Big-play defense sparks White team to 23-7 win over Red squad in Nicholls Spring Game

A big-play defense helped lead the White team to a 23-7 win over the Red team on Wednesday night at Guidry Stadium in the Spring Game to conclude spring practice for the Nicholls football team.

White team linebacker Eli Ennis returned an interception for a touchdown and defensive back Tyler Morton had a long interception return to set up another score.

In a game that featured two, 12-minute quarters in the opening half and two, 15-minute running time quarters in the second half, the only scoring in the early portion of the contest was a 41-yard field goal by Gabe Showalter to conclude the opening drive for the White team.

The Red squad had first-and-10 at its own 20-yard line with 1:33 left in the second quarter when Ennis picked off an ill-advised throw by Red team quarterback Pat McQuaide and returned for a touchdown and a 10-0 lead for the White team.

“It was man (coverage) and then I attached to him (the Red team receiver), and I just looked, and the quarterback was kind of covered up. I guess he didn’t really see me there. He threw it right to me. I had nothing but green grass and went in and scored,” Ennis said.

“I thought he was in the right place at the right time like he’s been all spring. And Pat made an ill-advised throw, and he took advantage of it. It was down there close to the end zone, and he walked in, so it was good to see the defense step up,” Nicholls coach Tim Rebowe said of Ennis’ interception.

On the ensuing possession, Morton came up with a tip-drill interception and raced down to the Red team’s 15-yard line. Three plays later, White team quarterback Jakob Foss hit Xavier Jupiter on a 4-yard touchdown toss with 9.5 seconds left in the first half.

“I think that was big just because it was kind of hard moving the ball and then right there before half, we got it in plus territory and we were able to capitalize off of it,” Ennis said of Morton’s interception.

“I thought the defense had a good spring,” said Rebowe. “Those guys picked up right where they left off, really rallying and running into the ball. I thought overall the effort tonight was really good.”

A penalty by the Red team on the conversion attempt caused the White team to elect to try for a two-point conversion, which failed, leaving the White team with a 16-0 halftime lead.

The Red team went on a time-consuming drive to open the second half that was played with running time.

The biggest play of the scrimmage came when the Red team’s Terry Matthews hauled in a pass from quarterback Ean Rodrigue. It appeared Matthews might have been dropped for a loss, but he reversed field and raced 28 yards down to the White team’s 33-yard line.

On second-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Rodrigue ran left for the touchdown to make the score 16-7 at the 6:08 mark of the third quarter.

“We put a good drive together. We were able to run the ball, we were able to throw the ball. We worked together as a team and it all came together and that’s what happens when you work together good,” Rodrigue said.

The only other score in the game came on a 15-yard pass from quarterback Christian Arceneaux to Jackson Dufrene to extend the White team’s lead to 23-7 with 2:35 left in the game.

Although a few penalties were called down the stretch, both sides executed well in terms of limited mistakes. The first penalty of the game was not called until the 1:55 mark of the first half.

“We talk about pre-snap penalties a lot, that we want to limit those and minimize those. I thought we did that. We might have had one false-start penalty,” said Rebowe.

The game also featured the team substituting freely rather than going with first and second units for each squad.

“We were limited in our numbers,” Rebowe said. “We had some guys that were out. We had some guys that missed spring because of surgeries. We had a couple of sickness guys that didn’t get to play, so you are limited in the numbers.

“In certain positions we were just rotating guys the whole game trying to keep everybody fresh. We wanted everybody to play. We had 14 good days of Spring, and we wanted them to enjoy that tonight.”

Those 14 days showed the defending Southland Conference champions return an experienced, dedicated group, according to Rebowe.

“It showed that we had some veteran guys, some guys that came back that played a bunch of snaps for us last year. They understand what it takes to be successful,” the Nicholls coach said. “They understand the work ethic, they understand the discipline that it takes to get to where we want to get to, and then they want a little bit more. So I thought that was good. I thought the leadership by those guys that have been around was good.

“Even though we had that, we started spring ball with the basics and to start over. We really kind of kept it simple all through spring. I think we had some guys step up at other key positions. We had to find a couple of receivers. We’ve got to find a couple more defensive backs. The d-line, we found some guys that stepped up so really, really pleased with the overall progress.”