On Saturday, September 5th, on a day that could only be described as having that perfect football weather, the Chestnut Hill College Griffins traveled to Penn Park to take part in an organized practice/scrimmage with the University of Pennsylvania Quakers.

For the Griffins, who have been practicing for their inaugural sprint football season since returning to campus in late-August, this was their first taste at real, in-game action, something that Head Coach Mike Pearson, believes will only help the team when they kick-off against Princeton next week.

"The scrimmage was absolutely needed to prepare us to play Princeton," Pearson says. "It gave our team a glimpse of how tough and competitive the CSFL really is."

The combined practice was structured in such a way that it enabled the fresh-faced Griffins to compete in drills and football related activities against and alongside the seasoned Penn Quakers. This allowed Pearson and his coaching staff to better identify the team's strengths and weaknesses and pinpoint where the focus should be in practice over the next 10 days before the start of the regular season. Additionally, the practice helped the Griffins learn some lessons about playing in the CSFL from one of the league's more successful and experienced members.

"We did very well in certain phases but thanks to the people at Penn, we had some weaknesses exposed that will only allow us to improve," Pearson says. "We've still got a lot of hard work to do over the next week."

Pearson's goal has always been for his team to be "as good as they can possibly be as fast as they can possibly be" and having the opportunity to take back to the practice field what was learned and experienced on Saturday, is only going to help that goal come to fruition sooner rather than later.

Marilee Gallagher '14