Just as expected, Harker Heights is big, fast, and imposing.
Just as hoped, the Raider football team took its shots and bounced back with fight of its own in Friday’s scrimmage at Rouse.
At the start it seemed the Knights were going to run roughshod over the Raiders, but the team responded in a big way and kept pace with the Class 5A club.
“We knew it was going to be way faster than anything they’ve seen, that’s part of the reason we scrimmaged a team that athletic,” coach Josh Mann said. “We wanted to get that initial shock over; the question I had was, ‘how are we going to respond?’”
The Raider defense got up to speed and limited Harker Heights explosive offense, which was only able to break off one big play.
The scrimmage was untimed until the last 12 minutes, when the teams tried to put points on the board. Harker Heights was able to run a score in off a busted gap coverage by Rouse, but the Raider offense nearly answered right back.
Even through two hours of scrimmaging in 100-degree-plus heat, it appeared the young Rouse offensive line somehow continued to get more and more push up front, culminating in the last drive.
“It was different, but we had to settle down and get used to it,” center Nick Hallberg said. “As soon as we did that, we played just fine.”
Throughout the scrimmage the line gave quarterback Tai Gadison time to find receivers, or make a read and run himself. Receivers Will Zarsky, Logan Kinder and Wesley Lewis all had good plays during the scrimmage, while Ed Butts and Aivery Schiffer found some success on the ground.
Part of the reason the offense started to click was the O-line’s realization in the game that they weren’t playing up to par.
“We were communicating well for the most part but a couple times we got flustered, went back-and-forth and argued a little bit, and we can’t have that,” OL Michael Hoang said. “But we fixed the problem and that’s what almost got us the score down here.”
Communication between the offensive line is still building, and the team is going to rely on that unit a lot this season. On the final drive for Rouse, Butts started things off with a run to the right for five yards, then Zarsky caught a seam pass on the right side. On fourth-and-10, Lewis drew a pass interference call that kept the drive alive. Then he caught a pass on the left side for about eight yards before Butts picked up another first down.
With six seconds remaining the Raiders were at the 4-yard-line and called timeout. Gadison rolled left and hit Kinder in stride, but the Knights swarmed the sophomore receiver and tackled him at the 2 to end the game.
“I gotta give our O-line a ton of credit, Tai had a bunch of time to throw and was able to make his progression reads,” Mann said. “They’ve made tons of improvement but they still have some to make, and they know that they’re not there and want to get there, that’s what is exciting.”
On the other side of the ball, the Raider defense impressed in open space for the most part, though they are still getting acclimated with each other.
The defensive line held its own with Doug Mathenia and Lucky Torres leading the way and players like James Schubert, Jacob Gomez and Phillip Brown pitching in.
The Raiders have a lot of depth with eight capable defensive backs such as Caleb Boyles, Dakota Unger, Daulton Moore, Jordan Vise, Sean Halbert, Luis Bonilla and Clayton Mullin.
“Our secondary did a good job not giving up any big plays,” Mann said. “They were involved in plays in spots they should be and that’s a good thing.”
A lot of focus will be on the Raider linebacker core this season, with Hayden Ramsey and Tomi Noriega helping solidify the spot. There were few missed assignments during the scrimmage, which bodes well for Rouse as it prepares to travel to Liberty Hill Friday night for the season opening game.
“We got into the backfield more but we got to recognize that we’re not used to getting back there, so we’re reaching instead of tackling but that will come,” Mann said. “Our linebackers made lots of gains, but that’s the hardest position especially in the defense we’re running. We put a lot of pressure on them.”

Liberty Hill Preview

Rouse will officially line up as a varsity team for the first time Friday, playing at 7:30 p.m. at Liberty Hill. The Raiders can expect another talented offense with multiple weapons with a tenacious defense from the
The Raiders start a string of four non-district games the next four weeks, and the tests won’t get any easier, which is why the team wants to set a tone from the first snap.
“We gotta start off right and set the tone for the season,” Hoang said. “First varsity season for Rouse, we are going to build up from that.”
One of the bigger things the team is able to take away from the Harker Heights scrimmage was gauging the stamina level of the team.
“For us being as young as we are to go through a full scrimmage and go into the (timed) quarter and be at our best. That was real exciting for us,” Mann said. “It would’ve been easy to get tired or find reasons to not be competing at that time, but they just bucked up and got it done.”
Now the Raiders hope to do the same Friday night.