Purple beats Gold in Husky Spring Game

A crowd of roughly 15,000 turned out for the first Friday Night Lights spring game in Washington’s history and saw quite a bit of defense with a little offense sprinkled in. While they were entertained with several contests between Husky coaches and students, they also saw the Purple beat the Gold (white) team 14-13.

Freshman Nick Montana, the Purple Team quarterback, led the way from a statistical standpoint. While he was shaky early on, he appeared to settle down completing 21 of 34 passes for 156 yards with two touchdowns, one a 31-yard touchdown to walk-on TE Marek Domanski as well as the final score, a two-yard strike to WR Luther Leonard for the winning touchdown.

Overall, the night was dominated by the defense including two interceptions, one coming on the goal line when CB Vonzell McDowell stepped in front of WR James Johnson to intercept a pass from QB Keith Price and then CB Anthony Boyles nabbed a pass from Montana and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown.

“I’m definitely feeling a lot more comfortable,” a smiling Boyles said afterwards. “It felt good. Is it my coming out party? I think so, yeah. I feel a lot more comfortable now. I set my schedule up to revolve around football so I can study film more and that’s what has really helped me a lot.”

Jake Locker played sparingly in the second half, but did lead the Huskies to the first score of the night, a one-yard plunge by freshman RB Deontae Cooper, who carried the load for the Gold squad.

Demetrius Bronson was the workhorse for the Purple team, carrying it 11 times for 73 yards while also hauling in one reception for 10 more yards.

Freshman LB Victor Burnett led the way in tackles with eight, followed by Cort Dennison who posted seven tackles and a sack on the night. Boyles, who had the pick-six, also managed to post six tackles and picked up a Cole Sager fumble that he returned 10 yards setting up Cooper’s touchdown.

“Overall, I thought it went well,” WR James Johnson said. “I think we really progressed as a team. We’re a lot closer. I feel like I can call these guys my brothers and that’s exciting. Now that we’ve been doing this for a full year and guys are feeling comfortable, I think we have a chance to take that next step this offseason and keep getting better and gelling as a team so we can come out and play well starting in September.”

Washington’s coaching staff will now head out on the road for the start of the May Evaluation Period of the recruiting calendar while the players will continue to workout on their own and with the strength and conditioning staff.

As a reminder, there is less than 100 days until the start of fall camp and 126 days until the Huskies take on BYU in Provo, Utah to kick off the season.

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Final Stats

Passing
Locker – 3 of 7 for 15 yards
Price – 4 of 9 for 38 yards and one interception
Montana – 21 of 34 for 156 yards, two touchdowns and one interception


Rushing
Bronson – 11 carries for 73 yards
Fogerson – 8 carries for 51 yards
Cooper – 13 carries for 30 yards and one touchdown
Price – 5 carries for 20 yards
Locker – 3 carries for 9 yards
Sager – 6 carries for 11 yards
Montana – 2 carries for 0 yards


Receiving
Polk – 7 receptions for 46 yards
Chandler – 5 receptions for 32 yards
Johnson – 4 receptions for 31 yards
Leonard – 4 receptions for 27 yards
Aguilar – 2 receptions for 16 yards
Barnett – 2 receptions for 12 yards
Middleton – 1 reception for 6 yards
Domanski – 1 reception for 31 yards
Bronson – 1 reception for 10 yards
Sager – 1 reception for –2 yards


Tackles/Defense
Burnett – 8 tackles, 1 forced fumble
Dennison – 7 tackles, 1 sack
Boyles – 6 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, 1 interception (TD)
Houston – 5 tackles
Fellner – 5 tackles
Logan – 5 tackles
Ta’amu – 5 tackles
Wallace – 5 tackles
Walker – 5 tackles
Duncan – 4 tackles
Matthews – 3 tackles
Tucker – 3 tackles
Glenn – 3 tackles
Galbraith – 3 tackles
Robinson – 3 tackles
Long – 2 tackles
Tokolahi – 2 tackles
Gobern – 2 tackles
Crichton – 2 tackles, 1 sack
Shamburger – 2 tackles
McDowell – 2 tackles
Foster – 2 tackles
Follmer – 2 tackles, 1 sack
Elisara – 1 tackle
Williams – 1 tackle
Richardson – 1 tackle
Remington – 1 tackle