DEFENSE HAS THE EDGE IN FIRST FOOTBALL SCRIMMAGE OF THE SPRING
4/17/2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If the three spring scrimmages for the Sacramento State football team were viewed as a series, the defense scored the first win with a strong effort on Saturday morning at the team's practice field.
The defense limited the Hornet offense to 189 yards on 62 plays and allowed just seven first downs on the 21 series. The morning began with McLeod Bethel-Thompson quarterbacking the offense and after two completions and a short rush set up a 4th-and-1, the defense held by forcing an incompletion in the middle of the field.
After two three and outs, Pete Murdaca made his debut and led the team on its first scoring drive of the day. Murdaca completed a 19-yard pass to James Bobak and a 16-yard strike to Matt Larson to take the ball down to the 26-yard line. From that point, Jake Croxdale had a 10-yard run and a 15-yard scamper before plunging in from a yard out.
The offense's second touchdown came four drives later with Dominic Carmazzi directing the offense. The drive began at the defense's 25-yard line and the big play was made by John Hendershott who caught a 22-yard pass which led to a 3-yard TD by Croxdale.
The only other points of the day came on field goals where Chris Diniz converted on all four of his tries. Diniz made both attempts from 35 yards and was also good from 47 and 27.
Bethel-Thompson finished the day completing 8-of-23 passes for 42 yards. Murdaca was 3-for-5 for 47 yards and Carmazzi was 2-for-5 for 22 yards with an interception.
The tight ends seemed to be the favorite targets throughout the day as six of the 13 completions were caught by five tight ends (Jon Krebs, Bobak, Salesi Maumau, D.J. Maciel, Matt Carter). Overall, Hendershott, Larson, Croxdale and Marciel each had two grabs. Hendershott led all players with 30 receiving yards.
On the ground, Croxdale gained 50 yards on 12 attempts with two touchdowns while Sam McCowan carried the ball 17 times for 30 yards.
Defensively, the team finished with nine three and outs and also had a pair of fourth-down stops. Peter Buck, Christian Clark, Zack Nash, David Coleman and Jarred Pereira were each credited with sacks. Junior college transfer Joe Larche had the only interception of the day with a diving grab on the next to last series.
The team will return to practice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the upcoming week before scrimmaging again on Saturday, April 24, at 10:30 a.m.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If the three spring scrimmages for the Sacramento State football team were viewed as a series, the defense scored the first win with a strong effort on Saturday morning at the team's practice field.
