Published: August 19, 2008 02:01 pm         

Clashing with Titans

By Bobby Summers

Herald-Banner Sports



The 2008 Royse City Bulldog football team will host the Frisco Centennial Titans in a Thursday night scrimmage this week. Freshmen, Junior Varsity and Varsity teams will be matching their skills to against each other in the controlled scrimmage. The scrimmages are expected to begin about 5:00 with the freshmen teams taking the field first, followed by the JV and then the varsity.

This is also chapter two in the 2008 Bulldog’s version of class 4A football. By hosting the scrimmage with the Titans, this will be the first time the Bulldogs will extend their hospitality to visiting school.

Chapter one for the Bulldogs included the opening week of practice, followed up by an intra-squad scrimmage and concluded with their first scrimmage of the season against the class 4A Seagoville Dragons.

Last Saturday morning found a befuddled group of football fans huddled under blankets and wearing light jackets at James Ray Henry Stadium in Seagoville. A light mist in the air just added a little more to the slight chill in the air. Although it was certainly not a ‘blue norther’, it was a welcome cool spell from the excessive heat that North Texas has been experiencing.

Cool spells in August are rare in Texas, but the crispness of the weather translated into a heated practice with an actual opposing team. Seagoville represented as a challenge, but the Bulldogs were by far the more enjoyable team to watch.

Of course scrimmages are just hyped up practices with a game plan. That game plan is to see what works, what does not work and what could work with a little more practice. Also the coaches begin their final analysis of their starters and their depth. That quality depth is the answer to a coaches dream team. With the Bulldogs moving up in classification, Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Greg Strahm has already put emphasis on numbers.

Two centers, four guards, four tackles, a plethora of wide receivers, a backup quarterback and skill position players will be needed to contend. And that is just on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, the Bulldogs will need to match those numbers as well. An athletic, resolute and gritty special teams will cap off the physical needs to compete well. So far, it looks as if the Bulldogs qualify in all of these categories.

In the scrimmage the Bulldogs substituted at will. If you were to declare a winner by scoring in the scrimmage, you also give the edge to Royse City as they scored three times and Seagoville scored once on a 40 yard run.

Richard Morrison connected on two perfectly thrown passes for deep touchdowns. The Bulldogs then scored on an 18 yard run.

Impressive was the Bulldogs aggressiveness on defense. Some very hard hits were delivered by Royse City as Seagoville scratched away at minimal yardage.

This week, Frisco Centennial will bring one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the state to Royse City ISD Stadium. Titan QB Ryan Mossakowski will be playing Saturday football for some University in the fall of 2009. Mossakowski (6’4”, 205 pounds, 4.8) passed for 2963 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2007. Although the Titans were 1-9 in ‘07, their quarterback completed 259 passes out of 458 attempts and 13 interceptions. Mossakowski also rushed for nearly 300 yards and 7 touchdowns.

The Titans return two unanimous choice all-district players in wide receiver Bryan Singer and running back Aaron Moore. Also keep an eye on Centennial’s defensive lineman Aaron Moore (6’5” 255 pounds)

Frisco Centennial will compete in District 9-4A this year. That district includes Frisco Liberty, Frisco Wakeland, Frisco, McKinney North, McKinney, Sherman and Denison. The Titans are the third largest school in that district with 1,628 students.

So the second chapter in the Bulldogs season will be complete soon and the Bulldogs will be just two weeks away from their season opener with the Atlanta Rabbits. That season opener will also be the Grand Opening of the new Royse City ISD Stadium. However this Thursday’s scrimmage with Frisco Centennial will provide another sneak peak at the newest addition to the school districts facilities.

Stay tuned and keep reading, this book is going to get real interesting about chapter four.