PROVO -- The Blue team held off a late, fourth-quarter drive by the White squad to earn a 14-7 victory in the annual Blue-White game in front of 5,500 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday. The game marked the finale to the 2003 spring season.
"Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way things went today," BYU head coach Gary Crowton said. "I think we learned a lot and will be able to put this experience to good use. Both our offense and defense showed some nice things today, but I still think our defense needs to become more physical. The technique will come as our guys become more comfortable with the schemes we run. It was encouraging to watch our guys today.
"As far as the offense goes, I think our option looked good, but we don't want to overdue the option this season. I was happy with Matt Berry's poise. We didn't get many plays because of the shortened format, but I think the quarterbacks all did a good job. John Beck showed some good mobility. He has got a lively arm, and I was please with what I saw from him.
"We want to be able to throw the ball and to give our quarterbacks protection this year. We also want to be able to run the ball up the middle better than we did last year. I think we were able to work on some of those specific elements this spring, and hopefully we'll be able to better execute those things during the season."
Trailing 14-7 with under 2:00 remaining in the game, freshman quarterback John Beck found sophomore receiver Matt Smith on a 23-yard gain, giving the White squad a first down deep in Blue territory. Looking to tie the score, Thomas Stancil and Eric Watterson each picked up a pair of 6-yard runs to give the White squad a 3-and-4 from the Blue 10-yard line. Then, the Blue defense came up big. Beck was sacked by linebacker Colby Bockwoldt for a 12-yard loss. After a Beck incompletion on 2-and-22, he again went to the air for the game's final play. With Smith open and poised to make the game-tieing reception, cornerback Jernaro Gilford knocked down Beck's pass to end the game, and seal the Blue squad's victory.
"The personality of our defense is a stingy defense," linebacker Mike Tanner said. "We have the mentality that we don't want to let people score on us. If the team does score on us, we want to bounce back and come back harder. We have made some progress this spring, but we realize we have some work to do to become the best."
After the Blue team picked up plays of 14 yards and 11 yards in the game's opening drive, the White defense stiffened and forced the Blues to punt -- a 51-yarder from Matt Payne.
On the White team's first play from scrimmage, Naufahu Tahi fumbled the exchange, which was recovered by linebacker Mike Tanner. The Blue team wasted little time. On the first play, sophomore quarterback Matt Berry connected with junior receiver Jason Kukahiko for an 18-yard touchdown reception. Berry ended the day with 9 completions for a game-high 95 yards.
"I thought the game went well on both sides of the ball," Berry said. "We still need to make a lot of improvements though. We all plan on working hard this summer and we believe we are going to be pretty good. I'm going to get in the weight room and improve my arm strength and then watch a lot of film. I think those two things are vital to my success as a quarterback."
Midway through the second quarter, the Blue team struck again. Sophomore quarterback Jackson Brown connected with Breyon Jones over the middle, racking up 65 yards. On the next play, Brown scrambled to the left sideline for a gain of 13 yards. Two plays later, Reynaldo Brathwaite broke into the endzone on a 4-yard run, giving the Blue team 14-0 lead.
On the White team's second drive of the second half, Todd Mortensen drove the Whites down field with a run of 17 yards and a completion to Toby Christensen for 24 more. After back-to-back runs by Thomas Stancil, Mortensen called his own number and gained 7 more yards. On 2-and-3 from the 8-yard line, Mortensen found senior fullback Kyle Wilson in the flat for an 8-yard touchdown reception, cutting the Blue lead to 14-7.
"I thought Todd did a nice job on that drive," head coach Gary Crowton said. "He was able to go in there, drive the offense down field and get the White team in the endzone."
With the Blue team looking to even things up, the Blue squad came up with some big defensive plays. On the day, the Blues recorded 9 sacks, including 4 sacks in the fourth quarter alone. Bockwoldt led the defense with two sacks on the afternoon.
"This game was a lot of fun. Everybody was in on making tackles today," Tanner said. "As a defense, we want to have a lot of gang tackles and have everyone being active and around the ball. We want to cause some turnovers this year, and we were
able to cause a few today. That is what our defense needs to be all about."
All totaled, the Blue squad was credited with 41 plays for 232 yards, averaging 5.7 yards per play. The White team had 52 plays for 157 yards, registering 3.01 yards per play. While Berry was the leading passer for the Blues, Mortensen led the White team with 69 yards on 5-of-8 attempts. Beck finished the day with 5 completions for 57 yards.
