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Holtz chalks up first
spring game as mixed bag
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A crowd of 5,345 showed up at
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday to get a first-hand look at the Skip Holtz
brand of football in East Carolina's annual spring game. What they saw
included notable individual performances and a flareup of worrisome
turnovers and penalties.
Quarterback Davon Drew
fumbled four times, three of which were lost, but summoned up enough
offensive tools to help direct the "East Carolina" squad to a 28-10 win
over the "Pirates" in the scrimmage that served as the climax of Holtz'
first spring drills since being named ECU's head coach.
Drew, a redshirt freshman
from New Bern, completed 14 of 30 passes for 138 yards and a touchdown —
a highlight-reel score by junior wide receiver Aundrae Allison — and
picked up 26 yards on the ground.
The injury bug transformed the way
the scrimmage was orchestrated,
with Holtz assigning the first-team offense and the first-team defense to
opposing sides.
The victorious "East Carolina"
team was made up of the offensive starters and backup members from the
defensive roster.
The defensive starters, called the
"Pirates," were complemented by players drawn from the second, third and
fourth teams of the offensive depth chart.
Holtz noted that he was
pleased that significant injuries were avoided in the game, but
otherwise indicated he viewed the performance as a mixed bag.
"I thought Aundrae Allison
did some good things today," he said. "Robert Tillman, Chris Johnson
also had great individual performances, but at the same time, I find
that we are a long way away from playing a game.
"We had too many turnovers
and way too many penalties and I thought we just did a lot of things to
shoot ourselves in the foot."
Both teams were plagued
with infractions, with "East Carolina" incurring 9 penalties for 80
yards and the "Pirates" being cited with 5 for 103 yards.
"East Carolina" tailback
Chris Johnson topped all rushers with 71 yards on 16 attempts, one of
which went for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Allison, a junior college
transfer, made perhaps the biggest first impression among ECU's
newcomers, compiling 94 receiving yards on five receptions, including
the 30-yard scoring catch from Drew in the first quarter.
The winning team's other
scores came on big defensive plays.
Senior safety Zach Baker
had a 75-yard interception return for a second quarter touchdown and
sophomore cornerback Travis Williams returned a fumble 93 yards for a
touchdown with 1:38 left in the game to pad the final margin.
Junior linebacker Patrick
Dosh also had an interception for "East Carolina," which he returned for
24 yards.
ECU SPRING
GAME BOX SCORE
Pirates
0 3 0 7 - 10
East Carolina 7 7 0 14 - 28
First Quarter:
EC - Allison 39 pass from Drew (Sunday kick)
Second Quarter:
EC - Baker 75 interception return (Sunday kick)
PIR - Sunday 25 field goal
Third Quarter:
No scoring
Fourth Quarter:
EC - C. Johnson 2 run (Sunday kick)
PIR - Burke 1 run (Sunday kick)
EC - T. Williams 93 fumble return (Sunday kick)
TEAM STATISTICS
PIR EC
First Downs
18 16
Net Rushing
29-107 33-110
Net Passing
236 147
Passes Att-Comp-Int 51-26-2
32-15-0
Total Offense
80-343 65-257
Fumble Returns
0-0 1-93
Punt Returns
0-0 0-0
Kickoff Returns
0-0 0-0
Interception Returns
0-0 2-99
Punting
0-0.0 0-0.0
Fumbles-Lost
1-1 4-3
Penalties
9-80 5-103
Possession Time
32:05 27:55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:
RUSHING: PIR - Pinkney 4-41; Burke 11-31; Shankweiler 7-19; Burley 6-14;
Bland 1-2. EC - C. Johnson 16-71; Drew 13-26; Shankweiler 2-7; Tillman
2-6.
PASSING: PIR - Shankweiler 14-30-1-177; Pinkney 12-21-1-59. EC - Drew
14-30-0-138; Shankweiler 1-2-0-9.
RECEIVING: PIR - Henry
6-55; Staton 5-27; Bland 4-13; Burley 3-12; Burke 2-74; Crowell 2-17;
Hickman 1-14; Rogers 1-11; Pender 1-7; Bowling 1-6. EC - Allison 5-94;
Tillman 3-11; Howard 2-15; Sonnhalter 2-11; C. Johnson 2-8; Roach 1-8.
Attendance: 5345
Compiled from Bonesville.net
staff and
ECU Athletics reports.
Page updated:
02/23/07 11:31 AM
An
ECU Athletics press release was used in
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