Crimson wins initial skirmish with Gray
Washington State's Crimson and Gray teams will compete for real on Saturday in Spokane, but we got an early spring game preview at practice.
The Cougars were only in helmets and game jerseys on Thursday, with the Crimson and Gray teams each in their respective colors. Overall, it was a pretty dreary practice with rain beating down throughout.
Things picked up during a modified team period, however. Rather than split into starters and backups, the teams were the same ones that will compete in Saturday's Crimson and Gray game with quarterback Luke Falk leading the Crimson and Peyton Bender behind center for the Gray.
They Gray was on offense first and Bender started off sharp, completing four of his first passes, three of them to D.J. Thompson. But the Gray stalled near the end zone and Bender was sacked by Hercules Mata'afa.
The freshman from Florida had more success on his next drive, finding Gabe Marks for a score, but also threw an interception to Brendan Hay, a walk-on that tried out for the team and has had a pretty good spring.
On Falk's first series he completed short passes to Dom Williams and Robert Lewis, then found John Thompson in the end zone. And on his final series we got some controversy.
Falk didn't get much going on his second drive, which featured a lot of runs. But on the final play he completed a pass to Robert Lewis just short of the goal on the sideline, and the receiver spun around and reached the ball across the end zone in a fashion very similar to this play.
The sides couldn't agree whether or not the ball actually crossed the end zone plane before Lewis was pushed out of bounds and the score was so tight that whether or not the touchdown stood would have decided the period. So the teams went to a sudden death overtime.
On Bender's first play he threw a touchdown pass to Tyler Baker and Falk followed by calling his own number and running in for a score. Then Hay, the walk-on cornerback, ended the day by intercepting Bender for the second time.
