Marysville’s Braeden Deere picks up yardage after a reception during a scrimmage against Delaware Hayes on Saturday. The Monarchs will host Central Crossing on Thursday for their final preseason tune-up.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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If there is one word that Marysville High School head football coach Brent Johnson has been drilling into his team this summer, it’s “consistency.”
The sixth-year Monarch boss, while knowing that no team ever plays a perfect game, wants to see that type of effort in all phases of the sport.
Johnson was pleased with most of his squad’s effort and execution during Saturday’s home scrimmage against Delaware Hayes.
‘I liked how our guys stayed on a pretty good level throughout the scrimmage,” he said. “Our first guys on offense especially got off the mark well.”
The Monarchs showed they can move the ball on the ground, with the likes of Griffin Johnson, Colton Powers and Sam Harrington ripping up the field for yardage.
The line did a nice job of opening up a lot of holes for Marysville’s running backs.
Marysville has long been a run-oriented squad under Johnson’s guidance.
However, the Monarchs showed a good passing game with the arm of quarterback Brady Seger.
“Brady threw the ball well,” said Johnson. “Terry Toopes (wide receiver-defensive back) made some nice catches.”
The Monarch coach described his team’s defense as “very vanilla.”
The rush by the defensive line got to Hayes’ quarterback a few times.
“However, we also gave up some big pass plays,” said Johnson.
The Pacers kept their front-line players on the field for much of the action, including against Marysville’s second and third-team units.
“I thought our second team offense moved the ball, but we also put it on the ground a few times,” said Johnson.
“Our second team defense ran to the ball well.”
Overall, Johnson was pleased with the day’s action.
“It was a good first scrimmage for us,” he said. “We had some success and were able to get our second and third group of guys a lot of reps.”
Still, as with any initial scrimmage of the preseason, there are things that need to be worked upon.
The Monarchs had their fair share of penalties as yellow laundry littered the Monarch stadium turf.
Johnson said that is one factor that will be addressed this week in practice leading up to Thursday’s home scrimmage against Central Crossing (varsity starts at 7 p.m.).
“We have a lot of work to do and some things to clean up,” said Johnson. “At times, we did a nice job of sustaining offensive drives and at other times we had some miscommunication.
“We played very physically and we just need to iron out some details,” he said. “All the mistakes we saw are very correctable.”
Johnson didn’t hesitate when asked where he wants to see the biggest improvement between Saturday’s scrimmage and Thursday’s competition against Central Crossing.
He reverted back to his favorite “C” word.
“We want to keep improving our consistency with our effort and execution,” he said.