A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2022
SPORTS
OREGON STATE FOOTBALL
Defense dominates Beavers’ first scrimmage
BY LES GEHRETT
Albany Democrat-Herald
Through the first two weeks
of fall camp, the Oregon State
defense seemed to be a step
ahead of the offense. That
impression was confirmed
on Saturday, Aug. 13 when
the Beaver defense kept the
offense out of the end zone
throughout an approximately
90-minute scrimmage at Reser
Stadium.
The defensive effort in-
cluded a goal-line stand.
Quarterback Tristan Gebbia
had connected with tight end
J.T. Byrne on a 30-yard pass
to put the offense just outside
the goal line. But the defense
stopped runs on first and sec-
ond downs and forced an in-
completion on third down. A
fourth-down rushing attempt
by Isaiah Newell was stopped
for no gain.
“They got us down to the
2-yard line and it was just that
bend, don’t break mentality.
They’re not in until they’re in.
Just keep fighting. That’s what
you saw there,” said redshirt
junior linebacker John Mc-
Cartan.
Coach Jonathan Smith
and his staff set up the scrim-
mage to give a lot of players
the opportunity to take part.
The first round of the scrim-
mage began with the offense
at its own 25-yard line. Quar-
terback Chance Nolan went
out with the first unit and
put together a short drive
highlighted by a catch and
run by Tyjon Lindsey for 21
yards. The drive ended with
a 49-yard-field goal attempt,
which both Everett Hayes and
Atticus Sappington missed.
That was Hayes’ last miss of
the day. He later connected on
field goals from 41, 50, 35 and
24 yards.
Gebbia led the second drive
of the day, which ended with
the defense stuffing a rushing
attempt on a fourth-and-1.
Later in the scrimmage the
offense once again faced a
fourth-and-1. The coaches
called on Deshaun Fenwick
and the redshirt junior gained
the first down.
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Head coach Jonathan Smith observes Oregon State Beavers football
practice in Corvallis, Oregon on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022.
Fenwick had a few carries
and Trey Lowe saw a little bit
of action, but it was a fairly
light day for the team’s most
experienced backs. Instead,
the coaches gave opportuni-
ties to freshman Damien Mar-
tinez, redshirt junior Kanoa
Shannon and Newell, a red-
shirt freshman. Jake Reichle, a
true freshman from Lake Os-
wego, also saw some action.
“We’re rotating those backs,”
Smith said. “Just give them
some chances. We’ve still got
a good amount of camp left
to see how they go. Trey will
be in that mix and Deshaun.
Damien had some good car-
ries and Newell’s coming on.”
Nolan, Gebbia and Ben
Gulbranson took turns lead-
ing the offense and true fresh-
men Travis Throckmorton
and Dom Montiel also had
opportunities during the
scrimmage. During the sec-
ond round of the scrimmage
the offense started at its own
40-yard line and for the final
phase the offense got the ball
at the opposing 25.
Throckmorton threw the
first interception of the day
when he was forced out of
the pocket and tried to make
a throw down the sideline.
Sophomore defensive back
Skyler Thomas made a leap-
ing catch and came down in
bounds to create the turnover.
Redshirt freshman defen-
sive back Jack Kane later had
an interception on a throw
from Gulbranson.
But turnovers weren’t the
offense’s primary issue. Several
drives were stymied by penal-
ties as the offense repeatedly
put itself in third-and-long sit-
uations.
Smith said those struggles
were not unexpected in a first
scrimmage and after going
back and reviewing the tape,
the team will focus on clean-
ing up problems which were
revealed in the scrimmage.
The team will have Sunday
off and then return to prac-
tice on Monday. The second
scrimmage of training camp
will be held on Saturday. The
team will open the season at
home against Boise State on
Sept. 3.
Notes: Redshirt junior re-
ceiver Jesiah Irish had three
catches for good yardage.
His best play may have been
on a fourth-and-10 when he
caught a pass from Gebbia
and broke a tackle for a 17-
yard gain. ... Starting tight end
Luke Musgrave saw limited
duty in the scrimmage. Byrne
and redshirt freshman Car-
ter Neuman took advantage
of their opportunities and
had multiple receptions. ...
Throckmorton bounced back
from his interception to lead a
solid drive which resulted in a
35-yard field goal. The fresh-
man’s best throw on the drive
came on a 28-yard completion
to redshirt freshman Jeremiah
Noga.
