Mixed results for Carson in scrimmage

FALLON - Two coaches. Two opposite assessments regarding Saturday's football scrimmage in Fallon.

Carson's Shane Quilling and Fallon's Ray Holladay reacted differently after both teams faced each other for two hours at the Ed Arciniega Athletic Complex.

Quilling, whose team is preparing for Friday's season opener in Las Vegas at Mojave High School, said his intent was to run plays previously listed on his sheet. During the week, the Senators concentrated their game plan on Mojave, not Fallon.

"For not game planning, we did a decent job, but I expected better than this," he said.

Fallon outscored the Senators, punching the ball in three times to Carson's lone score. Fallon also scored two times with its goal line offense.

The Greenwave, though, looked tentative in its first series.

"We played a lot better in the second series, offensively and defensively," said Holladay, who enters his third year as the Greenwave' head coach. "In our first series, we were a little anxious and missed some reads and assignments on both sides of the ball."

Once Fallon's offense began to mesh, the defense then gained momentum to control the Senators' offense.

Carson's offense moved the ball on its first series to the Fallon 34, but a pitch from quarterback Mitch Hammond bounced on the ground and was recovered by Fallon's Charly Hejny. During the rest of the series, Carson had difficulty moving the ball.

Neither team gained much territory in the second series until Fallon began to drive downfield. Cody Waller had a 23-yard run up the middle to the 9 yard line. Thad Cornu then took the ball to the 2.

Reserve quarterback Greg Heck pitched the ball to Cornu on the next play for Fallon's first score, but the play was nullified on an illegal forward pass.

That didn't deter Heck who then threw a 7-yard pass to running back Anthony Woller.

Fallon added two more touchdowns on a 33-yard play action pass from Jory Weisenberg to Shawn Edward, and a 67-yard run down the right side of the field by Joe Leon.

Fallon kept switching running backs. Although Leon played more minutes, Woller ran the ball well as did fullbacks Doug Newman, Cody Waller and Hejny.

"We're looking good. We have a lot of backups and they know their spots," the senior running back said.

Carson took advantage of a sleeping Fallon defense late in the scrimmage when backup quarterback Ryan Eichenberger hooked up with Derek Giurlani for a 66-yard pass play.

Giurlani said he ran a wheel pattern in which he circled underneath the coverage and then ran a fly pattern to beat the Greenwave secondary.

Other than that, Fallon's pass defense covered the Senators, while Reto Gross, Lyle Gardner and Hejny each batted down an incomplete pass.

Quilling was quick to point out that the scrimmage is not to win or lose; rather, it's a tool to learn what went right and what didn't. Despite having a young team with an inexperienced offensive line, Quilling said the Senators are improving.

But he also gave Fallon credit for being a much improved team from last year's scrimmage.

"I'm impressed with them," he said.

Quilling said quarterbacks Hammond and Eichenberger played well, and, like Fallon, he used a number of backs to run the ball including Kyle Banko. Defensively, Robert Higgins plugged up the middle.

Holladay rotated his players frequently on both sides of the ball.

"Our depth will be our strength this year," he said. "We also have guys who understand the system."

Fallon, which improved during a team camp in Oregon in June, continued to apply lessons learned from that experience.

"You saw today where we picked up from that camp," Holladay said.

Fallon returns five offensive lineman, and Holladay said the work in the weight room has been beneficial.

"We're physical up front, and the front is our strength," he said.

Fallon opens the season Friday at Fernley, the first meeting between the two teams since 2004.

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