CHOCOWINITY — With a mere seven days to go before Beaufort County’s football teams hit the road for their respective home openers, Southside hosted its annual scrimmage jamboree. The Seahawks welcomed rivals Northside and Washington, as well as Plymouth and Smithfield. With not a weak team in the bunch, the evening proved to be a productive practice leading into game week.

Southside’s offense was up and down throughout the two-hour bunch of scrimmages. That is to be expected, to an extent, given not only the time of year, but also the challenge of readjusting whenever it’s time to line up against another team.

For coach Jeff Carrow, one of the biggest takeaway was that most of the team’s shortcomings were all things that can be easily addressed in practice. That’s why he assigned each player to review the tape before returning to practice.

“Overall, I thought we moved the ball efficiently. We were able to run our base stuff pretty well,” coach Jeff Carrow said. “The small errors, from what I saw, were very coachable things. … Film work is a big part of this. The right attitude, being ready and prepared, and having guys step up and practice are all big keys for us next week.”

There’s plenty of promise on offense. The Seahawks proved they knew what to do and where to be, but the timing wasn’t quite there yet.

“I think we’ve got to be able to get off the ball a little faster,” Carrow said. “That physicality, offensively, and timing will pick up a little more. We’ve just got to get lower and off the ball quicker and that will eliminate some of the penalties.”

The running back by committee approach was on full display. Zikajah Crawford stood out late in the evening in Southside’s final scrimmage against Smithfield. Kyle Hill and Ronald Dennis also stood out in the backfield.

Positional battles have been fleshed out since the Seahawks began full-contact practices last weekend. Not much is set in stone yet, but they’re at least working on depth as the focus is being shifted squarely on the season opener at North Duplin.

“We’ve narrowed some things down. With it being so unbalanced, it’s been hard to evaluate until we started banging,” Carrow said. “It’s getting a little bit clearer, still not crystal clear. We’re building depth in certain areas.”

While the offense was a bit streaky, the defense consistently improved from scrimmage to scrimmage. The Seahawks squared off against powerful running teams and held their own. They did, however, give up the occasional explosive play through the air.

“We got better at it,” Carrow said. “I thought tackling got better and we do have to work on deep balls. All in all, defense did outstanding again.”

The energy level is among the only glaring deficiencies that Carrow wants to address. The stands were packed and rivals in Northside, Washington and Plymouth were opposite of the Seahawks, but he didn’t feel the energy matched the situation.

“Honestly, I think it needs to pick up. Our expectations and everything, we’ve got a solid team,” Carrow said. “I feel like our energy level for what we’re expecting and what the coaches are expecting needs to pick up a little bit.”

The jamboree brings an end to this chapter of the preseason. With the season opener mere days away now, Southside’s attention is directed toward preparing for North Duplin.