ABILENE — ACU starting quarterback
Luke Anthony threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns Friday night to lead the White team to a 33-28 win over the Purple in the Wildcats' annual spring game at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium.
Anthony — who missed several practices during the spring with a muscle strain — showed almost no signs of rust as he completed 24 of 27 passes, including touchdown passes of 28 yards to
Javorian Miller and 42 yards to
Tracy James to lead the offense to the win over the defense in front of a nice crowd at the Wildcats' home stadium. The game wrapped up 15 practices and scrimmages spread out over the last six weeks as the Wildcats prepare for the 2019 season.
Eleven different ACU receivers caught passes from three different quarterbacks as the Wildcats' offense put up 472 yards of offense and 21 first downs on the defense.
Josh Fink caught five passes for 104 yards, while
Quindon Lewis — who moved to receiver from defensive back earlier this spring — caught five passes for 53 yards.
Javorian Miller had two catches for 33 yards, but one of those was a 28-yard TD reception from Anthony on the offense's second possession of the game.
The running game sputtered at times with last year's bellcows,
Tracy James and
Billy McCrary, combining for just seven carries for 16 yards as they sat out of much of the game. James did catch one pass for a 42-yard touchdown pass, but that was about the extent of the production for ACU's top two backs.
Tyrese White had 11 carries for 35 yards and two touchdown runs.
ACU's offense led 23-21 at halftime and then outscored the defense 10-7 in the second half to take the win. Placekicker
Blair Zepeda kicked a pair of field goals, one from 43 yards out in the second quarter and the second from 49 yards out in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, new coordinator Clint Brown got some solid production from his run defense, which was spearheaded by
Cole Burgess and newcomers Bright Ihegworo and Michael Gayden, all three of whom made plays in the backfield in the game. The defense was credited with four points for each takeaway and the Wildcats had four of them.
Byron Robinson Jr. had two interceptions,
Dante Williams one and
Calvin Williams had one.
ACU head coach
Adam Dorrel said he thought the Wildcats escaped the game without any injuries and that the group will be ready to get back to work int he weight room and coaches back on the road recruiting soon. The 2019 season will get underway on Saturday, Aug. 31, when the Wildcats travel east to Denton to take on North Texas at Apogee Stadium.
