Palestine-Wheatley Coach Terry Farmer saw exactly what he expected to see at Thursday night's preseason scrimmage against Mountain View.
"Everyone got to play and we got good long looks at a lot of people," Farmer said. "That's what scrimmages are for."
The Patriots did bring home the win, finishing off Mountain View 28-12.
"For the most part, I was pleased with the effort," Farmer said. "We made some minor mistakes, but nothing we can't overcome. We will spend the next few days before the season opener going over and over the basic fundamentals. That is important."
Antonio Leak ran for about 100 yards Thursday and his brother, quarterback Fred Leak, threw for 160 yards.
"We only played our first team defense one series before letting the younger kids get some playing time." Farmer said.
The three Arkansas members of the Gulf South Conference that opened their football seasons Thursday night all got victories over non-conference opponents.
Arkansas-Monticello easily topped visiting Bethel 44-13, Northeastern State of Oklahoma traveled to Russellville to fall 52-28 to Arkansas Tech, and Southern Arkansas won a road game 21-19 at Texas A&M-Commerce.
At Monticello, the Boll Weevils (1-0) built a 41-0 lead at the half -- on four touchdown passes thrown by Cory Allred, and two scoring runs by Craig Reed -- then cruised the rest of the way.
Allred threw his first scoring pass to Rodney Montgomery on a play that went 34 yards, early in the first quarter. He threw another touchdown pass to Von Mixon late in the period, for 25 yards, hit Montgomery for another score on a 4-yard play early in the second quarter and then found Vick Barrett for a touchdown pass from 5 yards out with 2:25 left before intermission.
Meanwhile, Reed scored in the first quarter on a 2-yard run and found the end zone in the second period from a yard out.
A Wes Baker field goal from 31 yards was the only scoring for the Boll Weevils after the half.
Terrance Bell put Bethel (0-1) on the board late in the third period with a 43-yard touchdown run, and J. Missouri caught a pass from Brent Dearmon on a 13-yard scoring play in the final quarter.
At Russellville, Arkansas Tech's Jason Campbell threw three touchdown passes to lead the Wonder Boys to their victory.
Tech (1-0) scored the first four touchdowns, two of them on passes from Campbell to Josh Rogers of 5 and 7 yards, and led 28-14 at the half. Lance Goodin scored on a 5-yard run and Cedric Cursh ran a fumble back 40 yards for the other Tech touchdown.
The two first-half scores by Northeastern (0-1) came on a 9-yard run by DeAngelo Green and a pass from Forrest Mazey to Pat Gilbert on a play that covered 4 yards.
The Wonder Boys put the game away with three TDs and a field goal in the third period. One of the scores was on a 3-yard pass play from Campbell to Lance Goodin -- who had also scored on a run in the first half -- while the other two Tech scores came on runs of 17 yards by Marcus Godfrey and 2 yards by R.J. Van Hook. Mark Ewarsmann connected on a 27-yard field goal.
Northeastern scored once each in the third and final periods, on a 48-yard run by Brandon Isham in the third and a 21-yard pass play from Mazey to Terrence Pearson in the fourth.
Tech amassed 375 yards offense to Northeastern's 231.
At Commerce, Texas, SAU's Torrance Jones scored two touchdowns and Robert Hooks stopped quarterback Buster Faulkner at the goal line on a two-point conversion try late in the fourth quarter to get the win for the Muleriders.
Jones rushed for 136 yards on 12 carries. He scored on a 4-yard run in the first quarter and a 71-yard run in the second. SAU (1-0) led 14-13 at the half.
Faulkner connected with Cedric Patt for two touchdowns, including a 31-yard touchdown pass with 4:19 left in the game. The Lions (0-1) tried for a two-point conversion and Faulkner was hit from the side at the goal line by Hooks.
Faulkner completed 29-of-38 passes for 255 yards.