The Altus High Bulldogs got their first taste of outside competition here Friday night in a controlled scrimmage with the Weatherford Eagles.

As usual, the defense is ahead of the offense at this time of the year.

The Bulldogs held the Weatherford running game in check. They did give up a few plays in the passing game, but they kept Weatherford from scoring.

“We’re further along defensively than I thought we’re going to be,” AHS head coach Chad Stone said. “We still have room for improvement. But at the same time, I think we’re going to be fine there.”

There were no scores in the scrimmage, but the Altus number one offense had two nice drives but could not convert them into touchdowns.

A 33-yard run by Dom Nortonen put the Bulldogs in scoring position. A 15-yard pass completion from quarterback Brantley Ford to Garrett Smith gave the Bulldogs a first down at Weatherford 11 yard line.

But the drive ended when a fourth down pass was dropped in the end zone.

So the word for the offense is finish.

“I went and talked to them (the players), the fact we have to finish. The JV, second team, first team all got inside the 20. Hopefully these kids will finish better next week.”

But it’s a new offense that the players are still learning.

“We’re still learning, that offense. You can see in flashes how explosive it can be,” Stone said. “We’re not at nearly the tempo we want to get to and we’re not nearly running it as hard as we need to. We’re going to get better.”

Stone and his staff did not show all of the offense at the scrimmage,

“We have 75 percent of our offense in,” Stone said. “Now how much we have shown is a different story. We came out here and worked with base stuff. You will see it open a little bit more and hopefully against Vernon we will be ready to roll.”

Some positive things did come out of the scrimmage:

“I learned our kids had a level of intensity that I didn’t realize they had. They hadn’t shown it.” Stone said.

“We came out here and had the opportunity to hit someone with a different colored jersey. The kids rose to the challenge.”

Altus will travel to Mustang where eight teams will compete in a scrimmage on Thursday.

The Bulldogs will open their season here on Sept. 2 against the Vernon Lions.