The Northern State football team held its annual scrimmage on Thursday.
It was the Wolves' 18th practice of fall camp and they will now shift their focus to their season-opener next Saturday vs. Wayne State at Swisher Field.
We are feeling pretty good and we are just trying to get better everyday, NSU senior safety Jayson Geditz said, and now we will start preparing for Wayne.
No official score was kept, but the scrimmage featured offensive and defensive units in game-like situations - including field position and game clock situations.
We try and get our guys in as many game-like situations as we can, NSU coach Tom Dosch said.
As is normally the case at this point of the season, the defense was ahead of the offense - at least at the start of the scrimmage. The first-team offense went three and out. The defense held the offense to 67 yards rushing on 31 attempts unofficially during the scrimmage.
We did some good things, Geditz said. The ones and twos didn't get all that many reps, but the reps we got out there we have to make them count.
As the scrimmage went along, the offense began to come around. Reggie Blader finished with 26 yards on five carries, while John Hughes had 23 yards unofficially and scored the game's first touchdown on a nifty 17-yard run. Redshirt freshman running back Stephen Erlandson also got several carries with the first and second team offense.
Tonight we really had some ups and downs, Erlandson said. We were real good at times. Then we had some times where we just couldn't get anything going.
Taylor Zemlicka finished 5-for-10 for 53 yards and had a 12-yard TD pass to Taylor Houchin to end the scrimmage. Zac Emde went 5-for-9 for 43 yards unofficially.
Houchin finished with three catches for 42 yards. Houchin figures to see time at the wide receiver position. Dosch mentioned Wil Carlson, Chris Malsam, Jordan Freeman, Tyson Zemlicka and Tanner White as other players expected to contribute at that position.
It is still going to be a work in progress with those guys, Dosch said. We don't have a veteran group there by any means, but we are getting better as we go.
Zach Page and Adam Guthmiller unofficially led NSU with five tackles each in the game. Guthmiller also recorded a sack. Channing Barber had a nice interception in the back of the end zone toward the end of the scrimmage.
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