Starters Dominate in the Blue-White Game
4/4/2009 4:27:00 AM | Football
STATESBORO, Ga. ? The Blue team broke open a 14-0 game by scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter, cruising to a 31-0 win in Georgia Southern's annual Blue-White game Saturday afternoon (April 4) at Paulson Stadium.
A crowd of 3,500 were in attendance for the game. The first and second quarters were 10 minutes while the third and fourth quarters were 12 minutes each.
Lee Chapple drove the Blue team ? comprised of mostly starters ? down the field midway through the second quarter and connected with redshirt-freshman Tyler Sumner for a 10-yard touchdown. Chapple led Sumner over the middle and he made a one-handed diving catch for the TD. Chapple was intercepted by Larry Murphy in the endzone late in the half to keep the Blue team out of the endzone again.
Midway through the third, Blue took over on their own 39. Chapple hit Chris Teal for 27 yards then on the next play Chapple connected with Leander Barney for a 34-yard score as the sophomore wide receiver won a 1-on-1 jump ball in the left corner.
Adrian Mora connected from 45 yards out to make it 17-0 with 7:29 remaining.
Darreion Robinson scored from three yards out three minutes later. On the final drive Russell Demasi connected with Robinson on a 29-yard completion down to the one. Jordan Haggerty came into the game and threw a 1-yard scoring strike to Sumner for the final margin.
“I thought some guys really stepped up,” said head coach Chris Hatcher. “I thought Chris Teal had a good practice. Darreion Robinson was a guy, I wanted to see how he played when the lights came on, and of course, he really shined well. Then Leander Barney made some big plays as well as Tyler Sumner. It was good to see those guys that we moved to different positions or their first time out there, go out there and make some plays today.”
Chapple threw for 247 yards and two scores. The sophomore starting quarterback completed 26-of-35 passes. Demasi completed 5-of-6 for 119 yards, including a 56-yard completion to Barney.
Sumner caught a game-high nine passes for 86 yards and two scores. Robinson caught seven passes for 69 yards and Barney recorded 118 yards on six catches.
Defensively for the Blue, Harland Bower recorded three sacks (16 yards) and 3.5 tackles for a loss. J.B. Shippy matched Bower with four tackles. Blue held White to only five first downs and 202 total yards.
Kyle Collins completed 7-of-16 passes for 120 yards while Billy Lowe completed 5-of-11 passes for 79 yards. Garryon Taylor led the White team with five catches for 107 yards.
Lee Banks registered a game-high eight tackles for White. Marc Thomas recorded two sacks and six stops in all. Tavaris Williams and James Arowoselu made five tackles each and combined for three sacks.
“The big thing was I wanted to see what some of the backups that had looked really good in scrimmages during spring ball, I wanted to see what they would do versus who we consider our one group out here today,” Hatcher said. “I thought that Garryon Taylor made some plays, I really thought that (Kyle) Collins had a good day, he didn't have much protection, but I really thought he had a good day and Billy (Lowe) looked pretty good at times as well.
“The biggest concern we have is that we don't have a lot of depth,” Hatcher continued. “I think that our first team, our first 22 players, they are pretty good, but we have a lot of work to do, they are young and they haven't been through the rigors of a Southern Conference schedule. Those guys have picked up what we are trying to accomplish and now we have to go in there and find some backups and, of course, some of those guys aren't here yet, they are still in high school. We will be relying on those guys once again this season.”
The spring practice will officially end on Monday morning (April 6) as the Eagles will make-up the practice session that was postponed on Thursday due to rain.
LITTLE EAGLES A SUCCESS: The second-annual Little Eagles Skills Challenge was another huge success. According to head coach Chris Hatcher, members of the Eagles worked with approximately 101 children from ages 4-12 prior to the Blue-White game.
