Mt. Pleasant gets experience in scrimmage with Ottumwa

OTTUMWA — There was a time when Ottumwa and Mt. Pleasant were in the same conference. That was a time when football played in conferences. It is districts now, and Friday was a scrimmage between the Panthers and Bulldogs.

The score was not kept because it was a scrimmage, but Mt. Pleasant did have at least one score on a “nice” touchdown pass from Carson Coleman to Dalton Church.

“The highlight of the night for me was that we got a little experience for a lot of kids on the team,” Mt. Pleasant coach Shawn Striegel said. “We learned a lot about this team and what we need to do to move forward.”

Striegel was “happy” with the offense’s rushing game. There were six different running backs who carried the ball.

Defensively, Striegel said the Panthers were “aggressive. I thought we did a good job of pursuing the ball.”

“As a team, we made a lot of mental mistakes that can all be corrected. We will need to be laser-focused and disciplined this week in practice to improve before playing Fairfield.”

Mt. Pleasant was 4-4 last season and hosts the Trojans Friday in a non-district game.