The Indians played host to St. Mary’s in the annual scrimmage game held at the practice facility at Piqua High School.

The two teams locked up for 50 plays of offense for each team. St. Mary’s opened things up by starting at their own 30 yard line. Piqua’s stingy defense was up to the challenge of the St. Mary’s rushing attack. The Tribe held their own during the 10 play series and the drive ended at the Piqua 23 yard line. It would be as close as the Riders would get to the end zone all morning.

Piqua’s offense took the field with sophomore running back Brandon Saine leading the rushing attack. Saine showed some speed while also showing some toughness as he fought for some tough yards against a strong St. Mary’s defense.

“They were 9-1 last year and they return a lot of talent,” Piqua coach Bill Nees said. “They gave us a pretty strong look at what we can do.”

Phil Collier, also a sophomore, made a great run after a catch during the first series for the Indians. Collier leaped and made several would be tacklers grabbing nothing but air as the speedy Collier gained some yards. St. Mary’s recorded an interception on the next play however to put an end to the Indians scoring threat.

The Riders put together a consistent drive on their next series but couldn’t do any damage after their 10 play set.

“I thought we did a great job of getting to the football on defense,” said Nees. “I think we played pretty well on defense. We’ll see when we watch the film.”

Saine put together a nice string of runs on the next set of plays for the Indians. The offensive line created some huge holes for Saine to run through and he did just that. Saine ran for 11, 2, 10 and 12 yards on the first four plays of the series. Indians quarterback then found Collier for a 25 yard pass to move the football to the St. Mary’s 7 yard line. The Indians fumbled the football away on the next play, however, ending the drive.

“We moved the ball pretty well on offense,” Nees added. “We just struggled to put it in the end zone when we got down there. That is something we’ll have to work on in practice.”

Piqua used a screen pass on it’s next series to gain 40 yards on a pass from Pearson to Saine. Saine used his speed to outrun the St. Mary’s defense before being forced out of bounds at the Riders 30 yard line. The talented sophomore then ran for 16 yards before a sack ended the 10 play series.

The two teams then used a game situation where each team had to gain 10 yards to keep the drive going.

St. Mary’s moved the ball early in their drive but stalled as the Piqua defense dug in as sophomore Jafe Pitcock sacked the St. Mary’s quarterback on fourth down.

Piqua then took over before going three and out.

“We will go in and look at the films to see what we need to correct,” Nees said. “We have a few days to prepare before we play Springfield South on Friday.”

The Indians will host the Wildcats at Alexander Stadium/Purk Field on Friday at 7:00 PM in the final scrimmage game before opening the season August 27th at Grove City.