April 27, 2002
Magnolia, Ark.—The Gold team scored 10 fourth quarter points to come from behind to defeat the Blue in the annual Blue-Gold game that finalized spring practice at Southern Arkansas University Saturday. Trailing 10-7 going into the final quarter, the Gold rallied for a 17-7 decision over their rival teammates.
On the next-to-last play of the third period, Gold quarterback Ted Williams passed to wide receiver Nik Lewis for 46 yards to the Blue seven. On the second play of the fourth quarter, Williams kept for a touchdown and Tommy Latoof kicked the extra point to put the Gold ahead 14-10.
After stopping the Blue in the next series, the Gold got the ball back at their 32 and drove to the Blue 21. From that point, Latoof booted a 38-yard field goal for insurance, making it 17-10 with only 51 seconds remaining in the game.
The Gold took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter (each of the four periods were seven minutes). The game opened with an exchange of downs before the Gold opened the scoring after starting at their own 13. Passes from Williams to tight end Ryan Baker for 24 ands and to Lewis for 30 and 14 yards were the big plays in moving the ball to the Blue 10. At that point, fullback Darrell Williams fumbled with Blue defensive back Charles Rollins recovering at the 11 to momentarily halt the Gold.
After a penalty on the Blue that moved them back to the four, quarterback Donald Butler fumbled on a tackle by lineman Roy Stewart and linebacker Tim Rose took the ball into the end zone from the three. Latoof converted the Gold to a 7-0 advantage.
The Blue’s wasted little time in getting even. From their 37, freshman quarterback Damian Melancon kept for 22 yards before hitting wide receivers Matthew Dyson for eight yards and Edwin Skipper for 23 yards to the Gold 10. A penalty on the Gold for holding gave the Blue’s a fresh set of downs on the five. Freshman fullback Brandon Nightingale blasted up the middle for the final four yards. Latoof, who kicked for both sides, drilled the PAT, 7-7.
The half ended deadlocked, but the Blues surged ahead in the third stanza. Starting at their 20, Melancon passed to Dyson for 30 yards to move the ball to midfield. A few plays later, Melancon fired complete to Skipper for 23 yards to the Gold 27. On fourth and one at the 18, Latoof came on to pump a 37-yard field goal through the uprights to give the Blue team a 10-7 lead.
That is when the Gold’s bounced back for the win.
The Gold team had a 13-5 advantage in first downs and a slim 59-56 edge in net rushing, indicating how both defenses dominated the opposing ground game. In the air, the Gold had a 149-85 margin in passing yards, hitting seven of 13 passing compared to five of 12 for the Blue. In total net yards, the Gold had 208 and the Blue had 141 yards. The Gold had two turnovers, an interception and fumble, while the Blue team had none. The Gold was penalized three times for 39 yards and the Blue five times for 38 yards.
Spring practice awards went to fullback Darrell Williams for work in the weight room, offensive lineman Bill Parker, quarterback Donald Butler and defensive end Andrekus Dixon won hustle awards, offensive lineman Nick Wright and defensive back Charles Rollins were rewarded as being most improved and fullback Larnelle Sinegal and defensive back Carl Bucknor won awards for most improved.
Mulerider head coach Steve Quinn had this to say about spring practice at SAU: “I was really very pleased during the spring game with the effort that our kids gave. They have been giving a great effort and our intensity has been real good throughout the spring. The thing that pleased me most was the way we competed against each other and also the fact that our execution was a little better than I thought it would be going into the spring game. I thought we did a good job of working on our kicking game and our kicking game execution was pretty good. I was really pleased with Tommy Latoof’s consistency as our kicker who handled both our punting and kicking duties.”
He continued “I really thought (wide receiver) Nik Lewis really showed himself as a good playmaker for us as a kind of guy we can really count on. I was pleased with the quarterbacks on both sides, Damian Melancon and Ted Williams. I thought they did some things awfully well and really our defensive effort was excellent because of the way we ran to the football.”
He added “I thought that our guys were very physical on defense and we were able to make some plays defensively. Overall, I was extremely pleased with the way the game went. I was very glad to be able to get in a lot of game-type situations the way we did the scrimmage this year and overall, it turned out to be a real good day for us. I’m very pleased with where we are right now. It’s just going to be a question of whether or not we are going to be able to build on what we’ve got going.”