Hawks look to build off of first scrimmage

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon football team's first scrimmage on Saturday gave the Hawks a gauge of where they are one week into the preseason.

Hosting Berry College at Samford Stadium, Huntingdon head coach Mike Turk said he was pleased with his team's defensive effort but he still sees a lot of room for improvement on offense and defense.

"When we watch the film, I think there will be plenty we can watch and learn and grow from on both sides of the ball," Turk said. "I think we have some really good players. We've just got to get all 11 guys doing what they're supposed to be doing. Hopefully we will learn from this and get better."

Offensively, Huntingdon had success moving the ball and was able to find the end zone. But Turk said the unit has to eliminate its mistakes before opening the season at home against Louisiana College on Sept. 5.

"Offensively, we left a lot of plays out there tonight. We stopped ourselves quite a bit," Turk said. "We missed some things and didn't react properly to some things. We've got two weeks to get that fixed."

Defensively, Turk pointed to a pair of interception returns for touchdowns as highlights of the night. Cornerback Demetrius Beverly returned the first interception and safety Anthony White took the second interception back for a touchdown.

"I thought our defensive effort was really good," Turk said. "We were able to get two turnovers and both of them went for touchdowns. One was a blitz where linebacker Jake Green came off the edge, pressured the quarterback and made him throw it before he wanted to. Demetrius stepped right in front of the ball, picked it off and scored. On the other one, we baited them into throwing to an inside receiver. The quarterback was a little late with the throw and Anthony White got there and scored with it.

"Overall, we played well on defense. We were able to get a lot of people to the ball and I don't recall us missing a lot of tackles. We've got something to build on as we move forward and that is exciting."

The Hawks will practice from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday before practicing twice on Monday at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.