The Mason High School varsity football team returned to live action on Friday, Aug. 13 when the Punchers traveled for their first preseason scrimmage against Llano High School at Jacket Stadium.

It was a great time had under the Friday night lights as many members from the Mason community made the drive east on State Highway 29 to watch the Punchers prepare for the upcoming 2021 season.

Under third-year head coach Michael McLeod and his staff, the Punchers got to show off their physical Wing T base offense against a Jackets team coming off a high-quality 2020 campaign. Mason junior quarterbacks Ivan Wofford and Isaiah Bishop split reps with the first-team offense and were able to do a solid job at moving the ball.

The Punchers’ stable of senior running backs got plenty of carries throughout the evening as Hayden Harding, Jaden Scantlin, Derek Ontiveroz, and Blake Lewis got touches. Something that the Punchers’ backs, including Wofford and Bishop, did exceptionally well as a group against the Jackets was break tackles and get extra yards after contact.

Against a Llano team that had decent size in their front seven, Mason’s offensive line held its own in the trenches with senior Milam Mayfield, senior Will Ince, and junior Cason Jacoby helping pave the way for positive Puncher yardage.

Defensively, Mason looked quite disciplined and collectively held its own for much of the night against Llano’s spread offense with speedy weapons on the outside and its own efficient Jackets rushing attack. On multiple occasions, the Punchers were able to force fumbles and kept Llano from throwing the ball deep for a good deal of the scrimmage.

Although some penalties hindered Mason a little on defense to keep some Llano drives alive, it was a very productive night for a Punchers team that again has aspirations of another deep playoff run in Class 2A-1.

After another 7 p.m. preseason scrimmage this Thursday night at the Puncherdome vs. Blanco High School, the Mason varsity squad will travel at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 27 for their regular-season opener on the road against Comanche High School. The Punchers will look to avenge their 14-0 loss to a senior-heavy Indians team in 2020.

Be sure to check out next week’s edition of the Mason County News for more updates on Punchers and Cowgirls varsity athletics. There will be an in-depth 2021 Mason Punchers football preview that will be released prior to the start of the regular season.

Sports editor Andrew Salmi can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by cell phone at (818) 645-1115.