UNK Football: Blue Takes Annual Spring Game, 13-3

Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney football team wrapped up its spring season on Saturday with the Blue managing a 13-3 victory in the annual spring scrimmage. 

The Lopers had 15 workouts over the last 30 days and scrimmaged Division II power Minnesota State last Saturday (April 11) in Iowa. Earlier this week, a draft was heled to divided up the "Blue" and "White" teams with the coaching staff divided up as well.

Per usual in the spring, some key players were held out due to minor ailments and that included All-MIAA selections Carter Klein (Pleasanton) and Parker Wise (Kearney) as well as defensive veterans Kolten Tilford (North Platte) and Tyson Boganowski (Gretna) with the offense able to use three of its five quarterbacks.

"If you watch our team, they play hard and care about each other. They fly around and it's very competitive," said UNK head coach Ryan Held. "We wanted to make sure and get everybody into the game. When you look at all 15 practices, there's things we got better at and things we must fix but we got a lot of reps in."

The game used a normal clock in the first half with the clock running after a 10-minute half. Each team got to advance to ball to the others red zone once in the game with special teams just consisting of a long snapper and a specialist. Finally, QB's were live and a MIAA officiating crew worked the nearly two-hour contest.

Junior newcomer Jayvin Norman (Springfield, Ohio/Eastern Michigan U.) scored the game's only touchdown, scoring five yards out on a pass from senior Abram Scholting (Pierce) early in the second quarter. Junior Trey Prichard (Monument, Colo.) booted field goals of 23 and 25 yards to complete the scoring for the Blue with sophomore transfer Kaden Kiernan (Kansas City/NW Missouri State) hitting a 32-yarder to tally the lone points for the White.

"Our offense has shown good stuff at times and then not good stuff. So, we've got to continue to get that fixed," said Held. "On special teams, this is the best kicking group we've had since I've been here (four years)."

Junior newcomer Quincey Ryker (Sargent/Chadron State) had the game's longest run (20 yards) with Scholting hitting sophomore Zaire LaGrone-Miller (Kearney) for a 30-yard gain in the first half. In the second half for the Blue squad, redshirt sophomore QB Kenneth Smith (Roswell, Ga.) hit senior back Mufasa Stallings (Magnolia, Miss.) for a 33-yard gain.

The White saw junior newcomer Devin Tate (Oxnard, Calif./Ventura College) complete 11 passes and have some nifty moves in the run game with junior receiver Chance Tager (Ft. Bragg, Calif./Shasta College) having three catches and senior back Stone Wilson (Dodge City, Kan.) at nine carries.

"We'll get our grades in and then need to have a good summer," said Held.

On defense for the Blue, veteran safety Jude Joseph (Lafayette, La.) had a last second pick on a ball tipped by corner CJ Felder (Wichita, Kan.). Junior newcomer Timothy Grayson Jr. (Ralph, Ala./Tuskegee U.) was at six tackles with junior backer Caden McGruder (Gardendale, Ala.) at three tackles for loss. Finally for the White team, backer Nolan Venner (Omaha North) had eight stops with young safety Kyler Lauridsen (Bennington) and newcomer Temidayo Odugbemi (Dallas, Ga./SE Missouri State U.) at six tackles apiece.

"I like our defense; they play hard, and we have some really good players," said Held.

 The annual Lopers Backers banquet is this Thursday (April 23) with fall camp set to begin on Monday, Aug. 3.