Offense wins spring game but defense shows promise after rough start

[Skipper]

On the opening drive in Saturday afternoon’s spring game at Apogee Stadium,  junior quarterback Mason Fine hit junior Rico Bussey for a 52-yard gain across the middle of the field. A few plays later he found sophomore running back Evan Johnson for a 10-yard score.

The next possession, redshirt senior Quinn Shanbour threw a short pass to redshirt sophomore Keegan Brewer. The Kansas transfer took it 49 yards to the house for a touchdown.

During the fourth series, the offense was held to 4th and 1, but they confidently elected to go for it. Sophomore running back DeAndre Torrey took the handoff up the middle, bounced it outside, and sprinted for a 55-yard score.

Scoring looked easy for the offense.

“I think we came out with a lot of energy and I thought we executed well,” Fine said. “Defense kind’ve had our number all spring so it was good to come out here and kind’ve get the upper hand on them today but I felt like guys came out with the right energy and right mindset.”

Coming out with three touchdowns on four possessions, it looked as though the offense would comfortably control the spring game.

But the defense turned the tables with adjustments and stops in the backfield. The defense compiled a total of 10 tackles for loss and stopped the offense from scoring on 12 of their 17 drives but still lost the game 44-23 to the offense.

“We just got tired of getting beat on deep balls,” sophomore safety Tyreke Davis said. “[We had] a lack of focus in the secondary then we harped a lot on our technique. We just had to step it up late.”

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