With the season opener inching closer, Wright City Football Coach Matt Brooks is anxious to unleash several new offensive weapons whom he believes make the program more dynamic.A taste of talent was revealed on Friday during the jamboree held at Hermann High School.The Wildcats faced the host team, along with Cuba and Montgomery County, showing particularly well against the latter two schools.Hermann presented a challenge during the first matchup, taking advantage of Wright City’s ball security struggles."Hermann broke a couple of plays when we had some containment issues, but overall I thought we were fine,” said Brooks.Brooks says part of those woes were a product of new personnel in place.“I wasn’t displeased with how we did against Hermann,” said Brooks. “On the first series we moved the ball down the field OK.”Wright City performed better against its second opponent, Montgomery County.Senior receiver Ben Randolph began to make his presence known, hauling in a long pass that nearly resulted in a touchdown.“He makes us a lot more dynamic on the outside, and I think that’s something that’s going to open up other things for us,” said Brooks.Defensively, the Wildcats excelled against Montgomery County, but Brooks says the opposition was rather reserved.“Montgomery County was very vanilla on what they were doing,” said Brooks. “Some of their big guns weren’t in there, but I was pleased with our defensive effort against them.”Randolph was able to score during the final meeting of the night, against Cuba.“I thought we probably executed best against Cuba overall, even though we gave up a touchdown,” said Brooks.The Wildcats rotated their backfield, using multiple players under center, including quarterback Kyle Lang and multiple athletes Andrew Pfuhl and Lamone Davis.“We wanted to get considerable reps with our varsity No. 1s,” said Brooks. “But we also need to see where our No. 2 guys fit in and what kind of depth we have.”Davis was able to successfully break to the outside, and Brooks says he anticipates the Wildcats will use him several capacities.“There’s a lot of guys we get production from, and I feel good about that,” said Brooks.While Wright City is still operating out of the flexbone offense, the Wildcats are having to transition from snapping directly under center to a shotgun approach.“Going to the shotgun snap when we’ve been under center may mean we take a few lumps,” said Brooks.He was particularly pleased with how the Wildcats overcome their size disadvantage defensively.“We’re not big on defense, but I thought we flew to the ball really well,” said Brooks. “I think we looked good against the run.”Brooks says the primary concerns entering Friday’s home opener against Trinity are execution and consistency.“We’ve got to execute every time, but we had just a few mental errors (in the jamboree),” said Brooks. “We would like to see more flow and continuity.”

Wright City sophomore Andrew Pfuhl runs the football during the Jamboree held on Friday at Hermann

Derrick Forsythe Photo.