Cardinals have final scrimmage at Woodville

The Bridge City Cardinals have a final scrimmage in preparation for the start of the new football season. The Cardinals will scrimmage the Woodville Eagles this week.

Bridge City had its first scrimmage last week against the Vidor Pirates. This scrimmage was actually a mock four quarter simulated game.

Coach Cody McGuire was pleased overall with the job done by the Cardinals in the scrimmage. There were 75 plays on defense so it gave Bridge City a good work out against the very physical Pirates.

The Cardinals and the Pirates played hard in the scrimmage between the two Orange county schools. "The kids played well, we matched their physicality, our kids got after it, and I think the score was four to one. It was good for our kids to get out there and compete. After you have your intrasquad scrimmage then you want to hit somebody else and everybody was looking forward to hitting somebody else," McGuire recapped.

A leader on defense for Bridge City is Mason Pruitt at linebacker, and he had a great scrimmage. In the defensive line CJ Caine played well.

Vidor did not throw the ball often, but the Cardinal secondary had the Pirate's receivers covered during the pass plays that were called. Rayburn Hebert at defensive back made some strong tackles, and Jerry Winfrey also stood out in the secondary.

The Cardinals got a touchdown from Gavin Bodin. The offensive line for Bridge City also performed well.

Sophomore quarterback Hutch Bearden played consistently in the scrimmage for the Cardinals. McGuire reported, "Hutch Bearden our young quarterback is getting better and better every day so we're excited about the future."

There was concern during the scrimmage when wide receiver Jerris Brown for the Cardinals hurt his wrist. X-rays showed the wrist was not broken, and Jerris should be fine for the next scrimmage.

Another expected leader on defense is JS Bearden who has been out since May with an aggravated hamstring he suffered playing baseball. JS is trying to let that hamstring heal so he can get back to starting for the Bridge City defense.

Altogether there have been three Cardinals with injuries in the first two weeks of workouts and scrimmages. "Those are two key injuries, but Jerris is back and JS will be getting back shortly. Wide receiver Noah Broussard hurt his knee early in camp and we're waiting on word on his MRI results this week. He's one of our senior leaders on the offensive side of the ball," McGuire summarized.

Bridge City will travel to Woodville for its second scrimmage. The goal as always is for the Cardinals to be the most physical, most well-conditioned team on the field every Thursday or Friday night when they have a game.

McGuire is hopeful the Cardinals will play hard again this week. McGuire stated, "Our kids need to take care of their business and get after people, and if we do that we'll have a lot of success."

The Cardinals will have to deal with a different offensive philosophy this week than last when Vidor predominantly ran the football from Slot-T. "The Eagles are a Spread team, they're a lot of 20 personnel with two backs and then try to run the ball or then spread it out and throw it. It's crazy you go from Slot-T where they throw maybe four times the whole game to the Spread where they're going to be fifty percent run and fifty percent pass. It's going to be just like that when we play Orangefield in Week 1 because they run the Slot-T and in Week 2 we're playing Buna who runs the Spread, so it's good for us. It'll be a good change of pace for us," McGuire evaluated.

This is the final week before Bridge City will be gearing preparations for the season opener specifically against Orangefield. McGuire wants the Cardinals to continue to be mentally and physically tough.

The coach believes mental toughness is an area the players need to work on this week. McGuire elaborated, "I think we need to work on our mental toughness as far as the players knowing their assignments and being locked in the whole game. In the scrimmage against Vidor I thought we played really great the first half and then we kind of let down the second half. The kids still played great, but it's an area I think we can focus on and get better at. It's a forty-eight minute game, not twenty-four," McGuire concluded.

The Bridge City Cardinals travel to Woodville for its final scrimmage on Thursday night. The regular season opens with the Bayou Bowl on Friday, August 26, between the Cardinals and the Bobcats at F. L. McClain Stadium in Orangefield.