In a scrimmage game this past Friday night, the Luverne High School Tigers took on the Geneva Panthers. While the game did not count towards the Tigers’ record for the season, it did give them a chance to jump into action against a worthy opponent.

“We did some things good, and some things not so good; overall, top to bottom, it was a good scrimmage for us,” said Luverne Head Coach Scott Rials.

“It let our guys get out and compete against somebody besides ourselves. We got a lot of things accomplished, and also saw things we needed to improve on.”

For this week, the Tigers will be hitting the practice field to bone up on finishing their drives, work on proper lineman spacing and a do a bit of defensive line shuffling.

Rials says one of the highlights of the scrimmage game came when Kemen Cross, senior defensive back, picked up a fumble and ran the ball back, scoring for the Tigers.

The final score of the scrimmage was 20-13 in favor of the Panthers, but Rials is not letting this minor defeat dampen his spirits as the Tigers gear up to face the Highland Home Flying Squadron this Friday.

“Highland Home is much improved from last year, you can tell those guys have really worked hard,” Rials said.

“They are going to throw the ball a bit more than Geneva, so that’s going to challenge us there, and they are very aggressive on the defensive side. We’ve got some challenges, and a county rivalry like that is always big.”

This Friday night, Rials says he will be depending on every player on the team to bring home a victory against the Squadron.

“We want them to go out there and compete, have fun and enjoy the process of learning how to play, compete and have success,” Rials said.

“We want them to execute what we know how to do, and do a good job, finish every play to the end and go until the whistle blows.”