With no dress rehearsals, scrimmages or 7-on-7s, football coaches around the state have been only able to utilize everyday practice to iron out the kinks on both sides of the ball.

While at times Cascade looked strong on the defensive side of the ball on Friday night against Moore County, the offense was a complete struggle for the Champions.

Moore County jumped on Cascade in the first half and coasted to the 15-0 shutout over the Champs.

“We played them even in the second half. The defense was a whole lot better in the second half. We have to find a way to move the football. They punched us in the mouth in the first half and we didn’t respond how I thought we would respond,” Cascade coach Jake Tyre said.

Not much went Cascade’s way in the first two quarters of play.

On the game’s opening drive, Cascade came up with a fumble recovery by Elijah Arnold that set the Champs up on the Raider 35-yard line.

Four plays later, Cascade turned the ball over on downs and Moore County seized the momentum swing to orchestrate a five-play scoring drive.

The Raiders put together arguably their best drive of the night, marching 76 yards in just over two minutes of game time.

Raider quarterback Kyler Parker finished the drive on a 29-yard touchdown pass to Brayden Cashion with 6:34 left in the quarter.

Cascade’s next drive ended on a punt attempt that backed Cascade up to its own red zone following a high snap.

The Champs’ defense came up strong, however, and forced a fourth-down fumble at the goal line and gave Cascade the ball back on the one-yard line.

On the first play of the second quarter however, Moore County’s Dawson White tackled Cascade’s Jaden Burns in the end zone for a safety.

The Raiders made the Cascade miscue hurt even more on the following drive, which Moore County eventually found the end zone on.

Parker again went to the air and targeted Joshua Parks on a quick slant, but threw the ball high which was tipped into the air.

Dylan Scruggs tracked the ball in the air and came up with the completion in the end zone for the final touchdown of the night.

Moore County piled up 233 yards of offense and was a very balanced 129 yards passing and 104 yards rushing.

The bulk of the Raiders’ offense, however, came in the first half as Cascade was able to pitch a second-half shutout.

Friday night marked the first game under center for senior Seth Countess and Tyre feels he was able to manage the team fairly well in his debut.

“I think he did a pretty good job. He minimized the mistakes. We just couldn’t get the run game started. That set us back. We have to run the football to set up everything else,” he said.

Cascade managed just 63 yards on the ground during the game.

Logan McDonald led the team 49 yards on the ground.

He also caught two passes for 25 yards.

Without the ability to simulate game situations in scrimmages and 7-on-7s, attrition could have become an issue, but didn’t plague either team.

“We had some cramp up, but we’re not in good enough shape yet. That comes with playing. We’ll be better the next game,” Tyre said.

After just one game, Cascade gets a bye week next week and gives the Champs an opportunity to work on the personnel on the offensive side of the ball.

“We have to work on moving the football on offense. We played a lot of guys on the offensive line tonight. We have to find five that are going to go get it. I thought at times tonight, we looked really good and at times, we looked really bad, across the board. We have to find 11 guys who want to play and we’ll play those 11 guys,” he said.

Following the bye next week, Cascade will host East Robertson on September 4.

Cascade 0 0 0 0 — 0

Moore Co. 9 6 0 0 — 15

First Quarter

MC — Brayden Cashion 29 pass from Kyler Parker, (Chase Bradford kick), 6:34.

MC — Safety (Dawson White), 11:52.

Second Quarter

MC — Dylan Scruggs 13 pass from Parker, (kick failed), 9:59.