The California Pintos played some tough defense at their jamboree Aug. 23. The Pintos gave up only one touchdown in their two scrimmages against the Tolton Catholic Trailblazers and the Marshall Owls.
Head coach Derek Scroggins said the defense being aggressive was a big factor in how the team played.
"The big thing was they are aggressive and are flying to the ball," Scroggins said. "They are well coached. Coach (Justin) Pflug does a great job calling their defense. Coach (Rick) Edwards and Coach (Brandon) Kleithermes both help him out with the defensive backs and defensive line respectively, and (the players) were ready to go. I thought they stepped up and played hard."
On offense, the Pintos scored twice vs the Trailblazers. The scores came off of back-to-back plays. The first touchdown was a run by Tyler Patterson. The second touchdown came off a pass from Martin Kilmer to Ian Peterson.
Bryant Davis would score a touchdown on a short run against the Owls. The Pintos would score one more time against Marshall, through Logan Parrish.
Scroggins said he thought the team did pretty well at the jamboree.
"We were aggressive," Scroggins said. "We had a lot of kids rotating in. So no one got a whole lot of experience, but I was proud of what they did. They went hard, they executed, they had great attitudes, stayed loud on the sidelines, and I think that had a huge impact. I felt that we came together as a team and played hard."
Scroggins said the team needs to tighten some things up when it comes to fundamentals.
"We took a good step forward in the right direction here, but we've just got to keep tightening things up, make sure that we are finishing our blocks, following our blockers, playing to the whistle, wrapping up, having better form tackling, just basic fundamentals," Scroggins said.
The Pintos open their season at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 at home against Lighthouse Homeschool Association.