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HomeSportsAPSU Governors Football held Situational Scrimmage Saturday night at Fortera Stadium

APSU Governors Football held Situational Scrimmage Saturday night at Fortera Stadium

APSU Sports Information

APSU Football - Austin Peay State UniversityClarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State football team ran through 94 plays in an hour and a half situational scrimmage Saturday night after a 30-minute weather delay derailed the initial 7:30pm. start time under the lights at Fortera Stadium.

After an evening summer storm swept through the stadium, the Govs hit the turf at 8:00pm and went through a 30-minute warm-up session before starting the scrimmage.

Austin Peay Football goes through ninety-four plays during a situational scrimmage Saturday night. (APSU Sports Information)
Austin Peay Football goes through ninety-four plays during a situational scrimmage Saturday night. (APSU Sports Information)

“We had three touchdowns called back that were long explosive plays. We can’t have that happen during the year and will continue to learn for those mistakes,” head coach Will Healy said. “We’ve had a really good camp offensively, and it was good to see the defense respond today. They gave the offense a taste of their own medicine tonight.”

The first seven plays were 3rd-and-short situations with the first and second teams splitting time.

The first big play of the night came from the defense after the offense was pinned down at the one-yard line when Tyler Schneider and Shaun Whittinghill knifed through the line to record a safety.

After the safety, the Govs’ defense continued to rack up stops after halting the next seven drives including two stops inside the red zone. The first of the two red zone stops came on a bad snap, while the second came to a halt after a fumbled handoff in the backfield.

The offense finally got on the scoreboard after a four-play drive that started on the 20-yard line going into the end zone.  Quarterback Mickey Macius hit Jared Beard on 3rd-and-20 from the 30 yard line for the score. The 30-yard strike was the longest play from scrimmage for the offense through the first 61 plays.  Two other plays had gone for longer including a 75-yard touchdown run by Kryan Moore that was called back on a downfield holding call and a 35-yard touchdown pass called back due to holding.

On the ensuing possession, the Govs’ offense found pay dirt again this time Carlos Walden scampered in from 17 yards out on a 3rd-and-7 play.

The defense stepped up on the next possession and recorded a stop highlighted by a sack from Gunnar Scholato and Antonio Turner on 2nd-and-goal from the nine yard line. Scholato and Turner earned the sack, but it was the coverage of the secondary that caused the loss in yardage.

Enter Derrick James at quarterback for the Govs. James orchestrated an 11-play scoring drive that started at minus 40 yard line.  The offense picked up a pair of third down conversions and a fourth down conversion to keep the drive a live.  James hit Jermer Braswell for a 18-yards on a 3rd-and-3 for 18 yards and connected with Jalen Marsalis for 14 yards on 4th-and-3 from the 18 yard line.  The score came a play later when James ran in from four yards out.

The final possession of the evening started at the 50 yard line and ended four plays later on a Tommy Hays 20-yard strike to Jared Beard in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.  Hays also hit Griffin Wattley for 13 yards and Rashaan Coleman for 12 yards on the drive.  The score ended the 94-play scrimmage for APSU.

“I thought we played the way we are supposed to play on defense, and I thought offensively we finally did what we are supposed to do at the end,” Healy added.  “There was some give and take on both sides of the ball, but I thought the defense played really well tonight with a lot of emotion.”

After the scrimmage, Healy announced a changed in the preseason camp schedule giving the Govs Sunday off from practice.  APSU will take to the turf again on Monday, August 15th at their standard 3:45pm in Fortera Stadium. The Govs will go through seven practice sessions before holding their final scrimmage of the preseason and ending camp on Saturday, August 20th at 2:45pm.

Want to track the Govs during the preseason? Just follow the #PreseasonGovs hashtag on Twitter.

Fans can also follow all the action from the 2016-17 season on www.LetsGoPeay.com, on Twitter @LetsGoPeay & @AustinPeayFB and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LetsGoPeay.

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