North shows ability in first scrimmage

The Edmond North Huskies showed the ability to rip off big plays in a scrimmage that featured multiple personal foul penalties on Thursday when the Huskies hosted Lawton High School at Santa Fe’s Wolves Stadium. While North showed issue moving the ball consistently during Thursday’s glorified practice, the Huskies displayed their ability to make big plays happen from the air. Those big plays came when two of the Huskies’s most talented receivers were targeted by a couple of their gun-slinging quarterbacks. North’s Braxton Holden had three big catches on the evening against a quick Lawton defense. Two of Holden’s catches were for 15 yard gains, and his biggest catch of the contest came on the Huskies’ second offensive set when he scampered free for a 60-yard gain. That catch, along with one of the two 15-yard grabs, came from Senior Quarterback Ben McNaughton. In addition to McNaughton’s two connections with Holden, the senior quarterback found his favorite get-out-of-jail-free receiver Elijah Fisher twice. Both completions to Fisher tallied more than 40 yards. McNaughton’s reliance on Fisher to bail him out of tight situations did bite him once when a scrambling McNaughton sent a shot to Fisher deep down the sideline. The attempt, which happened on the second play of the scrimmage, was picked off and blown dead before Lawton had a chance to return it. McNaughton played the first two offensive sets for the Huskies before he relinquished control to backup Will Appling. Appling’s time with the varsity team showed more of the same. Appling displayed no hesitance to throw the ball deep when given the chance, as he connected with his receivers on multiple attempts. The 6’1” backup had some accuracy issues, but Appling’s mechanics and tight spiral showed promise for North if the Huskies are forced to call his number. North’s defensive 11 struggled early when they gave up a 70-yard touchdown pass on the first defensive set of the day. The Huskies defense had no plans on making that a reoccurrence, as they would settle in after the initial set and start to pose issues for Lawton’s speedy offense. North is the only Edmond school with two scheduled scrimmages, as the others will start their regular season next week. North, however, has a scrimmage set at Putnam City West next week before they open their regular season against Santa Fe on Sept. 1.

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Edmond North High School Athletics

NORTH SHOWS ABILITY IN FIRST SCRIMMAGE

AARON ALBERTSON

Edmond Sun | 8/21/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Drew Harmon