The Monterey Wildcats and Upperman Bees each put their finishing touches on the preseason as they battled to a 0-0 tie in a jamboree on Friday in Monterey.
The two Putnam County teams played one regulation quarter and while there were big plays, neither team was able to score as the Bees were hampered by penalties and the Wildcats missed a field goal.
“I think it’s a good opportunity with the clock running and referees and everything,” said UHS head coach Adam Caine. “We got exposed again. We’re just killing ourselves with penalties and it’s hard for me to take since discipline means a lot to me and for the last 15 games we haven’t looked like that kind of team.”
“It’s 12 minutes. It’s a jamboree. It’s not a real game,” said MHS head coach Scott Hughes. “It’s a figment of everyone’s imagination. If we play the full time I don’t know what happens. I did think that our kids played hard and that was the one thing we wanted to see.”
The Wildcats opened the scrimmage on a long drive that took 6:10 off the clock, but it ended when the UHS defense hit a running Matthew Montgomery to force a fumble and gain possession.
The Bees promptly went three-and-out, in part due to two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
“The thing that keeps jumping out the last year is the penalties,” said Caine. “We had one guy get two personal fouls. We talk about discipline and toughness and right now we’re not disciplined and not very tough. We’ve got a short amount of time to hopefully get there.”
Senior MHS tailback Mason Bowman returned the punt to the UHS 18-yard-line, but the Wildcats were unable to capitalize as a 37-yard field goal fell short.
The quarter ended while Upperman was driving down the field, concluding a 0-0 scrimmage.
“We’re playing a lot of young kids, and it’s hard to grow up and show up every week,” said Hughes. “We’re asking a lot of them and hopefully they can do it. They did tonight so hopefully we can learn and we can build off of this.”
The Bees will open the season Thursday when they take on Cookeville at Tennessee Tech University.
The Wildcats will open the season Friday when they travel to Woodbury to take on the Cannon County Lions.
Both games will be streamed live on the UCR Facebook page with pregame coverage starting at 6:45.
