Tigers show strengths, weaknesses vs. McQueen in football scrimmage

It's tough to tell exactly what Saturday's scrimmage between the Douglas and McQueen football teams means in the long run.

McQueen looked every bit the state title contender its been hyped to be and Douglas looked every bit the rebuilding team.

With the first-stringers from each school facing off, McQueen scored four times compared to Douglas' two scores.

Douglas struggled covering McQueen's passing plays, but didn't show any of its four-back defensive sets that they have been working on. The Tigers did look strong against the run, however.

On the other side of the ball, Douglas primarily ran its traditional plays while looking pretty strong with some of its new passing sets.

McQueen ran two offensive drives to open the scrimmage, converting both with reigning Northern 4A Player of the Year Tyler York scoring on a seven-yard touchdown run on the first and a 40-yard touchdown pass on the other.

Douglas' offense sputtered on its first drive, but quarterback Tim Rudnick completed a five-yard pass across the middle to James McLaughlin, a 35-yard pass to Eric Guzman down the sideline and a 10-yard touchdown pass to McLaughlin on three consecutive plays.

Running backs Johnny Pollack and Jordan Cruz split the carries fairly evenly in the scrimmage, but Cruz held the slight advantage in yards gained. Pollack took a couple series to find his rhythm but got better as the day went on, picking up 12- and 10-yard gains late in the scrimmage.

Zach McFadden ended up grabbing three catches for 32 yards.

Defensively, linebacker Jeff Kelly, cornerbacks Danny King and Jesse Cruz and safety Brad Gonzales all had some big hits. Kelly was all over the field and was a force in run support.

Nose guard Ryan Moglich also looked strong against the run.

What Douglas showed on Saturday, though, will probably be much different than what they'll bring out Friday night in the season opener against Las Vegas.

Game time is 7 p.m. at Douglas High. Results of the game will be posted online at www.recordcourier.com Friday night.