GALLMAN — The Trinity Episcopal Saints won both of their scrimmages Thursday afternoon at the Copiah Academy Jamboree, first defeating the Central Hinds Academy Cougars 20-0 and then shutting out the host Copiah Academy Colonels 8-0.

And while Saints head coach Josh Loy was pleased that the defense served back-to-back shutouts and the offense was impressive against Central Hinds, he said there are areas that need to be worked on.

“The scoreboard doesn’t indicate how sloppy we played,” Loy said about how his team played against Central Hinds. “We didn’t play fast. We came out flat. We didn’t come out with any emotion. We weren’t clicking on all cylinders like we’re capable of.”

Senior quarterback Michael Whitley was very efficient in both games. Against Central Hinds, he completed eight of 10 passes for 104 yards with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Trey Hall, and scoring passes of 29 and 12 yards to Dre McCoy. Against Copiah Academy, he was 7-of-9 passing for 92 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Sandrock.

“The quarterback was very efficient,” Loy said. “We improved on our pass protection, but we missed a couple of assignments we need to clean up.”

Trinity ran the ball just six times against the Cougars for 34 yards, but the Saints picked it up against the Colonels to the tune of 115 yards on 11 carries.

“The run blocking was better. Dee Fleming ran the ball extremely well tonight. He ran behind the line. He’s going to be our workhorse,” Loy said. “All in all, I did see improvement in our line.”

However, he wasn’t too pleased with the amount of penalties the offense had against Copiah Academy.

“We moved the ball really well on offense. But we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties that stalled a few drives,” Loy said.

The Saints’ defense overcame some mistakes to preserve the two shutouts. They forced some turnovers and in each game, they made two stops in the red zone. Both Sandrock and McCoy had interceptions against the Colonels.

“Defensively, we played well. We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to get a little more familiar with our scheme,” Loy said. “When your defense makes two shutouts, I consider that a big night on defense.”

Adams County Christian School head coach David King said the Rebels got out of the jamboree injury-free.

“We’ll have to watch the film. It was basically what I expected. We figured out who played and who can’t,” King said of the Rebels’ performance against the Columbia Academy Cougars and the River Oaks School Mustangs.

“We played well in the first scrimmage (against Columbia Academy). The second scrimmage (against River Oaks), we played everyone and played a little rag-tag,” King said. “We wanted to see some kids react.”

King said he was pleased with most of the offensive positions against the Cougars, but not so much with the defense.

“Defensively, we’re still trying to figure out what to do. We made some plays,” King said.

King noted that against River Oaks there were some bright spots and some sloppy play on both sides of the ball.

“We accomplished what we wanted to and that’s the main thing,” King said.