Fulton Hornets head coach Pat Kelley was in unfamiliar territory entering Friday night's jamboree scrimmages.
Routinely, Kelley said, he has enough uncertainty in some spots that the exhibition serves as a final chance for players to solidify their positioning in the rotation.
However, Kelley expressed enough confidence in the current state of his depth chart that Friday night's clashes with the Odessa Bulldogs and Boonville Pirates would shore up whatever uncertainty remained.
In the aftermath, he felt comfortable with what he saw from the Hornets.
"I thought we did well," Kelley said. "... Everything we wanted to accomplish, we accomplished."
Fulton began the scrimmages against Odessa, which benefitted from a 15-yard penalty by the Hornets' first-team defense early in the drive. The Bulldogs set up deep in Fulton territory on a 15-yard pass on fourth-and-9 over the head of Hornets sophomore cornerback Cameron Vaughn.
Two plays later, Odessa plunged in from 2 yards out to open the scoring.
Fulton senior running back Travis Dean - limited to a handful of carries on the night - was wrapped up for a 2-yard loss on the No. 1 offense's opening snap. Junior quarterback Devin Masek immediately got that yardage back, and more, on a 14-yard connection up the middle to senior wide receiver Radarion Glover.
After committing consecutive false-start penalties, the Hornets maneuvered through the Bulldogs' lead defense in just four plays to score. Masek and Glover went to the middle of the field again for an 18-yard gain. Vaughn kept the chains moving on the next play, weaving through the heart of the Odessa defense for a 23-yard pickup.
"(Vaughn's) grown three inches and put on 30 pounds in a year, so it makes him a little different to deal with this year," Kelley said. "He's very athletic and with him and Travis back there, it gives us a nice 1-2 punch.
"And we can also split him out and we did that some tonight."
Masek then found sophomore wide receiver Makygh Galbreath on a 13-yard completion and Fulton moved forward 5 more yards on an Odessa penalty. Masek followed up by slipping past the edge of the Bulldogs' defense on an option keeper for a 5-yard touchdown run.
"The last few years, we've been (a) big-play, big-play (team) and we were able to do that," Kelley said. "That's probably the big thing we have this year is the zone read with Devin, because you couldn't tell who had the ball and he does a nice job of reading, pulling it and reading the end, and that's an added dimension we have."
Odessa's second-team offense quickly responded with a 35-yard scoring run on its first play, then fumbled on the next play, which Hornets junior defensive lineman David James fell on the ground to recover.
The Bulldogs looked to have a sure touchdown catch against Fulton's second-team defense, but Galbreath recovered in time to strip the ball out of the receiver's hand in the end zone for an incompletion.
"He got burned on a play, but did what he was supposed to do and ripped the ball out," Kelley said.
Dean darted through the Odessa defense for a 10-yard touchdown run two plays later to produce Fulton's final score of the night.
The Hornets' defense excelled against Boonville, consistently turning the Pirates back with the exception of a late touchdown run by their No. 1 offense.
Boonville - a North Central Missouri Conference and district foe, and Fulton's homecoming opponent on Oct. 2 - mixed in straight-ahead run plays with some intermediate passes, both of which the Hornets were able to snuff out. Fulton limited the Pirates' top offense to just 3 yards and a pair of incompletions on its opening drive.
The Hornets' second unit also yielded only 3 yards to the Pirates. Kelley's defensive line got ample push against Boonville and he made special note of his linebacking unit, including senior Kobe Kaminski and juniors Will Dunn, Luke Berrey and Dustin Lee.
"Kobe played well, Will Dunn played well and I thought Dustin Lee showed huge strides tonight, stepped up there and played hard," Kelley said.
As a while, Kelley liked what he saw from his starters and praised his younger players for standing up to the challenge against both the Pirates and Bulldogs.
"I think our young kids played well and they matched up against Boonville and Odessa well," Kelley said. "They didn't look like they were getting run over."
Fulton - coming off a 6-5 finish in 2014 - opens the 2015 season at home against the School of the Osage Indians at 7 p.m. Friday at Robert E. Fisher Jr. Stadium.