and has gained a lot more confidence. He’s doing some good things.”
The Bronchos’ defense also managed a red zone stop against Abilene Cooper to help complete the shutout.
“We’ve added a few things to the defense, some new strategies,” Ortiz said. “I think it’s all paying off. The kids are trusting the process and trusting us. When all 11 do their job, we’re really good. Now we need to find a way for them to do their jobs on every play.”
A few underclassmen were called up to play in the varsity scrimmage.
“We’re thin on varsity,” Ortiz said. “That’s going to be one of our weaknesses. We have to stay healthy. We brought a lot of the JV guys up. On some of the drives, we had a mixture of some of the varsity and JV kids.”
It was the first and only scrimmage for the Bronchos as the season begins next Friday at Lubbock Monterey.
“We have a lot of film to evaluate,” Ortiz said. “It’ll show what we did well and didn’t do well. We’ll watch it and critique and make sure the kids are prepared for the next game.”
Despite the result, Cooper head coach Aaron Roan was pleased with what he saw.
“I thought we got better today,” Roan said. “Odessa High has a pretty good bunch and I thought we did some good stuff. We got better as a football team. There are some things that we can improve on and clean up and that’s what we’re looking to do as we get ready for next week’s game.”
The Cougars will begin its season next week at Keller.
“I thought we did well defensively in the controlled part,” Roan said. “I wanted to see some better finishing for us on offense in the live quarters but it gives us something to work on. We’ll utilize this opportunity to get ready to play a good Keller football team.”
