COVINGTON – The Covington Buccaneers hosted the Dixie Greyhounds on Friday in the final scrimmage in preparation for the 2023 season and showed signs of dramatic improvement due to the effort, intensity and enthusiasm that was displayed on the field.
Both programs are in similar situations with youthful rosters, but each are headed in the right direction due to the great coaching and overall effort presented throughout the entire evening.
Dixie received the opening kickoff and marched the ball inside the Buccaneer ten with first-and-goal. But Covington’s defense rose to the occasion and stopped the Greyhounds on four straight plays to take the ball over at its own four yard line.
The Buccs then put together a well executed, long sustaining drive inside Dixie’s five. Unfortunately the Buccs turned the ball over via a fumble inside the one.
Covington’s defense stepped up again by shutting down Dixie’s offense on the ensuing possession and the Buccaneer offense once again moved the ball deep into Greyhound territory for yet another scoring opportunity. Two touchdown runs by Covington – one by freshman Landin Cassel and another by sophomore Christian Clark – were negated by penalties, which left the scoreboard scoreless as the first quarter came to a close.
Missed opportunities would typically take the wind out of the sails of many teams, but the Buccaneers put their mistakes behind them and executed their next drive to near perfection – a drive that ate a signifiant amount of time off the clock. It was capped by a beautiful touchdown pass from junior quarterback Kian French to sophomore wideout Day’Lynn Garrett.
Then, after three quarters of varsity action, the younger kids took the field for a ten-play offensive series for both squads.
Covington scored on an amazing play as freshman quarterback Landin Cassel connected with fellow freshman Tyler Palsgrove on a pass between the corner and the safety. Palsgrove was hit low by the safety and somehow managed to flip over the defender and stayed on his feet on his way to the end zone.
Dixie also scored on its ten-play sequence to close out the evening.
Overall, it was a successful night for both Covington and Dixie as each team showed signs of future success.
For Covington, there are things that need to be cleaned up before next week’s season-opener at Arcanum – mostly the penalties that halted several scoring opportunities.
Still, it is obvious that the Buccaneers are improving dramatically every day because of the culture this great group of kids is buying into (WORK – TOUGH – HUMBLE – UNSELFISH – LOYAL).
