Football Completes Second Spring Scrimmage
April 17, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Oregon State completed its second football scrimmage of the spring on Saturday at Reser Stadium and Beaver head coach Dennis Erickson was very pleased with the results.
"I thought it was a very good scrimmage," said Erickson. "The intensity level and the hitting out there was as good as we have had since I have been here. Our defense played very well at times and offensively I thought we had a good performance, especially with our first unit."
OSU's first unit offense continue to sparkle behind veteran quarterback Jonathan Smith. Playing against the No. 1 defensive unit, Smith drove the offense 65 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown in the first of the scrimmage with Ken Simonton scoring from one-yard out.
Smith then watched from the sidelines until very late in the scrimmage and then he returned to lead the No. 1 offense down the field once again. The No. 1 offense reached the 8-yard line and had first and goal. Simonton ran 6 yards to the 2-yard line. Simonton got 1 yard on second down and was stopped cold on third down and Smith threw incomplete, attempting to hit tight end Martin Maurer on fourth down, otherwise the No. 1 offense would have had a near perfect day.
"We caught the ball well today and I think Jonathan Smith keeps getting better and better all the time just through experience," said Erickson. "It was a good scrimmage. I like where we are at right now, but we need to continue to improve. We need to have some players continue to get better, but it certainly was a good scrimmage for the halfway mark of spring."
Junior Nick Stremick directed the No. 2 offensive unit for a pair of scores. Stremick marched the second unit 65 yards in 6 plays as David Swopes ran the final 6 yards for a touchdown.
Stremick then moved the offense 59 yards in 9 plays to produce a 22-yard field goal by Kirk Yliniemi.
Simonton was very impressive running the football, picking up 51 yards on 12 carries, plus he caught 2 passes for another 16 yards. Antonio Battle ran well, gaining 56 yards on 16 carries.
Smith completed 6 of 9 passes for 77 yards. Stremick completed 10 of 12 passes for 111 yards and was intercepted one time. Tyler Thomas completed 7 of 13 passes for 74 yards and redshirt freshman Shayne House completed 6 of 12 passes for 60 yards and he threw one interception.
Bo Marthaller and Terrell Roberts had the interceptions.
The defensive line was able to put plenty of pressure on the backup quarterbacks as Thomas was sacked four times and House was sacked twice.
James Newson topped the receivers with 5 catches for 63 yards. All told, 15 different receivers caught passes for OSU during the scrimmage, including all five tight ends.
Tailback Patrick McCall did not participate in Saturday' scrimmage as he was out of action with an ankle sprain. McCall is expected back for the Beavers' next scrimmage, which will be at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday at Reser Stadium.
The Beavers got out of Saturday's scrimmage without sustaining any additional injuries.
OSU's last scrimmage will be the spring game on Saturday, April 29, starting at 1:00 p.m. at Reser Stadium.
SCORING SUMMARY:
Ken Simonton 9 run (Ryan Cesca PAT)
David Swopes 6 run (No PAT attempted)
Kirk Yliniemi 22 FG
STATISTICS
Rushing: (Carries-Yards-TD) Ken Simonton, 12-51-1, Antonio Battle, 16-56-0, Hashim Hall, 11-23-0, David Swopes, 3-8-1, Shayne House, 3-(-18)-0, Tyler Thomas, 6- (-20), Nick Stremick, 1-4-0. Team 52-104-2
Passing: (PA-PC-PI-NYP-TD) Jonathan Smith, 9-6-0-77-0, Nick Stremick, 12-10-1-111-0, Tyler Thomas, 13-7-0-74-0, Shayne House, 12-6-1-60-0. Team 46-29-2-322-0.
Receiving: James Newson, 5-63, Turner Byrd, 2-15, Martin Maurer, 2-28, Bennie Johnson, 1-13, Antonio Battle, 1-2, Mark Walsh, 1-16, Tim Euhus, 1-19, Tyler Ross, 1-9.
