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Nederland and Memorial will conclude the scrimmage portion of their schedules Thursday against each other in Port Arthur.

“Anytime you have a different opponent, it is a higher evaluation versus going against yourself,” Nederland Head Coach Monte Barrow said. “We have that again. We are going to harp on what we need to get better at and hope that shows up Thursday night.”

In Port Arthur, the Titans are also looking in the mirror before they start their season against Lancaster.

“We just want to make some improvements on some of the mistakes we made last week,” Memorial Head Coach Brian Morgan said. “A lot of it was little things. We dropped way too many balls. That is something we don’t typically do. We just had first-game jitters with it being the first time back in a live setting. We had some pre-snap penalties that we can’t have.”

Morgan said he and his staff are also solidifying the rotations and depth chart.

“We have a couple of pieces on each side of the ball that we are shifting around,” he said. “We want to figure out what is the best 22 to have on the field.”

The two teams will play three quarters and will likely have a running clock in the fourth.

“I guess at around halftime, Monte and I will see where we are at and see how tired we are,” Morgan said. “We will see who needs to get in and go from there.”

Morgan said some starters will get more rest depending on how they looked in the previous scrimmage against West Brook.

“The guys that played really, really well last week, are going to play very minimal this week,” he said.

“The guys who need to clean things up will play a little more. It is not a whole sale starters or backups. There will be a bunch of reps for younger guys as we continue to bring them along.”

Morgan said he is happy to have his team go up against a physical squad like the Bulldogs.

“It is a good scrimmage for us,” he said.

“It is good to go out there in that situation. It won’t be a full game, but it will be physical. They also have a little different structure and different scheme. That is good for our guys to see. We don’t do a lot of game planning for a scrimmage, so they will have to react off what they see.”

Barrow said the Bulldogs will get see talent similar to the top of the district in Thursday’s sparring partner.

“You are going to see the type of athletes and team speed that you will see at the top,” Barrow said of the Titans.

“That is always good for us. They aren’t only fast and physical, they play football the way it is supposed to be played. We like to think we do to. It will be a physical matchup for us. A lot of our kids know their kids, so there is always that little rivalry.”

Read here about Port Neches-Groves’ preparation for Thursday’s scrimmage.