The scoring system for the final day of spring practice included rewarding the offense with points for first downs and plays of 20 yards or more in addition to scoring touchdowns and field goals, while the defense scored with turnovers, sacks, tackles for loss, and stops on third and fourth down.
“I thought both sides came out focused and ready to play,” said Western head coach David Elson. “The defense played fast and with a high level of intensity, which has been missing this spring — they were more aggressive today. The offense has been playing well in the spring, I think the defense got tired of hearing about it.”
Each team scored three points on the opening possession, and the White still held a 6-3 advantage before Dan Cline recorded a sack of Jack Rafferty with the offense facing 3rd-and-6 at the Red-31 yard line to make the score 7-6 Red — they would not trail again the rest of the way. Charlie Phillips and Jon Hedges added sacks two possessions later as the Red was up 15-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Justin Haddix led the White on a 62-yard drive that reached the Red-3, but Smith recorded the first of his two sacks on 4th-and-goal to push the Red edge to 23-11.
The Red team posted 12 stops behind the line of scrimmage, including nine sacks — eight which came in the opening 30 minutes — on the afternoon.
Craig Lanham rushed for 30 yards on six carries to set up a 48-yard field goal by Chris James 2:23 before the break, but Andre Lewis intercepted a Haddix pass attempt and Ben Sowders sacked Rafferty on consecutive plays to give the Red a 40-17 lead at the half.
Hedges paced the defense with 11 tackles, while Brandon Mason and Ricky Watkins posted eight stops apiece. Cline and Lewis finished with seven tackles each, and Sowders collected six as well.
The Red scored the first 10 points of the third quarter after forcing three straight 3-and-outs before Rafferty led a 12-play, 63-yard drive that culminated with Brian Porter’s 1-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-goal with 5:12 to go that made the score 50-28. Porter had five carries for 20 yards on the march, while Rafferty completed 3-of-4 pass attempts for 34 yards to go along with 6 yards on the ground. He moved the chains twice with completions of 15 yards to Rannen Roberson and 14 to Jamison Link.
Porter led the White with 70 yards on 16 attempts.
Eight straight incompletions led to three more 3-and-outs as the Red led 63-29 at the end of three quarters.
Haddix — who was 13-for-24 overall for 141 yards — completed 5-of-8 attempts in the final period, including a 31-yard scoring pass to Maurice Perkins at 3:52 for the only other touchdown of the scrimmage. Perkins recorded all four of his receptions, accounting for 52 yards, in the fourth quarter.
Curtis Hamilton led all receivers with 69 yards on five receptions, while Link added four catches for 46 yards. Rafferty was 8-for-18 for 75 yards passing. Stephen Willis recorded 41 yards on 16 carries as well.
