‘Rookie’ QBs shine in NV/AHS scrimmage

The football scrimmage Thursday night between the Class 4A North Vermilion Patriots and the Class 3A Abbeville Wildcats turned out to be a showcase for two “rookie” quarterbacks.
Both squads were starting two quarterbacks who had little or no varsity experience.
North Vermilion found itself down to one quarterback heading into the scrimmage. Projected starter Isaiah Whitlock for NV was out due to an illness.
So, Logan Thompson, a North Vermilion sophomore, was thrown into running an offense that likes to throw the football. Before the scrimmage started, Abbeville’s defense agreed not to tackle or knock down Thompson because he was the Patriots’ only quarterback for the first and second teams.
Thompson, who carries a 4.0 grade point average in high school, was able to impress his head coach by completing more than 60% of his passes more than 100 yards of offense.
“I was highly impressed,” said Blakey of his QB who never played varsity. “He made some mistakes early, but he is a sophomore. The thing I loved about him was that he did not look phased by anything. He came in and threw the ball well.”
This season, North Vermilion’s offense is going to be a throw the ball first, then hand the ball off to running back Benny Freeman.
The two teams ran an overtime offense, where each team started 25 yards from the goal line. On the second play, Thompson connected with Ethan Guidry for a 25-yard touchdown. Guidry jumped over the defensive back to catch the ball.
Another big play was Thompson completing a pass up the middle to Jag Broussard who caught it 15-yard gain, then lost the ball and it fell in the hands of NV receiver Evan Deshotels, who ran for another 30 yards down field.
A few plays later, Thompson connect with Hunter Ricks for a 9-yard TD pass.
While North Vermilion’s offense was throwing the football, the Wildcats were trying to establish a running game with its new QB, Jasen Shelvin, and running back Blake Saddler.
Shelvin had close to 75 yards rushing, including a big run of 30 yards.
Saddler ended the scrimmage with a 20-yard touchdown run in overtime.
“We had some good plays and we had some bad plays,” said AHS head coach Roderick Moy. “We are where we want to be in a scrimmage. You don’t want to be your best now, because your are not going to be at the your best in the end of the season.”
Both teams’ defenses shined. North Vermilion had trouble running against Abbeville’s defense and Abbeville had trouble throwing against North Vermilion’s defense.
Abbeville’s defense had at least three interceptions.