ABILENE -- In its final scrimmage of the 2021 spring season, Abilene Christian's offense held on to beat the defense 54-49 Friday night at Wildcat Stadium. Sophomore
Jermiah Dobbins' rushed for 31 yards and his eight-yard touchdown carry gave his side a 51-34 lead with approximately 20 plays left in the game.
The defense would soon however get within three points by forcing a turnover-on-downs worth seven points and then recording a three-point sack (
William Morgan) on the very next play. The offense was forced to punt three plays later, cutting its lead to 52-49, but a pair of third-down conversions on quarterback
Peyton Mansell's last drive clinched the victory after the 65th and final play was called.
Both Mansell and sophomore
Stone Earle passed for over 100 yards. Earle completed 7 of 11 attempts for 105 yards and tossed a pair of touchdown passes of 26 and 20 yards to
Denver Holman and
Darius Lewis, respectively. Lewis caught three passes tonight for 68 yards and his touchdown gave the offense its first lead of the scrimmage at 34-30.
Mansell went 11 of 14 for 182 yards and had a 40-yard touchdown pass to senior
Kobe Clark, who finished the game with 57 yards.
Overall the quarterback duo completed passes to a dozen targets.
On the ground, the offense rotated between Dobbins,
Tyrese White (21 yards) and newcomer
Anthony Smith (15 yards), and on defense 19 of 35 players were credited with at least one tackle. Junior cornerback
Ryan Stapp led all Wildcats with four tackles, while Morgan and
Tory Hargrove each came away with a sack. Morgan and second-year Wildcat
Jordan Paup also registered a tackle for loss on the running backs.
The defense led early thanks to its play in the red zone and on special teams. Linebacker
Greg Green gave his side a 16-13 lead after intercepting Mansell on the first play of the red zone drill, and then with Earle under center a few plays later the offense turned the ball over on downs inside the 5-yard line. That stop put the defense ahead 24-13, and it would earn an additional five points thanks to a third-down win (+1) and holding the offense to a field goal (+4).
The defense led the offense 29-17 coming out of the four red zone rolls, but the offense's four touchdowns during the 50-play scrimmage proved too much to overcome.
During the opening special teams drills, second-year punter
Logan Burke netted 137 yards as he dropped all three of his kicks inside the 10-yard line, and veteran place kickers
Oscar Hernandez and
Blair Zepeda each went 3-for-3 in making kicks from 39, 41 and 43 yards out. Zepeda also kicked a 22-yard field goal in the red zone drill and was successful on both PATs during the scrimmage. Hernandez also went in for a pair of PATs and made both as well.
Punters Burke and
Will Fargason each kicked the ball over 50 yards during the scrimmage.
