LUSK – On the first defensive stand for the Southeast Cyclones, freshman Ayden Desmond ended up with an interception in the end zone, and on the first offensive play, senior Ryan Clapper broke free for a 50-yard sprint to the end zone.

It was how the season started for the defending state champions in their Week 0 scrimmage against the Moorcroft Wolves in Lusk on Saturday afternoon.

The two teams swapped possessions with 15 plays on offense and then 15 plays on defense in the controlled scrimmage.

Southeast Mark Bullington saw a lot of good, as well as some things they need to work on ahead of Friday’s matchup with the Shoshoni Wranglers.

The biggest area of concern is tackling.

“Like always, we have some things to work on, and like coach (Shawn) Burkhart said, we’ve not done a lot of one-on-one tackling stuff,” Southeast head coach Mark Bullington said.

However, it was a different story offensively with new quarterback Grant Logsdon under center.

“I thought offensively, we looked pretty decent,” Bullington said. “We threw the ball well. I think we hit more slant and post routes than we have in the last five years.”

After the scrimmage came to a close, Bullington said the team will find out where they stand pretty quick when they open the season on the road against Shoshoni in a rematch of last season’s 1A 9-Man semifinal round of the playoffs.

“Shoshoni has some good kids. They are big. That will be an uphill battle for us. We’ll find out how good we are next week,” Bullington said. “When Cokeville went (to 2A), they’ve dominated the West (Conference). It’ll give us a good indication of where we are. I still think three of the four best teams are over here.”

Friday’s game will be the fourth matchup between the two schools in three years with the Cyclones winning all four contests.

Kickoff is slated for 5 p.m. in Shoshoni.