Defense Steals Show During Second Scrimmage
March 30, 2012
Ft. Myers, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes took the field at Fort Myers’ Bishop Verot High School Friday night for their second scrimmage of the spring. A packed house of 6,500 excited Canes fans was on hand to see the team in person.
Offensive players wore white jerseys, while the defense wore orange jerseys and quarterbacks donned green non-contact jerseys.
The scrimmage started with goal line plays as the offense did their best to punch it in the end zone. After a couple of plays, Mike James scored the first points of the day on a two-yard run. Other than the goal line drills, however, it was the defense that stole the show, only allowing two more touchdowns all night.
Big plays came in bunches for the defense as there were multiple sacks, interceptions and big hits. Freshman cornerback Ladarius Gunter intercepted a Ryan Williams pass in the endzone, and sophomore linebacker Denzel Perryman had two interceptions of his own, one on Williams and another on freshman Gray Crow.
The Canes’ front seven came to play as they notched nine sacks from six different players. Anthony Chickillo recorded two sacks after missing some time due to injury and looked like his usual self. Freshman Dwayne Hoilett had two, and Curtis Porter, Ricardo Williams, Gionni Paul and Perryman each had one. Sacks were whistled by the referees when defensive players reached out to the quarterback since they could not tackle them.
Running back Eduardo Clements felt the wrath of the defensive front as he was tackled for losses by Porter, Raphael Kirby (twice), Olsen Pierre and Darius Smith.
Highlights from the offense included a beautiful 34-yard pass from Williams to spring sensation Rashawn Scott, who later scored on a seven-yard catch from Williams. Kendal Thompkins showed off his quickness and elusiveness by scoring on a 13-yard play after juking out his defender. Backup quarterbacks Crow and Preston Dewey seemed to have shaken off the nerves from the first scrimmage and played much better.
The Canes return to Greentree Practice Fields on Tuesday for practice 11 of the spring. The season will culminate in the annual BankUnited CanesFest and Spring Football game on Saturday, April 14 at Sun Life Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
