Generals impressive in season debut

The Shafter High Generals football team began their quest for a championship on Thursday night, scrimmaging against a tough Golden Valley team.

Shafter, which has the majority of their offense and defense back from last season, looked like they were further into the season than the first outing.

Head Coach Jerald Pierucci and company impressed the large home crowd, making a positive start to the season.

With each team running 10 plays at a time on offense, the Generals showed that they are just as explosive as they have been the past two years, as junior quarterback Ezekiel Osborn connected for a 50-yard touchdown pass on one of the first plays from scrimmage for the Generals.

The defense looked further along in progression than the offense, making some impressive plays, including blocking a point-after try, and several big tackles.

Coach Pierucci said that he and the rest of the coaching staff wanted to see the team perform in some uncomfortable situations in the scrimmage, so they game planned around that idea.

"It allowed us to coach the team through some difficult situations that we will see this year," Pierucci said.

On the offensive side, the Generals showed flashes of brilliance, but also had some missteps during the series of plays. Pierucci said that he felt that the offense was really inconsistent. "I expected it to a point with the new pieces being added this year to the offense. But it definitely opened our eyes on some glaring issues and also reaffirmed our belief that this could be a really good team if we fix our problems."

On the defensive side, Pierucci said that there were more positives on the night. "Defensively, I thought the team flew around and did a great job keeping a talented group of skill players in check."

The Generals played a tough and swarming style of defense that stifled the Bulldogs for most of the scrimmage.

Shafter will open their nonleague schedule on Friday night when they travel to Exeter. The Monarchs played in the Central Section semifinals last year and are perennially one of the top teams in the section.

The junior varsity game will kick off at 5 p.m. and the varsity will start at 7:30 p.m.