The Bulldogs strapped on the pads and finally got a chance to hit someone not from Sulphur this past Friday evening. They hosted the Purcell Dragons who are a top 10 team in class 3A. Due to the amount of rain the area received in the days leading up to the game the scrimmage was held on the practice field. For the coaches, players, and fans the Bulldogs got a chance to see how they would stack up against their upcoming opponents.

The Bulldogs junior varsity took the field first and got things off to a great start for Sulphur. The junior varsity offense was able to march down the field on three different occasions and punch the ball in for touchdowns. Defensively the Bulldogs played tough. Purcell had very little success against the junior varsity defense. The defense never allowed the Dragons to even sniff the end zone.

The varsity scrimmage started with the Bulldogs playing defense. The defense showed from the first play why they were going to carry the team throughout the year. Defensive lineman Logan Grinstead proved in the first couple of plays that he will be a force to be reckoned with. With good penetration Grinstead knocked down a pass and gave the Purcell quarterback pressure. The Dragons managed to find a little running room with a quarterback scramble for close to eight yards and an eleven yard run by the tailback. Other than those two runs the defense shut down Purcell's offense for the first ten plays of the scrimmage.

After ten plays the Bulldogs switched to the offensive side of the ball.

Zac Swartz looked good during the first series. Swartz managed to complete his first pass for a twelve yard gain for the Dogs. He also rumbled for a fifteen yard gain to move the chains for the Sulphur offense. A big play was missed when Whitt Carter got separation down the sideline on a fade route, however, Swartz put to much air under the pass and the pass fell incomplete. Two more incomplete passes rounded out the ten plays that the offense had to run. In the first series the offense showed signs of life and the inexperienced offensive line seemed to hold their own against a tough Purcell defense.

On the second defensive series the Bulldogs weren't fooled by Purcell's traps and counters they were trying early on. Zac Swartz who is pulling double duty as quarterback and in the secondary was able to lay several punishing blows on would be Dragons receivers. Purcell did manage a big play with a quarterback draw over the right side. Once again the Dogs defense stood tall and held the Dragons out of the end zone.

In the second series on offense Nick Anderson and Logan Grinstead spent time at tailback. Swartz rolled to the right looking to pass, but decided to tuck the ball for a fifteen yard scamper. The Dogs took another shot down the sideline to senior Whitt Carter. The ball grazed his finger tips but Carter wasn't able to pull it in. Grinstead took the ball on a fullback dive and gutted the Dragons defense for about a thirty yard gain. The poor Purcell Dragon free safety was dragged for five of those yards. Unfortunately, the next play the Bulldogs fumbled the ball. Since this was a scrimmage the Dogs kept the ball to run out their ten plays. Nick Anderson followed a kick out block by Grinstead and managed to gain close to fifteen yards to round out the first scrimmage of the year.

After the scrimmage this is what head coach Jim Dixon had to say. "I thought the scrimmage went good. The junior varsity scored three times and Purcell didn't score any, so I thought the second team played well. I thought the varsity played pretty good. Neither team scored but we got close both times we had the ball. They got close one time that they had the ball. I felt good about it. They are ranked seventh or eighth in 3A and I think we went out and showed that we can compete. We will see. We have an extremely tough schedule with five or six teams that are as good as they were. We improved a ton on defense last year and have about seven guys back on defense and I think that showed up. I think our defense played extremely well. On offense we have some question marks. We have some kids that are stepping up and if we can stay away from injuries we can play a lot of kids offensively and defensively and keep them fresh. I think we have a good group in our kicking game. We have new punters and kickers from a year ago. Purcell had a good bunch of kids. I thought we moved the ball well on them. We got a lot of kids playing new positions and it's going to take some time. I felt the offensive line did well. We got some new ones in their and they are adjusting. I think before its all over if we can stay healthy we will be pretty good along the offensive line."

This week the Bulldogs are scheduled to scrimmage the Dickson Comets at 6:00 p.m. in the Ardmore Super Scrimmage. However, coach Dixon said that there is a chance that time could change. "We are scheduled to play at 6:00 and I have heard a rumor that we might be moved to 5:30. We can live with 5:30 but if it's any different than that we might be scrimmaging Dickson in Nebo. We will be scrimmaging them some place other than at Ardmore if they move the time around again." The junior high is set to scrimmage at 3:30pm and the junior varsity is set to scrimmage at 4:30 in Ardmore.