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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

EWU spring game: QBs continue to progress

No matter the situation – and there were plenty – the Eastern Washington quarterbacks made the most of them Saturday afternoon at Roos Field.

And when the annual Red-White Spring Game was over, all three fancied their chances of getting into some meaningful situations this fall.

Veteran Jordan West, who completed 10 of 14 passes for 112 yards, is still the favorite to start when the Eagles open the season on Sept. 5 at Oregon. But as they’ve done all spring, redshirt freshmen Reilly Hennessey and Gage Gubrud played themselves into the conversation.

“Everything’s gone really well, and I’m really blessed to have the opportunity to be with these guys,” said Gubrud, who was 10 for 11 for 149 yards. After the game, Gubrud was joined by his parents, who drove from McMinnville, Oregon, for the event.

Gubrud’s grandparents made the trek from Eugene, where Gubrud hopes to play against Oregon in three months’ time. “It’s a dream come true, no matter what happens, starting or not starting,” Gubrud said.

Hennessey, who connected on all seven of his passes for 71 yards, said it was “an awesome thing to show people what you can do, when you believe you can do something and make other people believe in you as well.”

When the game was over, coach Beau Baldwin labeled West as the front-runner, but promised an intriguing battle in fall camp.

The spring game fulfilled its purpose, which was to see how the quarterbacks would react in game-like situations.

“More than anything, we just wanted to see them continue to progress and just grow with a lot of the little things,” Baldwin said. “Things like seeing and knowing where your check-downs are, getting rid of it hot, seeing the play clock and not allowing it to run out and get a delay of game. Again I go back to the word ‘operating’ – the operation piece which I talked about a couple weeks ago and I wanted to continue to see them grow in that area.

“I thought they did,” Baldwin said.

Some newcomers made their case as well. Redshirt freshman Stu Stiles of Spokane had a scrimmage-high four catches for 33 yards, and classmate Ashanti Kindle had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs.

Linebacker Alek Kacmarcik had seven tackles, while Kody Beckering had six tackles, a tackle for loss, a pass broken up and a quarterback hurry. Both are redshirt freshmen.

The offense rang up 407 yards with no turnovers in the 60-play scrimmage. Zach Eagle had three catches for 60 yards and Kendrick Bourne had three for 51.

Notes

The game drew about 500 fans. … After the scrimmage, each member of the 2014 team received a Big Sky Conference championship ring. … Quarterback Conner Richardson has left the program, the school confirmed on Saturday. … The Eagles will wrap up spring ball with two more practices next week, on Tuesday and Thursday. … Defensive end Evan Day did not participate following an initial rejection by the NCAA of his petition for a sixth year of eligibility.