Tigers, alumni scrimmage

Fort Scott High senior Chris McAllister gets ready to knock the second of his four goals past the alumni team goalkeeper during a Red and White Scrimmage for the Tiger soccer squad Thursday evening at Ellis Park. Fort Scott opens its season Tuesday at Louisburg. (Scott Nuzum/Tribune)

Rather than just have varsity players play against junior varsity players, Fort Scott High School's soccer team scrimmaged a team of alumni at Ellis Field Thursday evening.

The unofficial score had the Tigers beating the alumni 6-3. Senior Chris McAllister scored four goals, senior Kholton Dwyer had one and junior Max McAllister had one.

Head coach David Gray has 26 players out this season and he gave all of them some playing time. He also said that there's already a pretty good idea of who will be the varsity players when the team travels to Louisburg to open the season at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"We have a pretty good idea of who we want to play on varsity," Gray said. "It was pretty rough and it was the first time we've had any competition. This was a lot better for us than playing varsity versus JV. It was good for the whole program. The alumni had a good time and it was good for the kids, too."

Although most of the Tigers' scoring came from the varsity players in the first half, Gray felt the players performed better in the second half.

"It was a good learning experience for us,' Gray said. "We're teaching them a lot of new things this year. A lot of new formations, how want them to play and helping on defense. We're still learning and it will take a little while."

Freshman Brett Allen played goalkeeper for the Tigers in the first half. Senior Garrett Baugher played goalie in the second half.

"They're both brand-new goalies who have never played before, so we were trying to work them in," Gray said.

Senior Chris McAllister and juniors Josh Buller and Max McAllister are All-Southeast Kansas League players who return for the Tigers this year. Other seniors on the roster include Kholton Dwyer, Griffin Hulbert, Leo Martens, Matt Scharenberg, Andy Cowlishaw, Spencer Lee, Jason Trejo, Ryan Rost and Laila Al-Shawish.

The Tigers (5-10-2 last season) will build their offense around their returning all-league players. But Gray says the defense will be just as important.

"We're going to have to play some really good defense," Gray said. "And we'll go back to the drawing board and work on it some more."

The Tigers' first home game will be Sept. 8 at Ellis Park against defending SEK champion Independence.