Oregon State defense makes more plays in the second scrimmage of the spring

By Cliff Kirkpatrick

Gazette-Times Reporter

Scrimmage No. 2 of spring practice was a little more evenly matched between the Oregon State football team's offense and defense.

The Beavers conducted another 100-play, or so, workout that featured 16 drives Friday afternoon in Reser Stadium. There were five passing touchdowns, two field goals, two interceptions and two fumbles lost.

Last week's scrimmage was dominated by the offense so much that red flags popped up about the defense. The Rodgers brothers weren't even involved, being held out of contact in the spring to save them for the fall.

This time the defense stopped the offense on the first two drives and only allowed a field goal by Justin Kahut on the third drive.

"I think we played really well today, definitely a step forward from last week," linebacker Keaton Kristick said. "We had a lot of energy out there. The first couple series, we gave it to them. The offense was a little hurt."

The offense then settled down and fought for its productive day passing.

Quarterback Sean Canfield completed 15 of 21 for 271 yards and four touchdowns. Two were to Darrell Catchings, one to Damola Adeniji and one to Jovan Stevenson.

Catchings remains the top receiver. He grabbed seven passes for 172 yards. Jordan Bishop and Adeniji performed well at times.

"There was some really good aggressive defense, particularly early on in the scrimmage with the (first string)," coach Mike Riley said. "I like the looks of that. And there was some good play making going on."

Cameron Collins and Anthony Watkins intercepted passes. Collins saved a TD, picking off Ryan Katz in the end zone. Watkins took advantage of a tipped pass of Justin Engstrom's.

Only one long pass for a touchdown was allowed when Canfield found Catchings on a 70-yard play. The long TD pass was a trend last week.

"It seemed like it, but we still gave up some big plays," Riley said of the improved pass defense. "We are making more big plays both ways. I think it's good for both sides to learn how to make those plays and do a better job defending them."

Running the ball remains problematic, or you could say the defense does a good job stopping the run. Third-stringer Jordan Jenkins carried nine times for 53 yards.

Stevenson was the most productive ball carrier with 33 rushing yards on 10 carries and five receptions. The greyshirt freshman is developing into a reliable third-down back and pushing backup Ryan McCants for playing time in the fall.

McCants carried 11 times for 29 yards, and fumbled twice. He recovered the ball once and the second ended the drive on fourth down.

"Overall, it was very hard to run, and that's a good sign with what we want to do defensively," Riley said.

Another issue was penalties, which weren't a problem last week. There were six holding penalties, two for pass interference and a facemask call.

"The aggressiveness and the speed of the defense caused the holding," Riley said. "We just told (the officials) to officiate the game like they normally would and protect the quarterback. Overall, it was pretty realistic. There are a lot of things we have to clean up there."

The Beavers have practices next week Monday and Wednesday. They end spring practice with the spring game at 12:15 p.m. on May 2 in Reser Stadium.

That's the final test to see where the offense and defense are at heading into training camp, which begins Aug. 10.

"The defense is stepping up, and the offense is stepping up too," Catchings said. "We all still have a lot to work on, but it's early."