Both Cypress Woods and Seven Lakes entered their scrimmage Saturday night taking a big step forward in the evolution of their respective football programs.

After two years of playing 4A football, Seven Lakes makes the step up to 5A this season, while Cy Woods starts its first varsity season after three years of sub-varsity play. Both teams showed good signs and some points to improve on in the scrimmage.

One big surprise was the skill and speed Cy Woods showed on offense. Senior quarterback Lucas Devilliers showed not only can he pass in the spread offense, he can also take off and run with it. Devilliers threw for two touchdowns and ran almost 60 yards with the other.

“We got a lot of work to do, but our kids played hard,” Cy Woods head coach David Jones said. “They did most of what we asked them to do, so we got a chance.”

The Spartans had some good moments offensively, as senior quarterback Dalton Livingston and running back Dominique Harris each showed their big-play capability. Livingston hooked up with a big bomb to receiver Anthony Kendrick, a Kentucky commit, for a touchdown, while Harris broke off a couple of runs before Elix Rose took it in from eighteen yards out.

“The things you want in the first scrimmage is effort and toughness,” Seven Lakes head coach Kevin O’Keefe said. “Blocking downfield and running after the football are things we really want to do in the first scrimmage. We’ll refine it as the rest of it as we go and prepare for game one. But they answered the question on those things and played hard.”

Defensively, Seven Lakes may have to take the scrimmage with a grain of salt. The defense did get a couple of interceptions and stopped the run for most of the game, but were burned on a few pass plays by the Wildcats’ speedy receivers.

“It’s something we haven’t seen a lot of,” O’Keefe said.

Both teams will have another scrimmage next week before their first regular season game. Seven Lakes will scrimmage Fort Bend Elkins on Friday before opening the season on Sept. 4 against Fort Bend Dulles at Rhodes Stadium.

Meanwhile, Cy Woods will host a scrimmage against Westfield on Thursday, then will play its first-ever varsity game against A&M Consolidated on Sept. 6 at the Berry Center.

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