OREGON FOOTBALL
Offense wins early, defense late in Ducks’ scrimmage
BY JAMES CREPEA
oregonlive.com
EUGENE — The Oregon
Ducks’ offense had the early
advantage and the defense
took over late during the
team’s first scrimmage of fall
camp.
That’s the assessment of
first-year coach Dan Lanning
from his team’s eighth pre-
season practice, the second
in full pads and UO’s first
scrimmage Saturday at Aut-
zen Stadium.
“Good first scrimmage,”
Lanning said. “I thought the
competition was high. Of-
fense really moved the ball
early on, had some early suc-
cess. Our defense had two
big stops in two-minute that
was impressive on their side.
... It’s good to see the yin and
yang, but plenty to clean up
on both sides.”
The quarterbacks had
similar performances, with
each leading scoring drives
and two throwing intercep-
tions, according to Lanning.
At least one of those coming
during the opening series of
a two-minute drill in a must-
throw situation on a fourth
down, which safety Bennett
Williams intercepted.
“If you have one turnover,
that’s one too many,” Lanning
No clear leader in Oregon QB competition
BY JAMES CREPEA
oregonlive.com
EUGENE — Oregon Ducks’ quarterbacks
had similar performances during the team’s
first scrimmage of fall camp, and through a
week of preseason practice, there isn’t a clear
leader in coach Dan Lanning’s assessment.
Bo Nix, Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield
all continue to vie for the starting job, though
Nix is widely viewed as the favorite since he has
three years of starting experience at Auburn
and outperformed his younger teammates
during the spring game.
Following the closed scrimmage on Satur-
day, Aug. 13 at Autzen Stadium, Lanning said
each quarterback led scoring drives, two threw
interceptions and he didn’t know if any had
separated himself from the group after eight
practices in fall camp.
“I think everybody’s had shining moments
said. “On the same note our
goal on defense is to be plus-
three every game.”
There were also some ex-
plosive plays, though Lan-
ning didn’t detail who was
on the receiving end, and
each of the five scholarship
running backs had opportu-
nities.
He said it wasn’t only the
second- and third-team de-
fenses, which have far less
experienced secondaries, that
and I don’t think there’s one that separated
themselves out from the other,” Lanning said. “I
think there’s certainly room from improvement
for each one of those guys and they’ve all had
really good moments and they’ve had all had
really poor moments. Again, I’ll say this, I feel
really confident we have quarterbacks we can
win with which is a big positive. ...
“I like to know that you have multiple quar-
terbacks that you feel really good about and
that’s where I’m at right now, is I feel really
good about that.”
Nix has worked with first-team offensive
players during the early periods of practice so
far in camp, while Thompson has worked with
first- and second-team players and Butterfield
has worked behind them. But that rotation
could change after the initial periods that have
been opening for viewing, none of which have
included so much as 7-on-7 passing drills.
gave up big plays.
“I thought our offense did
a good job with our tempo
and created some issues,”
Lanning said. “We’ve got to
get better at that on the de-
fensive side of the ball. ... I
think the offense had the up-
per hand in moments. There
were some explosive plays,
but certainly not just against
the two group or the one
group, it was really collec-
tively across the board. We
got to get better there. What
I was excited to see is I didn’t
see as many mental busts
and errors. The majority of
our errors came because of
the chaos that we created for
ourselves, not necessarily be-
cause of the players making
mistakes.”
Lanning said the scrim-
mage was “relatively clean”
in terms of penalties. Also,
special teams did go live to
get the first true assessments
of new punters Adam Barry
and Ross James, and new
kickers Andrew Boyle and
Alex Bales.
“I thought, overall, our
punters did a good job of
punting,” Lanning said.
“We didn’t get as many field
goals in this scrimmage as
I wanted to. We probably
could’ve done a better job of
working those in earlier in
practice, but when we did
they hit some big kicks there
at the end.”
Lanning wouldn’t address
whether injured offensive
linemen T.J. Bass, Malaes-
ala Aumavae-Laulu, Faaope
Laloulu or Kawika Rogers
participated on Saturday.
Asked specifically who
played on the left side of the
offensive line, Lanning said,
the Ducks had “a couple of
guys shuffling over there.”
Bass and Steven Jones ordi-
narily play on the left side,
but freshmen Dave Iuli and
Josh Conerly Jr. have been
seeing reps during the early
periods of practice.
Oregon will resume prac-
tice next week with a second
scrimmage next Saturday
that will serve as one of the
last major opportunities for
players to make moves on the
depth chart.
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