Carroll Academy football coach Bo Milton said last week he hated missing the scrimmage with North Delta.
Last week at the Tri-County jamboree, Milton said it showed as the Rebels lost 12-6 to Madison St. Joseph and beat East Rankin 8-6.
“I thought last week we looked like we didn’t have a scrimmage,” Milton said. “I thought we looked nervous early and didn’t have that physicality at the start. I thought we got better as the day went on. I thought we played tougher as the night went on. There are just some things that we have to tweak and get better at.”
Milton said the Rebels were minus some starting lineman and it showed. But he also thought the jamboree was a wakeup call for his team.
“I thought (Monday) was the most physical practice up front that we have had since we got started,” Milton said. “St. Joe wasn’t bad up front and we had a couple of starters out. But that’s not an excuse for not being physical. I saw something from our line that we haven’t seen this season in practice so that was encouraging. I think we will be fine if we will continue to play more physical up front.”
In the St. Joe game, Drew Thomas scored on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Brennan Blaylock. In the East Rankin game, Mathis Beck scored on a 95-yard fumble recovery.
This week’s game
The Rebels will open the season this week as they host rival Winona Christian on Friday night.
“It’s a big ball game because it’s the only game this week,” Milton said. “We are ready to get the season started. I sensed it today from the kids at practice. It was a little more intense at practice and more physical. It’s been a good rivalry game. We are 10 miles apart and our kids know each other. I think you throw everything out in a game like this. I know it’s the start of the season but records and classifications don’t mean anything against them”
The two teams have split the last two years but Winona Christian has won five of the last six against Carroll under coach Junior Graham.
“They are going to be well coached,” Milton said. “Coach Graham does as good a job as anybody against us and it shows. They are 5-1 against us since we got here. We just have to play better than we have been practicing. I think it will come down to turnovers. Except for last year, they had won that battle. We won it last year and won the game.”
Carroll won last year’s game 22-14 en route to the district championship.
