Here's what we learned from Westgate vs. Carencro football scrimmage ahead of 2024 season

It was an iron-sharpening-iron matchup when Carencro football traveled to Westgate for the teams' first scrimmage before the 2024 season.

Both programs have tasted state championship victories in the past and more recently have tasted defeat both ending last season shorter than they would’ve liked. Thursday’s matchup was all about tuning up those little things to help change that this season.

“You want to scrimmage good teams and you don’t want to get a false sense of what you’re working with,” said Ryan Antonie, Westgate football’s head coach. “I knew Carencro was definitely going to give us a good test. That’s a team that’s going to be playing around Thanksgiving and we want to be able to do the same type of things.”

Here are two takeaways from the Tigers and Bears battle in the jungle to prepare for the upcoming season.

Westgate’s offense gets rolling

The Tigers meant business from the start of the scrimmage, opening up the special teams portion with a 47-yard field goal from senior kicker Jake Thibodeaux. From then on their offense moved the chains against the Bears, finding the end zone on the ground and in the air.

In the ground game, sophomore Joshua John was the go-to guy. He found the end zone on the ground for the Tigers and was a key part of their passing game.

“I feel like it was a warmup to get the feel of things and see how the season is gonna go,” John said. “I feel like I could have done better on like my yards after the catch and I could’ve improved on my blocking.”

According to Antonie, little things like that are what he and his staff are looking to correct before the season starts. The pre-game jitters didn’t last long for the Tigers as they looked to be the more dominating team scoring four touchdowns compared to Carencro’s two.

“It's a scrimmage at our place, and guys came away healthy and I think it was two good ball clubs playing that want to be playing later in the season,” Antonie said. “So hats off to Carencro those guys will do great and I’m definitely excited about what we got going on.”

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Carencro battles injuries and gets humbled

Ahead of the scrimmage, the Bears had to make some moves in their offensive line because of injuries and it showed. They struggled at the start of the scrimmage to move the ball without dual-threat quarterback Chantz Babineaux having to get out of the pocket.

“We're just a work in progress up front right now,” said Gavin Peters, Carencro football’s head coach. “I think we'll be better in a couple of weeks when we get some guys back. We've got guys out for various issues.”

With a question mark still looming in the trenches, Westgate’s defense took advantage jamming run plays and breaking up passes. A bright spot for the Bears offense was junior running back Christopher Baham, who broke free for big runs throughout the scrimmage. He ended the game with two touchdowns.

Defensively, the Bears were stronger and kept the Tigers on their toes. They kept the Tigers out of the end zone for the last 12 minutes of the scrimmage but ended up throwing an interception to Westgate’s John Dauterive to end the game.

“We've been known to be very good offensively around here and this might have been one of the most humbling days that we've ever had,” Peters said. “But you need those days sometimes, you know and it's part of the process. We'll get better.”

Shannon Belt covers high school sports and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow her high school and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ShannonBelt3. Got questions regarding HS/UL athletics? Send them to Shannon Belt at sbelt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Here's what we learned from Westgate vs. Carencro football scrimmage ahead of 2024 season