Scott City, St. Vincent and Perryville football teams meet at jamboree

~ The competition gave the teams a chance to face other teams before the season starts on Friday

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- "Nervous" and "antsy" were a couple of the words coaches at Friday's football jamboree at St. Vincent High School used to describe their players, and those emotions possibly were reasons for some miscues on the field.

Luckily for Perryville coach Mike Wojtczuk, St. Vincent coach Nathan Rowland and Scott City coach Jim May, they had the chance to see how their teams react under the bright lights before the regular season begins on Friday.

"We learned that we've got a lot of work to do yet before next Friday," Wojtczuk said. "We've got a lot of things we need to clean up on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball."

The Pirates failed to score during their first two scrimmages against Potosi and Scott City but finished off the night with a touchdown against crosstown rival St. Vincent.

Sophomore quarterback Brandon Renaud, who missed some of last season with a broken arm, completed 7 of 14 passes with an interception and a touchdown.

St. Vincent's Gabe Naeger eludes Scott City's Britan Jones during the jamboree Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 at St. Vincent High School in Perryville, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

"One of the biggest things was we dropped some passes in key situations," Wojtczuk said. "There's a couple times Holden Stortz was wide open. You know, if he catches the ball he may not score because he's not that speedster, but he definitely puts us in a scoring situation. So dropped passes, missed blocks. You know, I don't know if nerves got the best of them or what, but there was a couple times we lined up in the wrong formation. It's just silly, silly things that in a normal practice would never happen. You put them out here under the lights for the first time -- that's the good thing about having jamborees -- you get to get all the kinks worked out before it actually counts."

St. Vincent and Scott City kicked off the jamboree, with both teams sending out some of their younger players since the two teams will face each other in Week 2 of the season.

The Rams opened up the scoring, but the Indians scored twice on a couple of passes from sophomore quarterback Tyler Monier.

St. Vincent sophomore Gabe Naeger ran for about a 15-yard touchdown against Potosi.

"Our whole philosophy this year is based around one word: opportunity," Rowland said. "We have to create opportunities. We have to rise up and meet those challenges, and when we got faced with an opportunity to succeed and make plays, they did."

Scott City's Dylan Keller is grabbed by St. Vincent's Trevor Lukefahr as Matthew Rellergert moves in during the jamboree Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 at St. Vincent High School in Perryville, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

Scott City failed to score the rest of the jamboree, but May thought his players' effort Friday will translate to the season.

"I was pretty excited with how we competed," May said. "I felt like we came out with good effort and played hard. You know, with jamborees it's not all about winning and losing. You're not going to show every bullet in your gun chamber, but the kids came out and played hard, which was a really good sign for the year."

Sophomore quarterbacks Braden Cox and Ty Wilthong shared snaps throughout the jamboree.

Wilthong was 1-for-7 passing while Cox was 2 for 7.

"I saw two sophomores that were a little nervous right out of the gate," May said of the pair. "Had some overthrows and stuff, but they made some good throws. They're both doing a real good job. They're both competing, and that's going to make us better in the long run."

Perryville quarterback Brandon Renaud runs on a keeper with Scott City's Caden Hillemann in pursuit during the jamboree Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 at St. Vincent High School in Perryville, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

Cox also played some receiver as well as defensive end after primarily quarterbacking his freshmen season.

"Braden's one of the better athletes at our school, and if he's not the quarterback he's going to be playing somewhere on the field," May said. "It's not like he'd be standing on the sidelines. So we're prepared for anything we may do, and we may use them both some."

Potosi's Austin Cooley had a rushing touchdown against St. Vincent and Perryville. The Trojans, which May said ran a mid-line option, scored back-to-back touchdowns on long runs against Scott City.

"I don't know if we've ever seen that as a team," May said of Potosi's offensive scheme. "You know, we bit on the fake and we were a little out of position and they exploited us. We settled down and then held them out the next 10 plays. That's a good sign for us that we didn't drop our heads and just collapse. We dug our heels in and started competing, and I'm pretty happy about that."

For May, judging the success of the jamboree doesn't necessarily mean keeping track of how many times the team scored or was scored on.

"Number one we came out healthy, nobody got hurt, and that's always a key to the jamboree," May said, "and then we got to see some live action against somebody besides ourself."