scrimmage

noun

• 1a confused struggle or fight: there was a considerable scrimmage, with people anxious to obtain cabs

• 2 [mass noun] American Football a sequence of play beginning with the placing of the ball on the ground with its longest axis at right angles to the goal line: Michigan was called for pass interference in the first play from scrimmage
• [count noun] chiefly American Football a session in which teams practise by playing a simulated game.

verb

• engage in a scrimmage: I recommended that we be able to scrimmage against other schools during the spring
• [with object] put (the ball) into a scrimmage.