Defense comes up big in final spring scrimmage

4/21/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football

April 21, 2012

Video Highlights

The offense got the best of the defense in last week's scrimmage under the lights. The defense flipped the script Saturday morning in the final scrimmage of 2012 spring drills at Washington-Grizzly stadium leading the White team to a 21-20 win over the Maroon.

The Grizzlies were split into two teams with the number one offense highlighting the white team and the number one defense leading the maroon team.

The scrimmage also included an interesting scoring system set up by the staff: a touchdown was worth two points but so was a sack, a penalty lost you a point while an interception was worth two.

After a few stalled drives the white team got the scoring going when Steven Rominger intercepted Shay Smithwick-Hann'sdeflected pass and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown.

The white defense kept the maroon team out of the end zone forcing them to depend on Chris Liderfor the 23-yard field goal. Lider came through to knot the score up at 9-9.

Lider was again called into action on the White team's next possession and again was successful in his 35-yard attempt.

The Maroon offense finally found some production when Nate Montana found Jake Dellaserrafor the eight-yard touchdown pass.

After trading field goals and with the White team trailing the scrimmage moved to the goal line. Dan Moore and Peter Nguyen both scored from eight yards out to give the White team a 19-16 advantage. Brett Kirschnerscored on a four-yard run for the maroon to cut the white lead to one, 19-18.

The coaches gave the maroon team one last chance to take the lead with a fourth and goal on the two-yard line for each team. The White defense got a sack (worth two points) to push the lead to 21-18. The maroon team followed up with a sack of their own set the final score at 21-20.

Nate Montana was 4-8 with 47 yards passing and a touchdown to lead the quarterbacks. Caleb Walden ran for 28 yards on five carries to lead the rushing effort and Sean Hayneshad two catches for 35 yards.

On the defensive side Rominger grabbed two interceptions and Ty Timmer led the team with six tackles. Trevor Rehm and Brock Coyleeach tallied a sack.

Interim Head Coach Mick Delaneywas happy with the competition and with the overall performance of the Griz.

"The thing that made me the most happy was the defense playing well," Delaney said. "The offense wasn't all bad either so I thought there was some good stuff today."

Delaney believes the team accomplished their main goal over the spring drills, which was to find players that could find the field in the fall.

"I think we ended up spring building depth," Delaney said. "We really wanted to find some number twos and number threes that will contribute in the fall and some of the younger guys stepped up and played well."

Overall Delaney is happy with the final spring scrimmage and believes the Griz are on moving in the right direction and keeping a good attitude.

"I think it was a good note for the guys to go out on today," Delaney said. "I think they had some fun and some good intense competition, anyone can have fun but when you do it and still work your behinds off that's the key."

SCORINGPLAYS

W- Steven Rominger 35-yd interception return (Zach Veasykick)

M- Chris Lider23-yd FG

W- Lider 35-yd FG

M- Jake Dellaserra 8-yd pass from Nate Montana(Veasy kick)

W- Lider 30-yd FG

M- Veasy 28-yd FG

W- Dan Moore8-yd run (no PAT)

W- Peter Nguyen8-yd run (no PAT)

M- Brett Kirschner4-yd run (Lider PAT)

STATISTICS

RUSHING: Caleb Walden 5-28, Dan Moore 3-22, Brett Kirschner 11-10, Jacob Elder 3-12, Jordan Johnson 2-6, Peter Nguyen 4-5, Nate Montana 3-4, Gavin Hagfors 1-3, Jordan Canada 2-0, Shay Smithwick-Hann 2-minus 3, Trent McKinney5-minus 4.