ROGERS -- Rogers Heritage football coach Tony Travis said he tried to split the teams up as evenly as possible for Thursday's scrimmage to close spring practice.
But the White team took advantage of turnovers and a big pass play to claim a 32-0 win over the Orange team at Gates Stadium.
"The difference in the game was the White defense comes up with three turnovers," Travis said. "That's the biggest thing. Offensively, we wanted execution and ball security. Defensively, we wanted turnovers. I said 'Who's gonna win that battle between ball security or the turnovers?' One team got an advantage there and it led to the scores.
"Orange moved the ball a little bit, but didn't finish drives. Maybe a bad snap or two, but the White defense had a good stand down there, too."
Rising sophomore quarterback Jeb Brown came up with the biggest offensive play of the evening, hooking up with Nathan Hodges for a 69-yard touchdown strike on a fourth-and-9 play for the game's first score. Brown also faked the pitch and kept it for the first of four two-point conversions for the White team.
"He's one of the guys that took advantage of it tonight and took a couple steps forward," Travis said. "It wasn't a huge surprise because we've seen that out of him in practice."
Defensive back Isaiah Tibbs, who started as a sophomore last fall, set up another score when he intercepted Zach Brown's pass over the middle and returned it around 30 yards to the Orange 20.
The Browns and Joel Castaneda rotated at quarterback for both teams. But Jeb Brown, who started for the freshman team last fall, showed well. He completed seven of 12 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown. Rising senior Ty Graser only got two practices in this spring after competing in track and field, but also showed his potential.
Graser played mostly on defense last season, but he had five catches for 120 yards and made some athletic moves in the open field.
"You see he's got the ability to make plays," Travis said. "Isaiah Tibbs looked good at safety, not only picking a pass off but in run support and then he got in on a big play in the backfield. He's the type of guy who will be all over the field for us."
Travis liked the what he saw from a variety of running backs, who all ran the ball hard at times. That will be key with the graduation of standout Dylan Qualls, Travis said.
"We don't have a 210-pound back like Dylan was last year that's strong enough to carry it that many times," Travis said. "We need those guys. The backfield breakup will be like that for us this year I think. But overall, we came out of it healthy, which is what I said going into practice number 10.
"We've had nine good ones, let's have fun tonight and come out of it healthy and I think we did that."
Preps Basketball on 05/25/2018