Scrimmage gets Lions ready for Victoria West

By Kyle Mooty

LPR Editor

As expected, Lockhart had an entirely new look from the last two seasons to Thursday’s scrimmage against Elgin. Offensive explosiveness has toned down somewhat with Ashton Dickens having graduated, but a strong running back tandem still exists for the Lions, and their defense showed signs of improvement after giving up a bevy of points the last two years.

Lockhart begins its new season at Class 5A Division I on Friday at Victoria West High School, where the Lions will square off with the Warriors at Memorial Stadium beginning at 7 p.m. (it has been moved from the original kickoff of 7:30 p.m.)

Victoria West also scrimmaged last week, going against Gregory-Portland.

Elgin is a 5A D2 team which was 4-6 last season and beat Pflugerville Connally and Cedar Creek, also victims of Lockhart.

The Lions were 4-7 last year, reaching the state playoffs for the second consecutive season.

The Lions are breaking in a pair of quarterbacks in sophomore Kaden Moebes and junior Noel Jaimes. However, there is experience at running back where talented senior Nathaniel Gonzales and sophomore Nathan Roland, who gained varsity experience as a freshman, make for a formidable rushing attack.

The scrimmage was played in various segments, with the freshmen and junior varsity using half of Lions Stadum’s field before the varsity took the entire field shortly after 7 p.m.

There were limited snaps per group, and later a punting a place-kicking session, ending with a full quarter of play.

Elgin scored on a 15-yard quarterback keeper on its first series.

Late in the limited series portion, Gonzales reeled off a 46-yard run, followed three plays later by Roland’s 11-yard scamper to the 1. Gonzales easily scored from there two plays later.

Sophomore Evan Estrada, taking over for longtime LHS kicker Omar Ocampo this fall, had some nice punts during that session, and was 5-of-6 on field goal attempts, two good from 27 yards, two from 34, and he was 1-for-2 on 41-yard efforts.

After stopping Lockhart during the quarter of play to end the night, Elgin used a 53-yard run to set an eventual 11-yard touchdown. The Pat was good for a 7-0 Elgin lead.

After teams traded punts, the Lions used four plays to travel 75 yards to paydirt.

Moebes went 7 yards on a keeper, followed Gonzales getting 13 to the Lions’ 46. Then came the play of the night when Gonzales scampered 48 yards on a remarkable run, traveling from the right sideline and eventually to the left side of the field before finally being stopped at the 6.

Roland took it the rest of the way on the very next play. Estrada tied the game at 7-7 with his successful PAT.

The final 4:04 had no scoring.

This week

Victoria West and Lockhart had one common opponent last season, both losing to Davenport (the Warriors lost 60-28 and the Lions lost 65-38).

Victoria West, despite finishing fourth in its district, reached the third-round of the state playoffs before losing to Miller 51-48.

NOTES:

Record-setting Lockhart quarterback Ashton Dickens, who originally committed to the Army Black Knights, is now a redshirt freshman at Angelo State.

Former Lion Brady Stephenson (6-5, 290) is listed as a freshman offensive lineman wearing No. 69 for the Texas A&M Aggies, who open play Saturday against Notre Dame at Kyle Field in College Station with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. on ABC.