By Jeremy McDonald
jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
INDEPENDENCE, Ore.– It was almost like a home game for the Dallas Dragons Football Team when the made the little drive over to the Independence Sports Park Sunday morning to partake in the Oregon 7’s 7-on-7 tournament.
With their first tournament action of the season cut short mid-day with the cancelation of the bracket play Sunday afternoon, the Dragons managed to squeeze in two scrimmages with rival-Central and the SOJ Rams from Northern California/Southern Oregon to close out the day 4-0.
Nonetheless, there was a sense of a kid in a candy shop knowing the Day of Reckoning and get out and playing ball again was a great feeling.
“Oh man I can’t even explain it, it feels great just to play teams. Competition, great competition and see what we look like, it feels great,” said Jace Grillo. “I’m looking forward towards next weekend with these guys, everyone played great out here.”
Grillo strained his quadricep earlier in the week, but the cornerback stepped up big in helping the defense out and battled through the injury he sustained in practice.
“It felt great to set the tone and just show them. It doesn’t matter, hurt or not, we’re working no matter what. That’s how we play,” said Grillo. “It was good to compare and see where we’re at with them. We did great, I was happy with the results. Just talk more, communicate more and understand the defense. Know where we’re going to go and know your job.”
The offense got to see where their quarterbacks were at, three of them saw reps Sunday to see where they are at and who might replace Landon Gardner this Spring as the signal caller for the Dallas offense.
“We came out pretty solid, especially for how hard we’ve been working. We’ve built that connection and that chemistry we’ve been looking for,” said Ashton Foster.
Call it a more competitive 7-on period that they would normally see during the Summer of a normal year, but the idea is still the same for the offense in preparation for this upcoming Spring:
Build that connection between receiver and quarterback. Find that groove, that rhythm. In hopes with the big men up-front and the pads are on, they’re in-sync in some fashion for it.
“Oh it’s big. Even though we don’t have linemen, we’re building up the chemistry in the backfield. We’re building up the quarterback-receiver rhythm. We’re going to know each other more,” said Foster. “The timing…to throw a football to a receiver, you got to have chemistry if you want to be good. For us at Dallas, we got some good chemistry going right now.”
The Oregon 7’s league is scheduled to go to Tillamook next Sunday, October 11, before going to Hermiston October 18.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
