Defense dominates football Spring Game

Chris Hunter / The Bulletin

Sophomore running back Colby Rainey tries to turn the corner as a teammate blocks in the Spring Game Friday night. The Black team won the scrimmage 7-0.

The Emporia State football team concluded its spring practices with the Spring Football Game at Jones field on Friday night. The black team won 7-0 as the scrimmage was dominated by defense on both sides.

Head coach Garin Higgins was pleased with the team's performance.

"I think our kids were nervous tonight. I thought our quarterbacks threw the ball well, we had too much drops. We had some guys make some plays," Higgins said. "Defensively we came up with a turnover while we were driving the ball. From an offensive standpoint, you turn the ball over. A little disappointed we didn't do better in the red zone, but for the most part in game type situation and where we're at with our experience, I think we did a good job."

The first quarter was played with stoppage of the clock as the final three were played with a running clock of 12 minutes for each. Freshman Adrian Abner scored a touchdown for the Black team after a run by sophomore Justin Weiser set up the Abner score.

Abner led the Black team with 32 yards on 10 carries and had two receptions for 27 yards. Junior Seville Ko led the White team and all rushers with 37 yards on nine carries.

Ko was excited to come out and compete especially in front of a sizable crowd.

"I felt pretty comfortable in what I was doing and confident in my assignments," Ko said. "Definitely takes you back to the high school days under the lights and everything. We're pretty pleased with the crowd we had out here."

The two quarterbacks, freshman Zach Rampy and sophomore Andre Sloane El played for both the White and Black team and combined for 189 yards on 18 for 38 passing. Sloane El had 61 yards of passing on six of nine with one interception. Rampy also had 61 yards on five of ten passing.

Ko thought all the players came out really well on both sides of the ball.

"It was good. It was kind of like a celebration for us and we came out and we competed well," Ko said. "We blocked well up front. We dropped a few more balls then we'd like to, but I think we did pretty good."

The receivers were led by freshman Andre Maupin who had 62 yards receiving on five catches. Freshman Tracy Hageman added 41 yards receiving on three catches.

"I think we're better in a lot of areas that we were not as good in last year, but still a lot of room for improvement," said. "We've got a long ways to go, but there's a lot of bright stuff there and lot of stuff we can build on."