Twin Valley South ended their preseason by scoring 5 TD's to Preble Shawnee's 1 in the first 3 quarters of their scrimmage.  They scored both on the ground and in the air.  Their offense was flexible.  When the Shawnee adjusted and began to stop the run, South was able to take to the air and still move the ball.  Most notable was a 70 yard TD pass and they ran a two minute minute drill at the end of the half and scored with 14 seconds left on the clock.

The defense was of a bend but don't break variety. They had some good stops - a sack or two, and two interceptions.  Seems like they pulled in at least a fumble, maybe two. So they are capable of making a big play on the defensive side of the ball. The team was hitting hard, there were several stoppages of play for downed Arrow players. The defense did give up some yardage, but although Shawnee made it inside the 20 two other times,  South denied them another score.   Their last stand was their toughest when they held on 4th and 4 at the goal.

Sure there were some miscues but overall the team looked solid over the course of the scrimmage. Both TVS and Shawnee centers had some bad snaps with the damp conditions.  And even when they began subbing in the 3rd quarter, the team did not seem to lose a beat on either offense or defense.  So there is some depth to the team as well.

I think that most everyone that follows the CCC knows by now that Bradford will not have a varsity schedule.  South will open away against Dixie next Friday, but the following weeks game would have been against Bradford.  I don't see how with the short notice that South can find a opponent for week two.  So there very could be a hole in schedule.  Too bad that the new bye week would not have occurred in midseason to better give the team a breather and a chance to heal up those little knicks and bruises that players accumulate over the course of a season.

Who will win the CCC this year? Covington will be young team this season with but 4 seniors.  But they are Covington and have been dominating the league. So until someone can knock them off, they have to favored at the top of the CCC. Likewise Miami East has been a top tier team as well, so look for them to be in contention.  North had a strong season until they were beat by Covington in a hard fought game.  Then they seemed to fade at the tail end of the season.  Despite losing a 4 year starter at quarterback, North will shake that off, they has been consistently in the mix as well.  They are reloading with a lot of talent coming back. Trail is a Johnny come lately - but acquitted themselves well with some victories that makes them worthy of mention as a contender.  

Could South be in the mix?  They are not a machine - not yet, once they are consistent on both of the ball then they can start to look at being in the top half of the league.  But the enthusiasm and talent are there to do better than last years .500 record.

South three way scrimmage

Twin Valley South hosted a three way scrimmage on Saturday.  The other teams in this scrimmage were Blanchester and Middletown Madison. Hard to say if any team was more dominating than the rest.  If I had to pick a winner it might have been Blanchester, but not by much.  They did well in the early going, but seemed to fade - either the other two teams adjusted, or they ran out of gas. But they seemed to have the best balance offensively and defensively.

Blanchester did well with the triple option and later in the scrimmage when they aired it out a little they had some success although South had a pick against them. Madison's offense had some decent gains at times, but were inconsistent. I like their tailback, he has some quickness and can find a gap and explode thru it.  I also like their defense versus the run - they really seemed to swarm to the ball.  At the end of any given play there was a host of Mohawks around the ball carrier.

South used their familiar spread offense and Cole did a good job of getting the ball to the receivers. They had some miscues on offense which stalled some drives.  Have to get the ball to the quarterback properly every time.  However, I was impressed with the wishbone that they used in one series.  I thought that Blanchester had a decent defense, but South just jammed it down their throats when they ran the wishbone during a set of 10 plays and ran into the endzone.  Augspurger had several decent runs during this drive including one where it seemed like half the Blanchester team hit, but bounced off him during an 8 yard run for a hard earned first down.

The South pass defense wasn't bad - 2 interceptions while I was there and I don't recall a blown coverage.  The run defense was spotty.  They would make some decent plays - even tackles for loss, but give up a big yardage running play and then be back on their heels.  If they can nail their open field tackles that will go along way to solidifying their defense.  Saw several players make initial contact, but allow the ball carrier to slip away.

Nice to see South with some depth again this season.  They rotated a lot of players in and out, particularly the linemen. In small school football being able to give players a breather helps give a team an edge versus teams that have to play iron man football where players have to go both ways and never leave the field.

I was not there for the entire scrimmage, so I might have missed a little - but this is the flavor that I got from the three teams.