Harris County defeats Northside in spring football scrimmage

Most onlookers might not have put much stock in Harris County’s spring scrimmage against Northside on Thursday, but don’t count Tigers head coach Zac Howard among them.

Howard said he was eager to see his team’s first performance following a season it would like to forget. After Harris County started the 2016 season 3-1, a rash of injuries hampered the Tigers, and the team lost their final six games to close the season.

“You want to see how your kids are going to respond,” Howard said. “Are they still going to dwell on how it ended, or are we going to stretch, leave the past behind and start anew?”

Judging by Thursday’s showing, the Tigers seem comfortable leaving last year’s losses as a thing of the past.

Harris County put up a strong showing against the Patriots in the exhibition, defeating Northside 38-20. The two teams played a scrimmage featuring a first half of two 12-minute quarters followed by a second half with several 10-play series for each team as well as goal line scenarios later on.

“I thought it was actually a really good contest with each other,” Howard said. “I thought we were two kind of equal teams. We both knew neither team was really in football shape. We came in with a handful of plays and just wanted to make sure the kids executed.”

The Tigers played two quarterbacks in the first half, senior Seth Chapman and sophomore Davion Mahone. Chapman finished with one completion for 5 yards. Mahone, meanwhile, took three carries for 48 yards and two touchdowns while completing four passes for 90 yards and one score.

“We’ve had a tight quarterback competition all through spring,” Howard said. We’ve had four quarterbacks getting equal reps. It’s going be an ongoing process. I think there are some things they’re doing good, and they’re things they’re doing bad. That’s across the board.”

Cal’von Harris took the bulk of the carries at running back for the Tigers and did not disappoint in his efforts. The junior ended the scrimmage with nine carries for 109 yards.

Sophomore defensive back Tailique Williams delivered the highlight of the night in the final minutes of the second quarter. With the Patriots threatening to cut into Harris County’s 12-point lead, Williams made a perfect read on a pass and intercepted it in the end zone before taking off in a full sprint down the field.

When it was all said and done, Williams ran 105 yards for a Tigers touchdown, putting his team ahead 32-14.

“We are expecting big things from some younger guys,” Howard said. “It was nice to see a young guy make a play like that, let alone take it the distance. Just being confident enough to jump that route and believe in himself, that’s huge.”

Northside’s offense put up several plays along the way as well.

Junior quarterback Bryce Valero took the majority of snaps behind center, completing 11 passes on 18 attempts for 150 yards. The ground game strung together good efforts as well, led by junior Fred Davis. Davis took 13 carries for 58 yards and a pair of touchdowns, the first being a 10-yard scamper for the Patriots’ first points in the game.

Howard spoke highly of the chance to scrimmage another team in the spring, a point Northside head coach Morgan Ingram and a few other local coaches made earlier in the week. He said the game added fuel to the fire for his team in the spring, giving them extra incentive to get their work done in practice.

Now, Howard hopes the game reaps noticeable benefits as the team prepares for the season.

“With us being able to have a type of competition and put all these guys -- including the freshmen who weren’t here last year -- in that family setting this early is big,” Howard said. “I’m hoping by the time summer rolls around, you’ve already got that family bond heading in the right direction.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Harris County defeats Northside in spring football scrimmage."