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 Senior quarterback Todd Spitzer engineered two scoring drives, including a touchdown on the opening drive of Monday night's first scrimmage. |
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Aug. 13, 2007
Cullowhee, N.C. - With a coolness in the air much like that of the fall season, the Western Carolina Catamount football team took to the turf of Bob Waters Field for its first scrimmage session under the lights Monday night at E. J. Whitmire Stadium. The session, which lasted nearly two hours, saw several individuals shine in the first game-like action of the preseason.
"I felt like we had several guys step up and have strong individual performances tonight," said head coach Kent Briggs. "But overall, we need to step up the intensity level. I felt like we had a lot of guys thinking rather than just going out and making plays. Those things tend to happen with the influx of so many new faces in different situations, but we will evaluate the film and mark the changes we need to make between this, our first scrimmage, and the next."
The controlled scrimmage featured multiple drives scattered between the first through third teams beginning at the 30 and 45 yard lines. Mixed in were special teams plays with both punt and punt coverage, as well as kick off and kick off coverages. The session concluded with red zone work, followed by short distance and goal line situations.
Senior quarterback Todd Spitzer threw the ball well on Monday, especially while orchestrating a touchdown score on the first drive of the scrimmage. The Greer, S.C., native completed eight of his 11 attempts for 110 yards on the night, including a perfect 5-for-5 on the first drive. He led a pair of scoring drives on the night, culminating in 10 points overall.
After enduring a false start on the first play of the series, the first team offense drove the length of the field, aided by a 35-yard completion from Spitzer to sophomore receiver Marquell Pittman before senior tailback Mike Malone burst through from just a few yards out for the score. Malone led all running backs with 30 yards on six carries.
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Horn finished the long yardage work 5-for-9 for 85 yards and was intercepted once as defensive lineman Gene Singletary blew up a would-be screen play, batted the ball to himself and then raced for the end zone as the play was blown dead.
Additional highlights from the defensive side of the ball included the play of end Jeff Bradley, who tallied a pair of sacks on the protected quarterbacks and was constantly applying pressure along the front, as well as freshman Paul Gilmore with a sack. Senior John Martin also had a tackle for loss for the defense.
On special teams, Lee Stanley blocked a punt and Darren Curtis slapped away a 44-yard field goal attempt defensively. Excluding Curtis' work, Parsons was 3-for-4 on field goals, connecting from 36, 41, and 24 yards with one miss from 44 yards out.
During red zone work, freshman quarterback Zach Jaynes showed his shiftiness in the pocket, avoiding would-be tacklers as he scrambled in from 12 yards out. He also tallied a pair of completions during field work as well. Junior L.J. Davis, seeing time at the tailback position as well as his normal fullback slot, rumbled in for one of his three scores on the evening in red zone work, with the two additional tallies coming during goal line situations. Also, quarterback Adam Hearns found senior Eddie Cohen in the back of the end zone during the waning moments of the scrimmage.
The Catamounts' second scrimmage is set for this Saturday, August 18 at 10:00 am at E.J. Whitmire Stadium/Bob Waters Field. The best dress rehearsal for the 2007 season will come on Wednesday, August 22 at the annual "Meet the Cats" scrimmage, which will feature a pre-game autograph session with the Catamount players and coaches, as well as a scrimmage session.