Jones was the leading receiver for the Blue team with 2 completions for 70 yards. Both Chris Hale and Kukahiko had a team-high 3 receptions. For the White team, Smith was the leading receiver with 3 receptions for 50 yards.
Brathwaite led the Blue squad with 4 carries for 37 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown run. Thomas Stancil was the White team's leading ball carrier, totaling 40 yards on 8 carries.
With Spring ball now in the books, the team will take a few days off to prepare for final exams, take a break from football, and get geared up for the 2003 season.
"I am giving the guys a week off from lifting and conditioning to make sure they are focusing on their studies," Crowton said. "We want to make sure our guys are in great shape through the spring and summer. After this little break, we'll come back and work hard in the weight room and with our conditioning. We're excited for the upcoming season, and we want to make sure we do everything in the off-season to be prepared."
BLUE STATS
Rushing Att. Gain Lost Net TD Long
R. Brathwaite 4 37 0 37 1 29
F. Vakapuna 3 17 1 16 0 11
M. Berry 1 8 0 8 0 8
M. Whalen 6 11 6 5 0 5
C. Holder 1 5 0 5 0 5
J. Brown 4 13 14 -1 0 13
Team 1 0 1 -1 0 0
Passing Att. Comp. Int. Yds. TD Long
M. Berry 16 9 1 95 1 30
J. Brown 4 2 0 69 0 65
Receiving No. Yds. TD Long
B. Jones 2 70 0 65
M. Hansen 1 30 0 30
J. Kukahiko 3 32 1 18
D. Coates 1 14 0 14
C. Hale 3 12 0 7
A. Aiono 1 6 0 6
Punting No. Yds. Avg. Long
M. Payne 3 157 52.3 54
Defense UT AT TFL/YDS PBU QBH SACK
J. Brandon 3 1 0/0 0 1 0
J. Gilford 0 0 0/0 1 0 0
C. Hodgkisss 3 1 0/0 0 0 0
Q. Gooch 3 2 0/0 0 0 0
M. Alba 0 1 0/0 0 0 0
J. Couch 2 2 0/0 0 0 0
A. Farris 2 0 0/0 0 0 0
J. Burbidge 1 2 0/0 0 0 0
R. Campbell 0 0 0/0 1 0 0
N. DiPadova 3 1 1/6 0 0 1.5
M. Tanner 1 1 0/0 0 0 1
C. Stevens 0 0 0/0 0 1 0
C. Bockwoldt 3 0 1/3 0 2 2
B. Poppinga 1 3 1/2 0 0 0
J. Williams 0 1 0/0 0 0 0
J. Carlson 0 1 0/0 0 0 .5
WHITE STATS
Rushing Att. Gain Lost Net TD Long
T. Stancil 8 40 0 40 0 10
N. Tahi 5 32 3 29 0 26
T. Mortensen 4 24 10 14 0 17
E. Watterson 2 6 0 6 0 6
J. Beck 8 0 58 -58 0 0
Passing Att. Comp. Int. Yds. TD Long
T. Mortensen 8 5 0 69 1 24
J. Beck 17 5 0 57 0 23
Receiving No. Yds. TD Long
M. Smith 3 50 0 23
T.Christensen 2 27 0 24
B. Cooper 2 18 0 11
J. Jory 1 13 0 13
A. Hadfield 1 10 0 10
K. Wilson 1 8 1 8
Punting No. Yds. Avg. Long
T. Dunham 6 247 41.6 49
Defense UT AT TFL/YDS PBU QBH SACK
C. Barney 1 1 0/0 1 0 0
L. Madarieta 2 2 1/5 0 0 .5
J. Meibos 3 2 0/0 0 1 .5
K. Nielsen 2 2 0/0 0 0 0
N. Soleberg 1 2 0/0 0 0 0
A. Francisco 1 1 0/0 0 0 0
B. Atkinson 1 2 1/1 0 0 0
B. Carlson 1 0 1/1 0 0 0
B. Wright 1 2 0/0 0 1 0
S. Nua 1 0 0/0 1 0 0
K.C. Bills 2 0 0/0 0 0 0
D. Marquardt 2 0 1/1 0 0 0
N. Kolbaba 1 0 0/0 0 0 1