By Mike Hutchens
Communications Director
Union City wound up its first week of preseason football practice Thursday showing both promise and the need for improvement.
Following a grueling week of workouts at camp in Columbia, the reigning Class 2A state champion Tornadoes stopped off in Waverly for a three-way scrimmage with the host Tigers and Wayne County in what has become tradition for the Tornadoes in recent seasons.
The good of the session for the Purple and Gold came in the form of UC’s triple-option offense which showed signs that it could again be explosive, scoring six times against WC and twice more vs. Waverly in a marathon series that lasted more than two dozen plays near the end of the session.
Dynamic fullback Kaleb Craig scored twice in the Twisters’ first nine plays against Wayne County and had four TDs in all on the day via both bruising inside runs and long gainers broken up the middle.
Wes Tilghman, seeing time at both tailback and quarterback, had a pair of scoring runs – one a 70-yard keeper – while Conner Hurt, who started and then shared time with Tilghman at QB, also had a 70-yard TD dash.
Kyrell Littleton took an option pitch and darted 20 yards to the endzone for Union City’s other score.
The Tornado defense has some work to do, though, after giving up four touchdowns to Waverly – including a pair of long scoring passes to reigning Mr. Football Gavin Stanfield. WC reached paydirt twice against UC.
Veteran head coach Darren Bowling, who has led Union City to four state championships the past nine seasons, summed up the nearly three-hour scrimmage this way to his team afterward.
“I saw some things that were promising. But I saw some more that we need to work on,” Bowling said in the post-session team huddle.
“I’d say we’re further along than we were last year at this time, and you know what happened then. That doesn’t mean anything this year, though. Scrimmages don’t account for anything. It’s what we do from now on that will determine how good we’re going to be.”
Union City will scrimmage for a second time next Thursday, at home, against Class 5A Munford.
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