Mustangs hold Blue & White Scrimmage

On the same day that many Class B teams were starting their regular season, Malta held it's Blue and White scrimmage game. More than one hundred came to see the team and enjoy barbeque.

The first team offense displayed a tough run game and a strong arm by quarterback Keenan Schipman. The second team defense provided the crowd with a few highlights as well.

The coaches attending the scrimmage were Head Coach Nick Oxarart, assistant coaches Shawn Bleth, and Travis Somerfeld, along with new assistant coach Kevin Ebert.

Coach Ebert is a Montana State University graduate and started teaching high school and middle school English at Malta Public Schools.

"I decided to come on up to the Hi-Line and introduce myself," Coach Ebert said. "I'm trying to immerse myself in the community and what better way to do that than Mustang football."

Coach Ebert will be working with wide receivers and will be working as an assistant line backer coach. He is also the defensive coordinator for the Froshmore team.

"I'm trying to run the wide receivers up and down the field as much as I can to get them in good condition," Coach Ebert said.

Friday marked the first time that Coach Ebert has experienced a Blue and White scrimmage.

"We had a couple of really good plays today," Coach Ebert said. "Rhett Simanton had a pretty good couple of tackles. I'm just trying to get these kids to understand our defense and how we run things here."

Sophomore Andres Lopez forced a fumble midway through the practice.

"That was actually a pretty big highlight of the day," Coach Ebert said. "That was kind of cool to get the varsity players on edge and they kind of came at us hard later. We're really excited with the new young talent we have."

He also mentioned Tanner Smith, Kaden Bergos and Kolter Schipman as young players that stood out.

He was impressed with the turnout of the crowd.

"The community is great," Coach Ebert said. "This is outstanding. It almost seems like a Class AA school function. It's pretty great."

Coach Oxarart knows the importance of the Blue and White scrimmage.

"It's just a chance to line up and run twenty plays of offense and twenty plays of defense and go at near full speed," Coach Oxarart said. "We are kind of squaring away who we think can be our starters and who our best players are."

Last season the scrimmage was cancelled due to poor air quality the fires north and west of Malta. This year's scrimmage had rain but it wasn't going to stop the event.

"A little smoke will slow us down but the rain has never stopped us," Coach Oxarart said. "Rain doesn't bother me. I like the rain."

Oxarart was encouraged by what he saw on the field from his returning players.

"Our offensive line is starting to figure out our scheme and work together," Coach Oxarart said. "We have seniors, juniors and sophomores on our offensive line. They are a group that has got to create an identity for our team and allow us to be smash mouth and establish our run game."

The line has a little more size than the last couple seasons with John Fox, Taylor Matthews, and Cody Werk.

"We're moving Peyton Meeks to center and he's taken that like a champ and has done really well for us," Coach Oxarart said.

Coach Oxarart was excited about the support from the community at the scrimmage.

The team's first opponent will be Huntley who is fresh off of a 45-6 win against Roundup last Friday. Huntley used a solid passing game to score four of their seven touchdowns.