Eastern Offense Excels In Spring Scrimmage

Spring football

Aside from a few dropped passes, Eastern Washington coach Mike Kramer was pleased Saturday with his team’s scrimmage that ended the second of four weeks of spring football drills for the Eagles.

Eastern’s offense accumulated 396 yards in 66 plays as Dan Curley and Jovan Griffith emerged as possible future stars. Eagles defenders recorded four sacks and cornerback Maurice Chambers had a pair of interceptions.

The defending Big Sky Conference champions and NCAA Division I-AA semifinalists are playing this spring without six starters who are out with injuries.

“Overall I was very pleased,” said Kramer, whose team will scrimmage again Friday at 3 p.m. at Woodward Stadium. “It’s a typical spring where we’re a little short-handed, but we’re trying to find out some things about our team.”

Mainly the Eagles are trying to figure out if Mead High School graduate Griffin Garske will be the starting quarterback next fall, or if he will be unseated by Walla Walla Community College transfer Lance Hattemer from Cheney, or freshman redshirt Scott Mitchell from Kennewick.

Garske was sharp, completing 13 of 19 passes for 149 yards and a long pass completion of 40 yards to Curley. Hattemer was 7 of 14 for 112 yards, two interceptions and a 37-yard scoring strike to Grant Elsworth. Mitchell was 6 of 9 for 61 yards.

“Griffin is clearly in command of what he’s doing because he’s more familiar with our offense and understands his limitations,” Kramer said of the junior.

Washington scrimmage

Mijo Austin caught seven passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Purple squad over the White 23-20 as the Washington Huskies closed out spring practice with the annual intrasquad game.

Brock Huard, who returns this season as the Huskies starting quarterback, completed 10 of 15 passes for 74 yards and one touchdown for the Purple. He played three series.

Roverback Nigel Burton ran 70 yards for a score after picking up a blocked field-goal attempt.

Idaho scrimmage

The defense made a strong statement during Idaho’s second full scrimmage of the spring.

And it was Mao Tosi, the basketball player turned defensive tackle, who underlined the doings of the defense. He batted down two passes and had two tackles for loss in addition to a couple of solo tackles to go with his forceful presence on the defensive front.

“Defensively, this is the best we’ve looked all spring,” Vandals coach Chris Tormey said. “This defense is designed to put pressure on the quarterback and that’s exactly what happened today.”

With depth-chart leader Ed Dean playing sparingly because of a sore arm, backup quarterbacks John Welsh and Greg Robertson had an opportunity to show what they can do. Robertson, a transfer from Ricks Junior College, completed 7 of 15 passes for 91 yards and Welsh was 5 of 13 for 66 yards.