— TULSA – Perhaps a couple of questions were answered offensively for Muskogee here Thursday night in the East-West Showdown.

Mackenzie McCall lived up to his physical label at running back, scoring two touchdowns in a 8-carry, 65-yard effort in a 30-minute game situation scrimmage against Mustang, which turned out to be a 21-19 Roughers win.

And among the young corp of receivers battling for two starting spots, sophomore Bryson Bell had four catches for 38 yards, the longest a 14-yarder from quarterback Trevor Jiles, who was 7-of-9 for 53 yards.

Defensively, linebacker Haden Kolmer ended one Mustang drive with a strip of running back Callum Hill in the backfield.  And cornerback Marcus McVay’s hit on Chase Brown on a two-point reception pass on the scrimmage’s final play sealed the outcome.

Otherwise, the defense, with its young and mostly inexperienced secondary, struggled, giving up 103 passing yards and two passing scores.

In earlier controlled settings against Union and Midwest City, they allowed seven touchdowns.

“Not a surprise,” Muskogee coach Josh Blankenship said. “We knew that we had a lot of young guys replacing seniors, trying to fill those areas and we’ve got to find out who those guys are. There were some good things but we were exposed on a lot of other things.

“But we had at times three sophomores as wideouts and we saw some people step up.  The guys on the back end have to do that in the secondary.”

McVay, at cornerback, is the lone seasoned player in the secondary.

“We know what to do we’ve just got to execute better,”  he said. “I got a lot of work in at Summer Pride.”

Kolmer, one of the returning defenders, gave his assessment regarding that issue.

“I just think we were out of shape man. When we played Midwest City that no-huddle kept getting after us and going against Mustang, they just brought it to us,” he said. “Other than that it’s just trying to get coverages and formations right.”

Blankenship had an answer for the conditioning issue.

“The guys who were here all summer were in good shape. Those that weren’t, aren’t,” he said.

McCall felt pretty good about his shape.

“Hard work in the weight room pays off, but your offense ain’t nothing without your offensive line,” he said.

Blankenship knew he had a physical type back in the 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior who moved in from Beggs last spring.

“He’s made a lot of guys on our team better. The way he ran, he’s a direct product of how he practices. He goes that way every play in practice then he goes and tries to jump in on the scout team,” the coach said.

The final matchup of the night was by game conditions with each team beginning a possession from its opponent’s 35-yard line.

Muskogee’s two controlled contests came against the four-time Class 6A champion and another team that is probably among the top four going into the season, and the contrast was a marked one.

Union’s backup quarterback, Mason Farquhar, ran the offense against Muskogee in a 15-play setting to start the night. He drove them inside the 5 on a series of plays but failed to score, as did MHS.

Union did strike, however, in another 10 plays starting from the 10, cashing in five times. Among those, Farquhar had two TD passes and Garron Harris ran it in twice.  Jiles hit Anthony King for a touchdown on Muskogee’s turn.

Against 2011 quarterfinalist Midwest City, running every play from plus-territory at the 35, Jiles had passes of 18 yards to Bell, 16 to  McCall and 10 to King but didn’t cross the goal line. Midwest City scored three times by air and one on the ground.

On the session set up from the 5, Raundel Cooper scored from 5 yards out and Jiles hit King for a TD and ran for another.  Midwest City’s output: three TDs, two via the air.

The Roughers return to Union next week for a final scrimmage before opening the regular season at home against Sand Springs.