GBI Express

Gold & Black Express: Vol 24, EX 27

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GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 27 • 8 And it was evident, as Rus- sell simply dominated Tretter all day. Most of Etling's four sacks were with Russell providing that pocket-collapsing pressure. That kind of mismatch may have boosted Russell's day — and that of the Gold team's D- line, especially Jalani Phillips — but it also severely hampered the quarterbacks' play and any evaluation of the position. Not that this spring game format lends itself to much eval- uation anyway. While most Big Ten coaches opt to go with either a 1s vs. 1s or practice approach for the final day of spring, Hazell wanted his players to have "fun." So he had them do a draft earlier in the week — seniors were split and picked the rest of the teams — and made trades later to fill the holes in those rosters. (The Black team had only two healthy line- backers; the Gold only four of- fensive linemen.) But with a low-scoring game that had few big plays, it was a mostly low-key afternoon. At least the second half of- fered a bit of drama. On the final play of the third quarter, Danny Anthrop found himself thanking the strong south wind. When David Blough's pass dropped out of the air — or more like was knocked down, per Anthrop — it fell perfectly into Anthrop's arms for a 41-yard touchdown. It was the game's longest play, the only one that satisfied Hazell's pre-game "go deep" qualification, and it gave the Black team a 7-6 lead. It was Blough's final play of the game after he switched sides — playing for the Gold in the second quarter and the Black in the third. "That play, I think, (I was the) second or third in the read. Da- vid Blough made a good play," Anthrop said. "He had to scram- ble around a little bit. I was on the left side, and we are usually supposed to stay in the middle. But when the QB moves around, it allows us to work with that a little bit. It was the same play I scored with Appleby against Iowa (last season). So it's got a good history." But with a running clock to start the fourth quarter, Etling made sure to let his Gold team know the objective before it took the field: Drain the clock- and finish the game with the game-winning score. The group nearly executed that order to perfection. The Gold team mounted a 12-play drive — the game's lon- gest — and ran nine minutes, 12 seconds off the clock, capping the drive with Keyante Green's four-yard touchdown run. On the drive, Green had 27 yards on six carries and Akeem Hunt had a 14-yard run. Etling completed 3-of-4 passes for 25 yards, all of the short variety and a pair to Hunt. "We had a couple of things we had seen them doing that we really liked. There was a couple times I saw them bringing pres- sure, so I was able to change out what we wanted to do with the receivers," Etling said of the last drive. "We had some great runs by Keyante. We had some great blocking by the offensive line. "When we got down there toward the end, we definitely started to get more and more confidence and I knew we could punch it in if we just flipped the play we just ran last time (prior to TD). We talked to coaches. I told them that, and we got it in, so it was good." Though the drive was exten- sive, it still left 2:38 on the clock for the Black team to counter. It couldn't. Appleby threw the ball deep to reserve receiver Aloyis Gray, who had his hands on the ball before being stripped in the air by Anthony Brown. Brown made an acrobatic play to secure the ball while falling to the ground, completing the interception and sealing the victory. j Tom Campbell Anthony Brown was "questionable" with an injury leading into the game, but he apparently was healthy enough to make one of its biggest plays. After his Gold team got the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter, Brown stripped away a ball from receiver Aloyis Gray in the air and somehow maintained possession while falling to the ground for the interception.

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