JOHNSTON – So far so good.

The seventh-ranked Strom Thurmond Rebels football team emerged from Wednesday’s home scrimmage with the Newberry Bulldogs injury free and feeling good about themselves.

The Rebels scored three times, all through the air on connections from junior quarterback Raleigh Yeldell to wideout Antonio Hamilton, while the Bulldogs managed just one score on a long run late in the scrimmage against mostly reserve players.

“It was a lot like (last Saturday’s scrimmage) in that we didn’t turn the ball over and didn’t have many penalties so that’s huge,” Sawyer said. “We had a lot of big plays where we had the ability to stretch the field, Antonio showed that. Raleigh threw the ball well except for a couple of slants where he threw it in the dirt, one that might have gone the distance. We’ll learn a lot more when we look at the film, but overall, I was pleased.”

The coach was definitely happy with the blue collar work of his running backs.

“We really just had two backs (Malcolm Watkins and Chris Blocker) available and I thought they ran hard,” Sawyer said. “Malcolm does a great job of running with his pads down and getting yards after contact.”

Defensively, there were a few mistakes made that resulted in long runs, but nothing that cannot be remedied by the time the team opens play in the 2010 season at Class A Division II champion Williston-Elko this upcoming Friday.

“We broke contain a few times,” Sawyer said. “That’s been a problem for us early on in the past, but we have to get to where you have to bring people off the edge just to contain the quarterback because you’re hurting yourself in coverage on the side you’re sprinting to.”

Standouts on defense included the defensive backfield, which tallied three interceptions, two by sophomore corner Hykeem Brooks and one by sophomore free safety Demetrius Leysath.

Special teams performed decently, with just a couple of miscues as a snap rolled back to holder Raleigh Yeldell on a point after attempt and kicker Trent Miller came up short on a 30-yard field goal try. All-State punter Cullen Rhoden sent several of his punts for good distance, while Miller was good on his other two PAT kicks.

“We were pretty organized on special teams, which was good,” Sawyer added.