Much improvement.
That's what first-year Marietta High football coach Adam Eichhorn and his coaching staff saw when the Tigers scrimmaged visiting Ripley High of W.Va. at Don Drumm Stadium on a cool, overcast Saturday morning.
If a score had been kept, MHS probably would've won.
Article Photos
RON JOHNSTON The Marietta Times
Marietta High senior defensive end Austin Edgell, left, puts the heat on the Ripley quarterback during football scrimmage action at Don Drumm Stadium Saturday morning.
"We definitely stepped up our intensity from Wednesday," Eichhorn said.
On Wednesday, Marietta kicked off its preseason with an exhibition game against Tri-Valley Conference defending champion Athens High at Rutter Field in The Plains.
The Tigers were minus a couple of people in the trenches against the Bulldogs but were pretty much at full-strenth on the line vs. the Vikings. Both the offense and defense looked sharp.
"Thursday and Friday we emphasized that we needed to get 11 guys to the football every play on defense and to finish our blocks on offense," Eichhorn said. "The guys responded very well and came out with a sense of urgency today."
Marietta was on offense first, and got off to a shaky start when on a sweep right the ball was fumbled out of bounds.
After MHS quarterback Anthony Kimbrough passed short on an incompletion, the junior was instructed by Tiger offensive coordinator Jason Schob on the sideline, "Throw the ball, Anthony."
Kimbrough responded in kind a couple of plays later by hitting Quinton Coffield in stride on about a 60-yard TD strike.
On defense, Marietta was like a brick wall as Ripley, a Class AAA school, struggled to move the football. The Viking QB was pressured often by the hard charge of 6-foot-3, 313-pound senior Austin Edgell from the right end.
In the middle, 5-11, 290-pound senior Eddie Kimbrough, who did not scrimmage at Athens due to a concussion, with the help of his Tiger teammates limited the Ripley running game to minimal gains.
Later on offense, Anthony Kimbrough hooked up again on a long touchdown toss to Coffield, who just outran everybody to paydirt.
Kimbrough also had a couple of nice completions to wideout Chance Wright.
"I told the guys after the scrimmage this morning to be excited that we improved, to celebrate the steps we made from Wednesday, but to never be satisfied," Eichhorn said. "There are always things that we can improve on and next week we will do just that in preparation for John Marshall."
Marietta is scheduled to host Class AAA John Marshall of W.Va. in a scrimmage at 7 p.m. Friday.
The Tigers kick off their season in earnest against Morgan in a non-conference game at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 24, in McConnelsville. Last year, the orange and black beat the Raiders, 29-14.
