Returning Hornet letterman Eric Belyeu, right, opened the scrimmage with a 55-yard touchdown run. Belyeu, a senior, is shown in this file photo as he and a Richland Springs player battle for a loose ball during the 2007 season. The good news for Hornets fans is Lometa manhandled its last opponent.

The bad news is it didn't count.

After tallying 451 yards of offense in 40 plays, crossing the goal line six times and suffocating their opponent -- Rochelle — on defense, the Hornets have nothing to show for their troubles except a little extra experience before the season-opener and a stat sheet capable of making Emmitt Smith smile.

Senior Eric Belyeu opened the team's final scrimmage by bolting 55 yards to pay dirt on the second play. That score was followed by Cody Brister's 60-yard touchdown run on the very next offensive play. The Hornets also scored on 32- and 42-yard runs by Dalton Parsons and Ramero Hernandez, respectively.

Of course, not even the NFL's all-time rushing leader could have reached the record without a little help from his teammates.

"What opened up those runs was our blocking," Lometa head coach Wendell Bradley said. "We had some great blocks at the line of scrimmage and just tremendous blocking down the field during the course of the run."

On defense, Rochelle spent as much time going backward as it did going forward, finishing the scrimmage with 11 plays for negative yardage and never earning a first down. The Hornet defense forced three fumbles and penetrated for three sacks.

It wasn't all effortless for Lometa, though.

A pair of fumbles, back-to-back holding penalties and a poor passing percentage were the only blemishes on the otherwise impressive performance.

Quarterbacks David Cruz and Parsons combined to complete just three of nine passes for 99 yards. The sole airborne score from Cruz to Brandon Faubion accounted for 60 of the total yards.

But none of that matters now because, starting tonight, every game counts.

Lometa kicks off its regular-season schedule by traveling to Covington for a 7:30 p.m. start against the Owls. Covington is making its six-man football debut after an unsuccessful decade as a Class 1A program, which included a 3-17 record (1-11 district) over the past two seasons.

Bradley said he expects the Owls will struggle with the changes in philosophy, mentality, execution and even rule interpretation.

"There's going to be things that surprise them," the coach said. "If [the quarterback] bobbles the snap, natural instinct, what you've been taught in 11-man is to just pick it up and get what you can get. In sixman, that's a five-yard penalty and loss of down."

After their game against Covington, the Hornets no longer will have the benefit of playing against the new kids on the block.

In its Week One game, Lometa hosts Zephyr, the 16th-best team in the state, according to SixManFootball.com, followed by No. 4 Richland Springs the next week. Two weeks later, No. 36 May comes to town.

Lometa ranks 67th in the preseason poll.

By Bradley's account, if the Hornets can survive the midseason barrage of talent, they might have what it takes to win it all.

"Two wins out of that situation would put us in a real confident position going into district [and have us] feeling like we can handle Buckholtz and possibly challenge Calvert, who is No. 1 in the state," Bradley said. "We hope to be playing for the district championship in the last ballgame."