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Poplar Bluff hosts Doniphan, Piggott, Corning in 7 on 7
As the summer football schedule wraps up, with a nine-day dead period for sports starting Saturday and the first official day of practice Aug. 9, Poplar Bluff brought in a trio of schools for 7-on-7 scrimmages.
Doniphan, Corning (Ark.) and Piggott (Ark.) made the trip to the Senior High School on Monday as the Mules are less than a month away from their season-opener against Agape High School.
“We’ve had a pretty good summer. We’re not where we need to be, but we’re probably OK for this time of the year,” Poplar Bluff coach David Sievers said. “It’s kind of scary that we’re getting ready to go into dead week, and we’ve still got a lot of improvement to do.”
Apart from being more fun than a typical practice day, the scrimmages offered chances for players to see and play against different schemes.
“Corning threw a few fronts at us that we hadn’t seen this year, and my kids lost their minds for a second. I told them, ‘If you take our base rules and apply them to anything we see, it’ll work,’” Sievers said. “It’s just learning to play, and hopefully, our kids get to be a little bit smarter.”
Doniphan is entering its fourth season of varsity football after bringing back its program in 2017 and playing a JV schedule that the first season.
We’ve come a long way in four years,” Doniphan coach Jeremy Stout said. “We hadn’t changed a whole lot as far as how our summers go, but the one thing that has changed is the way we compete. Very proud of our kids.”
The Dons got their first win as a program with a shutout against Chaffee in 2019 and ended an abbreviated season last year on a high note with a 52-46, quadruple overtime win against Caruthersville.
“I think we lost that game against (Piggott), but it was a close battle. Corning, I think we did a really good job against those guys, shut them down on defense and moved the ball on offense. We did what we wanted to do,” Stout said. “We’re looking to compete. We’re not setting any goals as far as wins or losses. We’re looking to be more competitive year in and year out, and I hope that we stay on the track we’re on because if we can, we’re going to be alright.”