The aggressive play of both the offense and defense pleased coach Frank Solich Saturday in his first spring game at Ohio, a 33-26 victory for the defense.
A modified scoring system awarded points to both sides for exceptional plays, such as plays of 16 yards or more for the offense and interceptions for the defense.
Offensively, fullback Brad Young ran for two touchdowns, and Brooks Rossman converted a 27-yard field goal, while T.J. Wright's interception of Mark Petruziello and the team's eight sacks accounted for most of the defense's points.
Solich acknowledged that the format and strategy of the game allowed for some inconsistencies.
It's always difficult to get some continuity out there when you're substituting the way we do
and everybody's getting a shot at getting some things done for evaluation purposes he said. We put in an awful lot of defense an awful lot of offense
so it's understandable that we're not real refined in a lot of things that we're doing right now.
The quarterback trio of Austen Everson, Petruziello and Jerrod Sparling directed the offense to 338 yards of total offense. Everson shouldered most of the series and led the offense on all three of their scoring drives, going 13-of-21 for 138 yards for the game.
Despite a few miscues, Solich was pleased with the play of his number one quarterback.
All in all with the weather conditions -wet ball
wet turf
a little wind --I didn't think it was too bad of a performance
he said. I thought he made some key throws and operated in the pocket with composure.
Running backs Kalvin McRae, Joshua Abrams and James Magee combined for 129 yards on 25 carries. Solich identified some problems with the running game.
I thought sometimes maybe we tried to make too much out of a play instead of making a sharp
crisp
hard cut; we maybe danced a little bit
Solich said. But we'll get that out of them. All in all
they have some ability
